Ashurst and Australia's Blake Dawson have each named seven partners to take the lead overseeing growth across Asia and integration in the run-up to their planned merger in 2014.

An eight-partner integration committee, chaired by the firms' respective senior partners Charlie Geffen and Mary Padbury, will be given the task of overseeing financial integration as the firms gear up to carry out a full merger, with a single global profit pool, in three years' time.

The committee, which will look at client development and marketing, will also include Ashurst managing partner Simon Bromwich and his Australian counterpart John Carrington. The remaining members are Ashurst's German head Reinhart Eyring and head of employment Caroline Carter, as well as Blakes' Perth M&A partner Roger Davies and Sydney competition head Peter Armitage.

Meanwhile, Ashurst Asia managing partner Geoffrey Green will chair a six-partner Asia management committee set to oversee growth in Asia, with several partners telling Legal Week that the firm plans to double lawyer numbers in Asia in the run-up to the union through a combination of hires and relocations.

Green will work alongside Ashurst Hong Kong corporate partner Robert Ogilvy Watson and Tokyo energy, transport and infrastructure partner Rupert Burrows.

Blakes is represented by deputy managing partner Helen McKenzie, competition partner Bill Reid and construction partner Martin Kudnig.

The union, which was agreed in September, will see the two firms combined their businesses in Asia from March 2012, with Blakes to rebrand as Ashurst from the same point. The full financial merger will happen in 2014, subject to a further vote by both partnerships earlier that year.