Morgan Lewis & Bockius has appointed former Dewey & LeBoeuf London head Peter Sharp to lead its City office alongside banking partner Christopher Harrison.

The duo, who were named as co-managing partners of the London base last week, have taken over from longstanding City chief Chuck Lubar.

Lubar, who helped launch the London office for Morgan Lewis in 1981 and has since led its UK tax practice, will now return to client-facing work.

Sharp arrived at Morgan Lewis last month after negotiating a deal which saw fellow London litigation partners David Waldron and Nick Greenwood join him at the firm.

He will now lead Morgan Lewis's London base alongside Harrison, who joined from US rival Morrison & Foerster in 2009, at the time becoming the firm's first-ever UK-qualified partner in London.

News of Sharp's departure from Dewey came shortly after he was named as one of five partners on a London crisis management committee put together to lead the wind-down of the business, alongside a team including finance heavyweight Bruce Johnston.

Johnston subsequently followed Sharp to Morgan Lewis with fellow finance partner Amanda Jennings.

Dewey's London operations were placed into administration at the end of May as the firm filed for bankruptcy in the US, confirming the world's largest ever legal failure.

Morgan Lewis has also since taken on a number of junior Dewey lawyers and trainees in London, as well as several members of the collapsed firm's support staff.