Shearman & Sterling has overhauled its leadership structure, introducing three regional managing partner positions for EMEA, the Americas and Asia.

The appointments, which come as the US law firm aims to increase the percentage of international partners on its global management committees, will see the regional heads helping with international co-ordination and improving client referrals across the network.

David Beveridge, Shearman's global managing partner, will hold the Americas regional head role for the time being, though in future it is likely to operate as a separate role.

Corporate finance partner Matthew Bersani will manage the firm's Asia operations, which cover Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai and Tokyo.

London managing partner Nick Buckworth will take up the EMEA managing partner post, with the new role seeing him split his time between London and Abu Dhabi – currently the firm's sole arm in the Middle East.

Shearman has nine offices across the EMEA region spanning Belgium, Germany, France and Italy as well as the UK and Middle East. Buckworth's remit will include co-ordinating all the offices, as well as managing further growth in the Middle East and across Africa.

The introduction of the new roles comes six weeks after Shearman elected Beveridge, who has been with the firm for 30 years, as managing partner, with former Europe head Creighton Condon named as the firm's new senior partner.

Condon succeeded outgoing head Rohan Weerasinghe, who left the New York law firm to become general counsel at Citigroup, a key client.