Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy has appointed new leadership in China as two of its longest-serving regional heads prepare to exit the firm.

Anthony Root, the head of the US firm's Asian corporate practice and Greater China offices, will retire at the end of May, while corporate partner Edward Sun, the chief representative of the firm's Beijing base, will leave before the end of the year.

Sun told Legal Week that his decision to leave Milbank was unconnected to Root's departure, and was based on his decision to move out of private practice to explore business opportunities, and to relocate his family back to the US.

Root moved to Asia in 1993 with US firm Davis Polk & Wardwell, before joining Milbank in 1996 after a brief stint at New York firm Rogers & Wells prior to its merger with Clifford Chance. He has since been heavily involved in overseeing Milbank's growth in Asia.

Sun also moved to the region with Davis Polk, joining Milbank in 2002. He previously spent four years in-house at Goldman Sachs, two of which he spent working as General Counsel for Goldman Sachs Private Equity in Asia excluding Japan.

He launched Milbank's Beijing office in 2006 alongside Root and now has a total of 16 years' experience in Asia, split between Hong Kong and mainland China. He is expected to formally leave the firm in October, but could remain in the region until the end of the year to assist with the leadership transition.

The responsibility for Milbank's Greater China practices will now fall jointly to long-term Milbank partner Gary Wigmore, who heads up the Asia project finance group, and M&A partner Dieter Yih, head of the Hong Kong practice and president of the Hong Kong Law Society, who joined the firm in 2011 from Australian firm Mallesons Stephen Jaques.

Singapore corporate partner David Zemans, who was appointed as Milbank's managing partner for Asia six months ago, said he was sad to see the partners go but that the firm is well positioned for the transition.

"We are very excited that Gary and Dieter will be assuming the role of co-heads of Greater China for Milbank," he told Legal Week. "Both are outstanding lawyers who have each spent almost their entire careers in Asia and have over 40 years of experience in Asia between them."

Milbank currently has four offices in the Asia-Pacific region, including Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo and Beijing. Zemans added that the firm is currently keeping a close watch on the Korean market, but as yet has no plans to open in additional jurisdictions.

"Milbank was one of the very first international law firms to prioritise Asia and we have continued to grow consistently and thoughtfully through Asia over the last decade and we plan to continue to do so," he said. "Asia is such an important part of Milbank's global practice, to the extent that there are opportunities to expand into dispute resolution or other areas that we think complement our global expertise, we will certainly explore them."