Justin D'Agostino will have plenty on his plate when he formally takes over as Herbert Smith Freehills' (HSF) global dispute resolution head on 1 May.

While he will be handing over his China managing partner responsibilities to someone else, he has some pretty big shoes to fill replacing Sonya Leydecker – the firm's heavyweight incoming joint chief executive. Given his intention to continue fee-earning work, it could prove to be quite a workload.

One of the more interesting items on D'Agostino's (pictured) agenda will be to look at ways of bringing HSF's Belfast-based outsourcing model to Asia. 

"For us Belfast has been a huge success," he explains. "Clients have really embraced it, and now I'd like to see how we can extend that client service in Asia-Pacific.

"It is an area where we've been very innovative and I would like to take that learning to the next level. There are lots of ways we can do that – you could set up a function in Asia or develop Belfast to handle a larger amount of work. We are looking at all options."

His appointment has caught the attention of the market for several reasons. For one, it marks the promotion of another Asian partner to a global leadership position at a top firm, with Marc Harvey already in situ in D'Agostino's equivalent role at Linklaters.

D'Agostino says he is "literally in the centre of the practice" given the firm has a sizeable Australasian presence following 2012′s tie-up between legacy Herbert Smith and Freehills. 

Looking globally, he says the focus will be on three core areas: corporate crime and investigations (CCI), financial services regulation (FSR) and international arbitration, with headcount expected to grow in each. 

For the CCI group, D'Agostino wants to promote HSF's Asia and eight-partner New York platform to generate mandates from US companies involved in Asia disputes, while in financial services he will urge the firm to market its global position in an effort to boost cross-border investigations work. Recent appointments in these areas include Kyle Wombolt as global head of CCI, and Deutsche Bank compliance head Andrew Procter as a partner in the regulatory group, though the hires need to be seen in the context of a large number of high-profile disputes exits from the London office between late 2012 and early 2013.

As for international arbitration, he says there is scope for New York to pick up South America work, while more lawyers could be added in Paris and in Germany, where the firm only opened in 2012. D'Agostino also believes that the appointment of London-based arbitrators Paula Hodges and Matthew Weiniger as Queen's counsel earlier this year could be a game changer for HSF's City arbitration practice in terms of helping to attract top clients.

Hiring a disputes head for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) – the only part of the world where the firm doesn't have a regional head – will also be on the priority list. Additionally, eyes will also be on South America and Africa, where the firm continues to generate work despite abandoning plans for an office in Guinea last year. 

"Africa is a huge bit of the business," D'Agostino explains. "There are major arbitrations and investigations all over the continent on the back of energy and natural resources deals. It is the same situation in South America. We're not physically located there but any day of the week I imagine there will be a number of our partners there. I'd want to make sure we're covering those regions properly."