The chair of Latham & Watkins' Asia practice David Miles has retired from the firm, coinciding with the appointment of a new Hong Kong managing partner, Simon Powell.

Miles, who has spent almost 19 years at the US outfit specialising in finance and infrastructure, was previously the founding managing partner of the London practice before moving to Hong Kong in 2009 to help build the Asia team.

At the time, Latham had just six partners and 30 lawyers in Hong Kong, and Miles was a member of a seven-strong executive committee following his appointment to the role in 2006.

The firm has not announced any plans to put in place a new Asia chair.

Overlapping with Miles' departure is the appointment of disputes partner Simon Powell as the new Hong Kong office head.

Powell, who currently leads the Asian litigation group, replaces capital markets partner Michael Liu who has been in the role for four years.

Liu was formerly Asia corporate chief at Allen & Overy, and one of a seven partner team who joined Latham from A&O in 2008 along with China group head Kenneth Chan, Jane Ng, Simon Berry, Stanley Chow, William Woo and Cathy Yeung.

He and Chan worked on several large mandates for the magic circle firm, including the 2006 float of Bank of China and the £1.45bn initial public offering of China Life Insurance.

He continues to work as a partner in Latham's corporate department and co-chair the Greater China practice.

Latham currently has five offices in Asia located in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong; Tokyo and Singapore.

In 2011 it lost three of its senior Hong Kong partners to Chicago firm Kirkland & Ellis, namely vice global corporate chair and co-chair of the firm's greater China practice David Zhang, alongside corporate partners John Otoshi and Benjamin Su.

It has since made a handful of senior hires in Hong Kong, including energy partner David Blumental from Vinson & Elkins and finance partner Howard Lam from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, in addition to some non-equity recruits such as Philippines expert Benjamin Carale, who joined as a counsel from Sidley Austin in November.

The firm has not announced plans to follows its rivals into new markets such as Korea or Indonesia, but in February it was one of four to have its 2008 Qualifying Foreign Law Practice (QFLP) licence or local permit renewed in Singapore for a further five years.

Related: Kirkland adds eight partners in Hong Kong with Skadden, Latham and A&O hires