Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy partners Julian Stait and Suhrud Mehta have been named as new co-heads of the firm's London office, replacing Russell Jacobs.

The pair will step into the role at the beginning of June, just over four years after Jacobs (pictured) took over the top City job from Philip Fletcher.

Jacobs has been credited with significantly building the profile of the New York firm's London base, growing partner headcount by a third to 20 and total lawyer numbers to 70, and helping to launch a trainee programme.

"I suppose it's recognition of the size of my role that it is now being shared amongst two partners!" Jacobs told Legal Week.

The Slaughter and May-trained tax partner, who worked at Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft and legacy Denton Wilde Sapte before moving to Milbank in 2000, will now return to full time fee earning.

"It is extremely busy here," he said. "All practice areas are firing on all cylinders and the tax practice is really busy, so it's great to be getting back into full-time fee-earning as the economy turns around."

Stait, who heads the London office's litigation and arbitration practice, joined the firm in 2009 from DLA Piper, where he previously served as global co-chair of its litigation and arbitration group.

He led for Rabobank on its €774m (£662m) collective settlements with UK last year, US, and Dutch regulators and prosecutors, following the Dutch bank's involvement in the Libor fixing scandal.

Mehta is head of the firm's European leveraged finance group, and focuses on restructuring transactions with a focus on multi-tiered capital structures.

Along with Jacobs, he was part of the London team advising the Virgin Media board on last year's $23.3bn (£14.9bn) purchase of the company by US cable giant Liberty Global.