Pinsent Masons incoming senior partner Richard Foley has said that he will not change the firm's strategic plans despite his defeat of incumbent Chris Mullen in the first contested election at Pinsents for well over a decade.

Foley (pictured), who will take over from incumbent Mullen on 1 October, told Legal Week that the firm will not be moving away from its focus on principal sectors – infrastructure, energy, advanced manufacturing and technology, and financial services – despite the management shakeup.

"The whole approach coming in to this was that we had a lot of really good stuff going on and that we needed to optimise it," Foley said. "There aren't particular things out there that we need to change. It's a question of doing more of the same."

"We have been particularly clear that we are nailing our strategic mast to four sectors [and] we will be focusing on being the go to lawyers for those areas."

The roles taken on by the senior and managing partner at Pinsents will change once Foley takes over the hot seat, however. The new senior partner will be more external facing than Mullen, concentrating on the firm's visibility and profile with clients.

The role of managing partner, held by David Ryan since 1998 but due to come up for election later this year, will focus on the delivery of services to clients as identified through the work of the senior partner.

Foley defeated Mullen in elections this June, the first to be contested since the election of Ryan in 1998.

"To be honest, we weren't a business that was used to elections," Foley admitted. "We weren't sure whether it would be disruptive. In the end it was a really positive process. Partners having the opportunity to have their say has given us lots of ideas going forward."

He was also bullish about the potential for overseas expansion, telling Legal Week that internationalisation was "certainly important to the future of the business" and that Pinsents was "committed to moving from a domestic law firm to one which has very good international coverage."

The former Asia practice head said that expansion would come in regions in which the firm was already invested and that any new office opening would have to have strong connections with existing geographies.

Foley's entrance comes on the back of healthy 2013-14 financials. Profit per equity partner (PEP) increased by 4.5%, up to £405,000 from £387,000 in 2012-13, while turnover also grew 4.6% to £323m.

Earlier this week Pinsents Scotland chief Fraser McMillan stepped into Foley's old post of construction, advisory and disputes (CAD) practice head. The firm is currently consulting on the appointment of a new Glasgow office head, which should conclude in the autumn.