Baker & McKenzie has voted to extend the term of its chairman Eduardo Leite for two more years, amid a raft of changes to the firm's executive committee and practice group leaders.

In April, Legal Week first reported that Leite, who called the role "an amazing job", would be seeking re-election when his four-year term as chairman ended this month.

He previously headed Bakers' four Brazilian offices between 2003 and 2010, the year he became the first Latin American to lead a global law firm on his appointment to chairman.

The two-year extension comes into effect at the end of the firm's annual meeting in London this week, which is set to be attended by more than 700 partners from Bakers' network.

Among those partners will be members of the executive committee, including Koen Vanhaerents, Winston Zee and Phil Suse, who will hand over their posts to Erik Scheer, Gary Seib and Mike Wagner.

Three other executive committee members – Singapore-based partner Bruce Hambrett, former London managing partner Gary Senior and Toronto partner Jim Holloway – have been elected as chairs of the Asia Pacific, EMEA and North America regions respectively.

Leite (pictured), who joined the firm in 1979 and previously headed the firm's global energy, mining and infrastructure group, said his major strategic priority for the next two years was North America.

"We will continue to grow around the world but North America is a key focus for the next two years, including building our transactional team in New York," said Leite this week."Around $1bn of our [$2.54bn] global revenues is transactional, and given the cross-border nature of M&A, a lot of that has a US component.

"Latin America and Africa are also key priorities, both of which are also very important focuses for many of our clients."

Last September, Leite was selected by the Obama administration to serve a three-year term on the US-Brazil CEO Forum, becoming the first member of a law firm to be appointed to the trade-focused group.

A number of partners have also been appointed to three year terms as chairs of the firm's global practice and industry groups. Among the appointments are London-based partner Tom Cassels, who will serve as chair of the global disputes team, and Vanhaerents, who moves into the role of global capital markets chair.

Separately, the firm this week opened a new office in Jeddah, its 77th base globally. The firm has signed an association with local outfit Legal Advisors Abdulaziz I. Al-Ajlan & Partners, Bakers' second office in the Saudi Arabia.

The Jeddah office will be supervised by Islamic finance and project finance partner Julie Alexander, alongside Riyadh-based banking and finance partner Basel Barakat, who joined the firm in April.

Global practice chair changes

• Compliance – Mini vandePol (Hong Kong)
• Dispute Resolution – Tom Cassels (London)
• Employment – Guenther Heckelmann (Frankfurt)
• Information Technology & Communications – Anne-Marie Allgrove (Sydney)
• Real Estate – Jose Larroque (Tijuana)
• Capital Markets – Koen Vanhaerents (Brussels)
• Tax – Duane Webber (Washington, D.C.)
• Trade & Commerce – Edmundo Elias (Guadalajara)