King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) has appointed two partners from its legacy Chinese and Australian firms to be co-chief executives of its Hong Kong office, with current managing partner and the firm's global head Stuart Fuller stepping back to concentrate on firmwide strategy.

Zhang Yi from the King & Wood side and Hayden Flinn from legacy Mallesons will jointly lead the Hong Kong base from 1 January 2015, with a focus on driving growth and boosting the firm's profile in the city and wider Asia region.

Fuller has overseen the Hong Kong base since 2012, supported by disputes partner David Bateson, who will also step down. Both partners will remain in Hong Kong.

The office is currently the only financially integrated arm of KWM, which operates under a Swiss verein structure with separate partnerships in China and Australia, and also now in Europe with the addition of SJ Berwin last November.

The management appointments come as the branch prepares to end top-up payments for legacy Chinese and Australian partners in in the city and rely solely on revenues generated on the ground.

The top-ups were originally agreed so as to guarantee no disparity in profits between Hong Kong partners and their peers in China and Australia for three and five years respectively. They are expected to end in March 2015 for former King & Wood partners and March 2017 for ex-Mallesons partners.

Other steps taken to integrate the Hong Kong office – which has 21 partners and 61 lawyers and is thought to be a testing ground for wider firm integration in the future – include aligning the way its pays salaries and bonuses to lawyers, which was completed by August last year.

The firm is also planning to expand its Asia offering with the opening of an office in Singapore, with partners Tony Gibson – formely with SJ Berwin in Hong Kong – and John Sullivan – from Mallesons in Sydney – expected to relocate.