Herbert Smith Freehill's (HSF) London litigation head Tim Parkes is leaving the firm to join the Financial Conduct Authority's (FCA) regulatory decisions committee as chairman from January 2016.

Parkes (pictured) has been a partner at HSF for more than 28 years, practising in both London and Hong Kong where he served as Asia managing partner.

Parkes will be joining the FCA alongside Latham's former vice chair of global litigation John Hull, who will become deputy chairman. Hull, who has been a partner at Latham in London for 10 years, will share the role with Security Industry Authority chair Elizabeth France.

The trio replace chairman Andrew Long and deputy chairman David Ashton, with the appointments coming as part of a number of new additions to various committees at the FCA.

Commenting on his new three-day a week role, Parkes said: "I think it's an important role; the FCA is continuing to go through a period of change and challenge and how it exercises its enforcement function will continue to be, even in the current changing landscape, really important."

While it is well-documented that partners often find it difficult to score non-legal work post-retirement, Parkes said that his litigation background will put him in good stead.

"Over my very long career I've had quite a lot of experience chairing committees. It's one of those jobs you need to bring to bear all that sort of experience – the legal expertise one has, particularly as a litigator, in a sense is all about the forensic investigation and then coming to a view."

At Herbert Smith, Parkes was twice in the running for senior partner, first in the 2009 contest in which Jonathan Scott was elected as senior partner of legacy Herbert Smith, and again in 2014 when James Palmer was elected.

Parkes has also worked as legal assessor to the London Stock Exchange's Quotations Committee and sat for a total of five years as an elected council member of the Law Society of Hong Kong.