Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson City head Graham White is set to retire from the firm. He will hand over his role to London corporate partner Mark Mifsud.

White, who first joined the firm in 2014 from Kirkland & Ellis, will retire from the firm on 31 May.

White was previously Kirkland's de facto head in London. The firm does not have an official London managing partner role. He was appointed to lead the firm's European operations in 2012, after joining from Linklaters in 2006. Before joining Linklaters, he was partner at legacy SJ Berwin and Scottish corporate boutique Dickson Minto.

David Greenwald, chairman of Fried Frank, said: "Under his [White's] leadership and because of his enthusiasm, we have made substantial progress in the execution of our strategy to align the practice mix in London with our core US practices. We wish him well in his retirement and we are confident that whatever he decides to do in the years to come will be a great success."

White said: "After 30 years of working in private practice, I have decided to retire and focus on other interests. I have very much enjoyed working with David and the Fried Frank partners to reconfigure the London office as part of the firm's overall strategy. I have every confidence in Mark and know he will do a terrific job in taking the strategy forward."

Mifsud is also a former Kirkland partner, having moved across to Fried Frank in 2015. Mifsud first joined Kirkland as part of a three partner-team hire from legacy SJ Berwin in 2007.

White joined Fried Frank in 2014, at a time when the firm was pushing to relaunch its City presence.

The firm had not previously had a London head, though former senior partner Valerie Jacob, who joined Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in 2014, was de facto head when based between the City and New York.

Shortly after Jacob's exit, the firm implemented a new, more focused strategy for the firm to target high-end work in the US and Europe across six core transactional areas: M&A, private equity, real estate, finance, capital markets and asset management.

Fried Frank established a London restructuring practice last year, hiring Ashley Katz, Mayer Brown's co-head of restructuring, bankruptcy and insolvency.