Michael DeSombre Michael DeSombre, Sullivan and Cromwell

President Donald Trump has nominated Sullivan & Cromwell Hong Kong partner Michael DeSombre to be the next U.S. ambassador to Thailand.

If confirmed by the Senate, DeSombre will succeed Glyn Davies, who was confirmed in 2015 during the Obama administration and left the post in September 2018. DeSombre, 51, would be the first political appointee since 1975 to serve as the top U.S. envoy to Bangkok. More than a dozen of his predecessors, including Davies, were all career diplomats.

Unlike his predecessors, DeSombre spent most his career as a lawyer at Sullivan & Cromwell. He joined the firm in New York in 1995 straight out of Harvard Law School and moved to the Hong Kong office two years later. He made partner in 2004. DeSombre advises on big-ticket merger and acquisitions, especially private equity transactions, and also co-leads the firm's Korea practice with special counsel Joonkeun Yoo.

Last year, he advised Credit Suisse as financial adviser to Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. on the Chinese e-commerce giant's acquisition of a 33% stake in Ant Small and Micro Financial Services Group Co. Ltd. In 2014, he represented Anheuser-Busch InBev on a $5.8 billion acquisition of Korea's Oriental Brewery Co. Ltd. from KKR & Co. Inc.

Outside of his legal career, DeSombre has been a longtime donor and fundraiser for mainstream Republicans. Since 2013, DeSombre has served as the worldwide president of Republicans Overseas, a political organisation he helped found, and has chaired its Hong Kong chapter. He's been a vocal opponent of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, an Obama-era law that compels foreign banks to report the overseas assets of U.S. citizens.

In 2015, DeSombre was an early supporter of Jeb Bush's presidential bid, having helped raise funds for the former Florida Governor from wealthy donors in Hong Kong. But he later contributed to Trump's inauguration, according to the Washington, D.C.-based non-profit Center for Responsive Politics. In 2017, The Washington Post reported that DeSombre had been considered for the post of assistant secretary of state for east Asian and Pacific affairs – the State Department's top official for Asia matters. But according to The Post, DeSombre's prospects for that job diminished after his key supporter, former White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, resigned.

DeSombre also chairs the charity Save the Children in Hong Kong.

According to a profile on Sullivan & Cromwell's website, DeSombre is fluent in Mandarin and also speaks Korean. The White House said he also speaks some Japanese. He received a Master of Arts in east Asian studies from Stanford University, before getting a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law.

DeSombre joins a number of ambassadorship nominees who come from Big Law. In March, the Trump administration nominated Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan Washington, D.C., partner Christopher Landau to be the U.S. ambassador to Mexico. Laudau, a longtime Kirkland & Ellis partner before moving to Quinn, is fluent in Spanish and the son of the late diplomat George Landau. Meanwhile, in June, Seyfarth Shaw New York partner Adrian Zuckerman testified at his confirmation hearing before the Senate for his nomination to be ambassador to Romania, where he was born.

In addition, the sitting U.S. ambassador to Australia A.B. Culvahouse was a longtime O'Melveny & Myers partner – later of counsel – and firm chair between 2010 and 2012.

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