Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has appointed a new general counsel, according to two people close to the matter. 

Current chief legal officer Jonathan Kembery is expected to take the reins from incumbent Colin Hargreaves in May 2020, one of the people said. 

Kembery has been chief legal officer since he joined Freshfields in 2001 and was promoted to partner earlier this year. He was a lawyer at Clifford Chance between 1993 and 1997, according to his LinkedIn profile, following which he had stints in the legal departments of Big Four firm PwC and Sky Interactive. 

Kembery has a strong record in the areas of regulation and conduct. Alongside his role at Freshfields, he has since 2008 served on the City of London Law Society's professional rules and regulation committee, and is its current chair.

Between 2012 and 2016, he was a member of the Solicitors Regulation Authority's policy committee, and in 2009 was a member of the reference group for the Law Society's review of the regulation of legal services.

Hargreaves, meanwhile, is a Freshfields lifer and a former global tax head at the firm, who in April 2016 succeeded former managing partner Peter Jeffcote as GC. Jeffcote is currently a partner in the firm's management office supporting Hargreaves and Kembery. 

Hargreaves is to remain at the firm once he steps down, one of the people said.

Last month, Law.com's Legal Week revealed that Freshfields' chief information officer Jon Grainger left the firm after less than two years in the role to join Slater and Gordon.

Freshfields said in a statement to Legal Week: "We do not comment on matters that are confidential to the partnership."