Clifford Chance (CC) Tokyo partner James Jamison is joining Deloitte in China as national general counsel.

Jamison is due to join Deloitte next month (7 March) to replace Peter Griffiths, who will step down this summer. He has been a litigation partner at CC since 2001, moving to Tokyo in 2008. He has also served as head of arbitration for the Asia-Pacific region since 2007.

The GC role will see Jamison move to Hong Kong, where he will work with Griffiths over the next few months before taking on the post full-time on 1 June.

He said: "I have worked extensively for Deloitte during my time in Hong Kong, and I feel I already know the firm, both as a client in its own right and as a professional service provider to the financial markets, as well as as an administrator and as an expert in the forensic process.

"It is a great chance for me to move to a new role as an in-house lawyer while still using my experience of the business and legal landscape in East Asia. It is a very exciting time for Deloitte in terms of its growth plans in China and I'm looking forward to being a part of helping them to implement that."

Jamison's departure will leave 11 partners in CC's Tokyo office.

Griffiths joined Deloitte in 1997 as GC for Hong Kong before taking on the role of Hong Kong and China GC in 2003. Griffiths will remain at Deloitte in a part-time role.

Deloitte currently has 14 offices across China comprising Beijing, Chongqing, Dalian, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Hong Kong, Macau, Nanjing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Suzhou, Tianjin, Wuhan and Xiamen.