Linklaters has appointed its third London head of corporate this year, with Stuart Bedford stepping up to lead its City offering following Sarah Wiggins’ switch to global head of client sectors just two months into the role.
Bedford begins a four-year term with immediate effect, having recently moved back to London after leading the firm’s corporate practice in Asia. Having been at the firm for nine years, Bedford has built a practice around the natural resources and infrastructure sectors in Africa and Asia.
Before Wiggins’ brief tenure in the role, which she held alongside other management positions that included heading the corporate group’s natural resources division and spearheading the firm’s diversity drive, Shane Griffin served a four-year term.
Matthew Middleditch, Linklaters’ global head of corporate, said: ’With the M&A market gathering pace and with our London-based clients consistently at the forefront of major cross-border M&A activity right across the world, Stuart’s extensive cross-border expertise, across Africa and Asia in particular, means he brings tremendous global experience and insight to this role.’
Bedford added: ‘Linklaters enjoys an outstanding reputation for working on high profile, complex, cross-border deals. While our transactional track record speaks for itself, we are increasingly supporting the boards of our clients with matters of governance, risk management and strategic transformational change. It’s a significant challenge and an offering to clients that I am looking forward to helping our team sharpen further.’
A driving practice at the firm, Linklaters has promoted just one London corporate lawyer, Tracey Lochhead, to partner this year.
tom.moore@legalease.co.uk