The appointments covered Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

International law firm Charles Russell Speechlys has appointed four new partners for four of its offices covering Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Two of the partners are joining its international dispute resolution team.

Sara Sheffield is joining the Dubai office, Pierre Bydzovsky is joining the Geneva office and litigator Ray Ng is joining as a registered foreign lawyer in the Hong Kong office. These hires follow the arrival of a new restructuring and insolvency partner in the Paris office, Dimitri Sonier, who joined at the start of November. 

Sheffield acts in international arbitration and complex litigation in the English High Court, the Dubai International Financial Centre Court and the Abu Dhabi Global Market Court - often involving cross-border issues - with a particular focus on financial crime, fraud, asset tracing and recovery, and contentious insolvency. She is dual-qualified in England and Wales and Australia (Queensland), and is registered as a legal consultant in Dubai, the Dubai International Financial Centre and the Abu Dhabi Global Market.

Pierre Bydzovsky is a banking and commercial litigation expert, with particular experience in white-collar crime cases, mutual assistance proceedings and sports law. He is also active in insolvency law, employment disputes and data protection. Pierre is president of the Military Court I (the competent court for French speaking Switzerland) and a member of the Swiss Basketball Executive Committee. He will join the firm on 4 January 2021.

Ray Ng has more than 30 years' experience of handling onshore and offshore disputes in a legal career spanning London, the Caribbean and Asia. Ng specialises in the resolution of complex high value multi-jurisdictional commercial disputes relating to shareholder rights, directors’ duties, corporate governance, cross-border restructuring and insolvency, trusts and commercial fraud. A native English speaker, he also speaks Mandarin, Cantonese and Bahasa and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.

In addition to the arrival of the three dispute lawyers, the firm has also hired Simon Weil (trusts, tax and succession – London) and Tobias Niehl (investment funds – Luxembourg).