Mei-Ling Huang has been appointed as chair of Bath-headquartered Royds Withy King in line with a new governance and management structure at the fast-growing law firm.
The firm, which employs around 520 people across its offices in Bath, London, Oxford and Swindon, has introduced a board-level partnership committee to oversee its strategic growth and development.
Mei-Ling, pictured, a partner qualified in the US and UK, will be chair of the firm’s partnership committee.
An experienced litigator who joined Royds Withy King nearly four years ago, she also heads the firm’s dispute resolution team at its Bath headquarters.
She specialises in health and social care regulation as well as commercial litigation, advising health and social care providers on the myriad of challenges they face.
Mei-Ling said: “I see our new structure as an opportunity to further develop our strong positive culture, to focus on our people and our clients, and work to deliver on our goal of becoming the people in law who clients want to work with and who everyone wants to work for.
“My biggest passions in my new role will be building the success of the firm and making equality, diversity and inclusion a part of business as usual. I want our firm to be a place where everyone feels comfortable just being themselves.
“All of our people contribute to the success of our firm and we should be proud of our individual contributions.”
She said diversity brought many advantages to an organisation and building an equal, diverse and inclusive workplace would enable Royds Withy King to harness the best available talent to create value for its clients, people and communities.
“We all know that the last year has been very difficult but we’ve come through it better than expected,” she added.
“That is clearly due to the dedication of our people and is a testament to our leadership. This puts us in a great position to build the business. It’s a really positive time and I want to harness that energy as we move forward.”
Outgoing board chair Louise Fleming will continue as non-executive member to oversee the transition to the new structure and support Mei-Ling in her new role.
She said: “I am delighted that Mei-Ling has been appointed chair of the partnership committee.
“Her leadership, vision and enthusiasm are inspirational and I am very much looking forward to working with her.”
Royds Withy King managing partner Graham Street added: “I’d like to congratulate Mei-Ling, who has the professional and personal qualities which are required to deliver on the requirements of the role at the highest level.
“She will also ensure that we continue to forge ahead with our planned key objectives of growth and strong business performance.”