William CharnleyMcDermott Will & Emery’s London senior partner William Charnley has been promoted to the newly-created role of head of Europe and become the first non-US lawyer to be made a voting member of the Chicago giant’s main management board.

Charnley has been on McDermotts’ 30-strong management committee since joining the US firm as one of its founding UK partners in 1998, but last month he was elected by the partnership as one of its 21 voting members for a three-year term.