The former Tokyo managing partner of a global firm has swapped law firms for start-ups.
Simon Black, who was one of the partners being considered to assume the global managing partner position at Allen & Overy in the recent past, has formed his own start-up.
In a post on LinkedIn, he said he will be dividing his time between a battery storage business called BESS and a legal consulting technology business. Black, who was with Allen & Overy for 25 years, left the firm in October.
BESS is currently operational and Black is one of the founding shareholders. He joined the start-up’s management in November 2016.
Black did not name the legal consulting technology business he is also involved in.
The finance expert spent most of his career in Asia. For 18 years, he developed the Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Shanghai practices of the firm. Black was managing partner of the Beijing and Shanghai offices of the firm before he moved to Tokyo in 2010. He became managing partner in Tokyo in 2013.
Black is succeeded as Tokyo managing partner by energy and projects partner Matthias Voss.
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