International law firm Linklaters has appointed Stuart Salt as regional managing partner of the firm’s Emerging Europe, Middle East and North Africa (EEMENA) practice, with effect from May 1, 2009.

Salt succeeds Nick Eastwell who has decided to retire from the partnership, having reached the 20 year milestone as a partner. Eastwell will be stepping down as EEMENA regional managing partner on April 30, 2009 and will be retiring from the firm on October 31, 2009.

Salt has been a partner at Linklaters since 1992 and has broad experience across M&A, projects and structured finance. He has worked extensively in both the Middle East and CIS and recently led the Linklaters team advising on the Sakhalin 2 project in Russia – the world’s largest limited recourse oil and gas financing and Russia’s largest ever foreign investment.

In April 2008, Salt also completed a successful three years as head of banking and projects in Asia, leading the transformation of the practice into one of the most highly ranked in the region, as well as overseeing the first full regionalisation of a practice group in Asia.