Taylor told Lawyers Weekly that he wanted to return to private practice with a global law firm , rather thah with a "domestic firm", after a recent stint with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Taylor was with G + T for over ten years and towards the end of that period became involved in competition law in the Asia-Pacific region, taking up a secondment in China with King & Wood.

He set up a website called antitrustasia.com which brings together a series of competition specialist firms around Asia and provides information about the competition laws of 20 Asia-Pacific jurisdictions. G+T remains the coordinating firm for the site.

Taylor then went on a leave of absence with the OECD in Paris for two years where he was the Asian competition law and policy specialist.

He trained new Chinese, Indian, Indonesian, Singaporean, Vietnamese and Pakistani authorities and worked with competition experts from the competition authorise in the OECD membership. He organised 15 training events for Asian competition authorities and judges.

“I would bring for example, a US expert from the Federal Trade Commission or the Department of Justice or somebody from the European Commission or from the ACCC along to these events and we would do the training for these new competition authorities,” he explained.

Taylor's appoitment was welcomed by the firm's global leadership.

"With virtually every significant merger triggering multi-jurisdictional reviews and with cartel and other competition litigation increasingly spilling across borders, clients are looking to integrated law firms with a footprint in every major market for both strategic counsel and boots on the ground,” said Phil Proger, the Washington-based partner who leads Jones Day's antitrust & competition group.

I moved for my own reasons
Taylor said his move had nothing to do with recent high profile partner departures from G + T, including M&A partners Phil Breden, Garry Besson and Gary Lawler.

He said he is looking forward to working with leading practitioners in Asia and getting involved with jurisdictions, like Indonesia and India that are “closed to international law firms”

“I won’t be doing any European or US work but a lot of cartels and mergers are global or regional so I look forward to being part of an integrated total service offering for people with those sorts of issues,” he said.