RPC has appointed media lawyer Oliver Bray as its new senior partner.

Bray takes up the role with immediate effect following the completion of two three-year terms by Rupert Boswell, the maximum period allowed for a senior partner under the firm’s partnership deed.

A commercial lawyer, his practice covers digital media and emerging technologies, advertising and marketing, data protection and consumer law.

He will continue practising law in his new post, which requires that he provides support to managing partner James Miller on partnership affairs.

Miller described him as an “energetic and a very passionate lawyer” with  “a new and fresh approach”. 

He added: “Oliver has proven he is a firm believer in RPC's strong people-based culture and client-centred approach to doing business. Many of the largest tech companies see him as a key advisor, so I am grateful to have him on my team for what will be a transformative phase for law firms, in which I have no doubt, RPC will play a positive part."

Bray is chair of the City of London Law Society Commercial Law Committee, a member of the Ad Law Group and an editorial board member of Digital Business Lawyer and Entertainment Law Review. 

He said: "I am very much looking forward to helping the partnership and the wider firm meet the challenges of the fast-changing legal market, not least thanks to my experience of working with the world's leading tech platforms.” 

Unlike other insurance-focused UK firms, including Clyde & Co, HFW and Kennedys, RPC has eschewed largescale international expansion, maintaining international offices in Hong Kong and Singapore, which it bolstered in May with the hiring of three partners from Bird & Bird.

However, in February last year it sealed an alliance with Chicago-based law firm Hinshaw & Culbertson.

Last November, it unveiled a major shake-up of its partnership structure, when it abandoned its all-equity partnership structure by offering different career choices for senior lawyers, who can also now become fixed share equity partners, salaried partners, of counsel and senior associates.