Having launched in Hong Kong last summer, Addleshaw Goddard has forged ahead with a number of developments in the region including adding a third partner, Daniel Wan, and rebranding following the arrival of Nigel Francis at the end of 2013.
Wan, who joins from Jun He and previously worked at Herbert Smith Freehills, specialises in M&A and equity capital markets, particularly pre-initial public offering (IPO) investment and restructuring and post-IPO regulatory and compliance matters.
The fallout from upheaval within firms in the upper echelons of the Australian legal market continues with news today (5 December) that King & Wood Mallesons‘ (KWM) global head of disputes Beau Deleuil has quit to join Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan in Sydney.
The exit follows KWM merging with SJ Berwin, which went live on 1 November and after Deleuil was appointed to the newly created role of global practice co-ordinator of disputes.
The recruit is the third significant hire for US litigation boutique Quinn, which launched in Sydney in May this year after picking up two partners from another Anglo-Australian hybrid – Herbert Smith Freehills duo Michael Mills and Michelle Fox.
Continue reading “Revolving doors: KWM disputes head joins Quinn Emanuel start-up in Sydney”
The fallout from last year’s combination of Herbert Smith and Australia’s Freehills continues to rumble on, with news that HSF‘s Singapore office has been weakened by two senior departures.
Former Freehills Singapore managing partner John Dick has left the firm following corporate partner Geoffrey Grice’s move to Duane Morris & Selvan in Singapore.
Dick is named in The Legal 500 Asia-Pacific as a leading individual for projects and energy, while Brice joined Freehills in 2009 from the state solicitor’s office of Western Australia and has over 20 years’ experience advising on major projects and cross-border transactions in Europe and Asia Pacific.
Continue reading “HSF fallout continues as two Freehills partners quit firm in Singapore”
Back in the boom years, international law firms talked confidently regarding how liberalisation would soon be coming to major legal markets in the Asia Pacific region. This week provides another reminder that in reality such emerging jurisdictions have been rather more tactical – and protectionist – than starry-eyed managing partners believed back in the go-go days.
The incident in question has seen Clifford Chance (CC) publicly criticised by the Singapore justice minister for having the temerity to announce that it was offering litigation services via a formal association set up last year with the boutique Cavenagh Law.
With foreign investor confidence in India shaken by the weakening rupee and the country’s high debt-to-GDP ratio in many ways it seems a strange time for Lawrence Graham (LG) to be entering into a referral relationship with Indian law firm Naik Naik & Company, as it did at the end of September.
LG has had an informal relationship with Naik since the beginning of 2010 but now both firms want to strengthen the referral arrangements in a bid to create new opportunities across their corporate, commercial, litigation and real estate groups. Continue reading “India still a land of promise as LG tightens referral relationship”
Described by Legal 500 as a ‘dynamic emerging market’, Indonesia has welcomed another international entrant as Taylor Wessing launches in Jakarta via a cooperation agreement with local law firm Hanafiah Ponggawa & Partners (HPRP).
The deal will see top 20 LB100 firm Taylor Wessing and 10-partner HPRP ‘share knowledge, resources and best practice, enabling them to provide a service to clients in Singapore, Indonesia and across Taylor Wessing’s wider network of offices,’ a statement said today (8 October). Continue reading “Fourth Asian office for Taylor Wessing as firm ties up with HPRP in Jakarta”
DLA Piper has considerably strengthened its corporate practice in Australia with the appointment of two partners from leading local firms, veteran Bryan Pointon from Gilbert + Tobin and David Ryan from Ashurst Australia.
Private equity specialist Pointon has been a partner in Gilbert + Tobin’s corporate practice since 2007. Prior to that, he was a partner for 10 years at King & Wood Mallesons legacy firm Mallesons Stephen Jacques.
Kirkland & Ellis has expanded its sizeable Chinese footprint by opening an office in Beijing, the top 10 global firm announced today.
With 55 lawyers in Hong Kong and 10 in Shanghai, the new Beijing presence will focus on M&A and private equity transactions, international capital markets transactions, fund formation and government enforcement and investigations.
Corporate partners David Zhang, who joined from Latham & Watkins two years ago, and Chuan Li, who is the founding partner of the firm’s Hong Kong and Shanghai offices, will spearhead the Beijing launch. Continue reading “Kirkland opens up in Beijing to expand 65-lawyer Chinese operation”
Magic circle lateral hires still happen comparatively infrequently but if they do happen, these days it’s quite often in Asia. The past week has seen Linklaters appoint David Kidd of his own eponymous firm as a partner to lead its pan-Asian restructuring and insolvency practice. He will join the firm in October and be based in Hong Kong. Linklaters has been involved in high profile insolvencies such as MF Global and Lehman Brothers and Stuart Salt, Linklaters regional managing partner for Asia, said: ‘David is one of the leading R&I lawyers in the region and we are excited about further developing this side of our business with him.’ Continue reading “Asia Round-up: Linklaters and Sidley Austin hire in Hong Kong and Singapore while DLA suffers another Singapore exit”
With all eyes trained on Asia the office fall outs and launches have been throw into far sharper relief. Losing one former office head could be said to be an accident but DLA Piper’s loss in Singapore of its second former managing partner (MP), Matthew Glynn, is starting to look like trouble, after ex MP Martin David left in May to join Ince & Co. The departure also follows the resignation last August of disputes partner Justyn Jagger for local firm Stamford law.
Glynn, who led the Singapore office for a relatively short period between June 2011 and February this year, was also head of the firm’s Asia intellectual property and technology group. Continue reading “Asia round-up: DLA loses former Singapore head..again.. as Hill Dicks launches in Hong Kong”
