Allen & Overy has relocated London partner Gary McLean to Hong Kong and has named him head of the firm’s Asia-Pacific corporate practice. The move underscores the firm’s expanded corporate presence across Asia, which includes their recent office openings in Jakarta and Australia. Mr. McLean, who has been with A&O since 1988 and a partner since 1996. He had previously worked at the firm’ Hong Kong office and focuses his practice on M&A, asset financing, outsourcing transactions, joint ventures and corporate recovery work. More recently, Mr. McLean served as US counsel to the international underwriters for the Agricultural Bank of China, the work’s largest IPO.

Sheppard Mullin has added Jenny Liu, previously with DLA Piper’s Beijing office, as Special Counsel at their Shanghai office.

Read the rest of this entry »

Partner Dixon Hearder joined Baker & McKenzie Sydney’s tax practice. He was formerly a partner at Corrs Chambers Westgarth and led the tax practice in their Sydney office. Dixon’s tax experience includes an expertise in stamp duty and transfer pricing in regards to advising Australian and international clients on Australian tax law. He earned his Bachelors of Commerce and Law from the University of South Wales. He also holds a Master of Laws degree from the University of Sidney and is a Fellow of the Taxation Institute of Australia.

Read the rest of this entry »

K&L Gates has bolstered its corproate practice by adding W Rose Zhu to its Beijing office. Zhu, who is leaving Allen & Overy LLP, recently led the team that advised on the global offering of common shares by the Agricultural Bank of China Limited, the world’s largest IPO in 2010. Zhu possesses extensive experience throughout the United States, Hong KOng and China, advising both international and Chinese companies in capital markets, mergers & acquisitions and financings. Zhu, a P.R.C. native, has led many pioneering and high-profile transactions, while also regularly counseling a number of leading P.R.C. institutions and regulators.

Read the rest of this entry »

Shearman & Sterling has further strengthened its capabilities in Greater China by adding Shuang Zhao as a partner to its Hong Kong office. Zhao, a New York-qualified specialist on securities offering and mergers & acquisitions transactions, comes to the firm as a lateral hire from Simpson & Thacher’s Hong Kong office. With substantial experience representing Chinese issuers and investment banks in NYSE and NASDAQ IPOs, Hong Kong IPOs, and Rule 144A and Regulation S offerings of equity, debt and convertible securities, Zhao has also advised clients in the renewable energy, education, retail and healthcare sectors. Zhao will join the firm’s Greater China corporate team, which is involved in cross-border joint ventures and foreign direct investments in U.S. and European corporations. Most recently, the firm represented Qatar Holding in its U.S.$2.8bn cornerstone investment in the Agricultural Bank of China, a component of what was the world’s largest-ever IPO. 

Read the rest of this entry »

Clifford Chance litigation partner Denis Brock is leaving the firm after nearly 25 years to join Australian leader Mallesons Stephen Jaques in Hong Kong. The new role will mark Brock’s third spell in Hong Kong after he spent five years in the region with CC from 1987 and 1992, before taking on the leadership of the magic circle firm’s local practice from 1997 to 2006.

Read the rest of this entry »

Baker & McKenzie has hired Paul Elliott as the firm’s Asia Pacific Head of Project Finance. Elliot has extensive expertise advising clients on project, structured and cross-border financings, along with debt restructuring, in the power, oil, gas & petrochemicals, telecoms, transportation and water industries. Having practiced in England, Hong Kong, Thailand and New Zealand over a thirty year career, Elliot most recently lead the firm’s Finance and Projects practice group in Singapore. The assignment Elliot is set to begin on September 1, 2010 was created in response to increasing demands for integrated advice from clients involved in significant regional infrastructure projects.

Read the rest of this entry »

Jun He has appointed Huang Rongnan as counsel. Huang, who is practicing from the firm’s Shanghai office, was a founding partner of Shanghai Fu Xuanjie Law Firm, and is known for his expertise in representing top entertainment and media companies. He has drafted media and entertainment-related agreements for many Sino-foreign jointly invested films or TV series, and also specializes in commercial litigation, arbitration and alternative dispute solutions.

Read the rest of this entry »

Clifford Chance partner Nigel Wellings is set to relocate to Dubai at the end of June, as the magic circle firm moves to boost its corporate offering in the region. Wellings has spent his entire legal career with CC, having joined as a trainee in 1995, qualified as a solicitor in 1997 and joined the partner rank in 2006. His practice focuses on domestic and cross-border M&A, public takeover offers, listing work and general corporate advisory with, with a specialization towards the infrastructure and mining sectors. Wellings will be the thirds CC corporate partner in Dubai and stay there for a three-year secondment during which he will also be responsible for supporting younger lawyers coming into partnership in the office.

Read the rest of this entry »

US firm Squire, Sanders & Dempsey has subsumed specialist Japanese boutique firm Miki & Yoshida Law and Patent office. Ken Karuso, Squire Sanders’ Tokyo Managing Partner and Asia practice coordinator, said that the union was timely given the increasing importance of IP to Japanese corporations. Miki has said that the opportunity for international reach was a deciding factor for the merge. In addition to Miki and Yoshida, Kanako Inokuchi will join Squire Sanders as partner, and Masazumi Kano will join as associate.

Grandall Legal Group’s IP branch has once again grown through the absorption of the entire team at Beijing Junwood Partners, which is a foreign-business oriented boutique IP agency formed in 2008. This move follows Grandall’s acquisition of a six-lawyer IP team from Beijing Xinzheng Zhitong earlier this year. Junwood’s founding partner, Zhu Denghe, will head the newly joined team of seven patent attorneys, and will oversee the agency’s foreign-related business development.

Read the rest of this entry »