London and U.S.-based firms with offices in Asia brought up partners - albeit at a slower pace than in 2008 - in a variety of practice areas in recent months, with corporate lawyers in Tokyo seeing the most movement.

In mid-October, Clifford Chance shocked the market with the promotion of 15 senior associates across Asia showing it’s commitment to the region.  According to Managing Partner Peter Charlton, despite a notoriously difficult year for firms across the board, the Magic Circle hopes to reward the hard work of its attorneys and retain and attract good talent.

White & Case brought up two partners in Tokyo, effective Jan. 1: Simon Collins, a lawyer in its Global Asset Finance Practice, and Koichiro Ohashi, in the firm’s Global Capital Markets Practice. Collins is an English-qualified lawyer who advises clients on finance transactions, including project and asset  finance, structured lending and leasing and commercial shipping transactions. Ohashi, who is qualified in Japan and New York, advises clients on Japanese capital market regulations, as well as cross-border transactions.

Latham & Watkins also brought up a partner in Tokyo as well as one in Shanghai and another in Singapore. Hiroki Kobayashi was brought up in Tokyo. He is a Japan- and New York-qualified corporate attorney who focuses on general corporate matters, including cross-border mergers, and employment, antitrust, bankruptcy and various regulatory matters. In Shanghai, Karen Yan, a corporate attorney with a focus on securities offerings, public company representation, private equity transactions and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, was brought up. And in Singapore, Latham brought up David Bills, a finance attorney with a focus on project financing, including the representation of senior lenders, export credit agencies and developers involved in large scale power projects and infrastructure projects in Southeast Asia.

Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy brought up Mark Plenderleith in its Tokyo office. A member of the firm’s Global Project Finance Group, Plenderleith specializes in multi-source limited recourse financing, reserve-based lending, international joint ventures and leveraged finance, and his practice focuses on energy, mining and infrastructure.

Mayer Brown brought up Alan Yip, a real estate lawyer in Hong Kong. Yip focuses on real estate matters, including town planning and building law advice, property-related litigations, and PRC real estate projects and land acquisitions.

Dewey & LeBoeuf promoted Heng Loong Cheong, a corporate partner in its Hong Kong office. Cheong practices in the areas of public and private M&A, complex corporate reorganizations, and equity capital markets, with a particular emphasis on the insurance sector.

London-based Lovells promoted dispute resolution lawyer Damon So in its Hong Kong office. So focuses on engineering and construction projects, and is a civil and structural engineer.

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