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.

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Allen & Overy private client spin-off Maurice Turnor Gardner has added two new partners for its trusts and pensions practice. Jenny McKeown and Helena Berman will join the boutique’s partnership in September from pensions and HR consultancy Mercer, where they currently are senior-in house pensions litigators. The pair will specialize in pensions litigation, contentious trust and probate matters, and partnership-related disputes.

Hogan Lovells has made its first lateral hires since its merger went live May 1st. Partner Suyong Kim will join the firm’s antitrust, competition and economic regulation practice from Wilmer Hale. She will be joining within the next few weeks along with counsel Karman Gordon and Christopher Hutton. The firm has also elected Craig Hoover to its firm-wide board.

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Law firms’ schedules are usually thought of as strict and nonfamily-friendly, traditionally reserving partnership for full-time attorneys. Those unable to work the needed hours frequently have found it difficult to advance their careers. But a growing number of firms are offering a part-time partnership option, which they feel is important to recruit and retain.

The Project for Attorney Retention (PAR), an organization that promotes work/life balance policies in the legal profession, recently released a study highlighting the success of partners who work part-time, stating “This report…shows that law firms can create successful reduced-hours programs–and that part-time lawyers and their law firms can flourish when they do.” The report listed several contributing factors to the method’s success, such as the fact that part –time partners are mainly driven by client needs, and that reduced hours programs attracted and retained many partners.

According to figures compiled by the National Association for Law Placement, women make up 18 percent of equity and nonequity partners nationwide and only 12 percent of these partners work a reduced-hours schedule.

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The Rise of Asia

Winston Churchill once said, “The longer you can look back, the farther you can look forward.” According to a recent issue of The Economist, the new economic order is in fact a resurgence of a very old one.  For 18 of the last 20 centuries Asia has accounted for over half of the world’s economic output.  Whether or not you’re interested in Asia’s capital spending, consumption, or PPP (GDP measured at purchase-power parity), the importance of the Asian financial and legal markets in 2009 and beyond is undeniable.  The “Rise of Asia” is not a myth, and we have seen Asia rebound from the global recession faster than the Western world, due in part to the strength of their banking systems and debt dynamics.  In 2009, China became the world’s largest exporter and continued economic growth in several countries in the region, namely Australia and India, contributed to Asia’s attraction and the anticipation of further growth in 2010.  The region has become increasingly important to bankers, lawyers, senior executives, and businessmen.  As a result, the landscape of private practice in Asia has been forever altered. We have outlined below some of the major trends of 2009 related to Hiring, Investment Strategies/Deal Flow, Diversification, Localization and Office Openings.  For information on last year’s unprecedented partner movement, please visit our website’s Partner Watch page.

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Clifford Chance has promoted five Asia-based lawyers to partner as part of its annual promotions.  Cameron Hassall (arbitration & commercial litigation, Hong Kong), Leng-Fong Lai (capital markets and structured finance, Tokyo), Ho Han Ming (funds & corporate, Singapore), James Abbott (dispute resolution & litigation, Dubai) and Tim Wang (corporate, Beijing) were all promoted.  The firm has promoted 22 partners globally in total, with most of them being in the corporate, finance and litigation & dispute resolution practices.

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Ropes & Gray has reportedly appointed Arthur Mok, the former managing partner of Hogan & Hartson’s Shanghai office, to partner in the firm’s life sciences, M&A and private equity practices in China.  He will initially be based in Washington, but he will launch Ropes & Gray’s Shanghai office once the office is approved by the Chinese government.

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In recognition of the bumper crop of M&A and equity market deals worked on over the past year, Freshfields won three awards at the ALB China Law Awards: won M&A Deal of the Year, Equity Market Deal of the Year and International Law Firm of the Year.The firm seized its M&A and Equity Market Deal Awards for its role on China Minsheng Bank’s blockbuster US$3.2bn Hong Kong IPO and GCL Poly’s innovative takeover of Jiangsu Zhongneng, respectively.

On the other hand, King & Wood collected five trophies, winning China Law Firm of the Year 2010, Equity Market Deal of the Year, Insolvency & Restructuring Law Firm of the Year, Insurance Law Firm of the Year and Managing Partner of the Year, more awards than any other firm.

ALB China Shanghai Law Awards 2010 – the big winners

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Research from RSG Consulting has shown that the US presence in India has steadily increased, even though UK firms are still the most visible in India. US firms made up 53 per cent of all firms mentioned by Indian firms.“There are now far more US firms involved in India,” said RSG managing director Reena SenGupta. “There’s a fat head of magic circle firms but then a long tail of large US firms, because it’s a bigger investment destination. They also prefer to work with US firms because they think they’re cheaper.”

The exclusive alliances between UK and Indian firms also contribute to the US gains since UK firms are reluctant to pass work to rivals.

US firm Baker & McKenzie is the firm that has most improved its footing in India, behind Linklaters, Allen & Overy and Clifford Chance.

Paul Hastings has appointed Toshiyuki Arai as chair of its Tokyo branch.  Arai has been with the firm for almost 20 years and specializes in the cross-border investment and M&A.   With his new position, Arai will oversee the strategic development of the firm’s considerable but expanding Tokyo base.

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White & Case has hired Francis Zou, a lawyer from Allen & Overy’s US China group, to be a partner in its global banking practice. He is expected to help bridge the firm’s US and Asia banking practices, and his extensive experience with Chinese clients is expected to bring in new clients.

Global banking head, Eric Berg, stated: “He has significant background working with top Chinese commercial banks and corporations that will greatly increase our cross-border opportunities for serving these companies, especially as they ramp up their activities in the US and other key markets, including Asia and Latin America.

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An economic downturn doesn’t necessarily mean that partners stay put or firms are discouraged to bring on lateral partners.  For a partner-level attorney there are many opportunities for lateral movement.  According to The American Lawyer’s 2010 “Lateral Report,” 2,774 partners made lateral moves in the year ending September 30, 2009, a 10.6 percent increase from the preceding year.

This holds true in the Asia and Middle East markets as evidenced by Norton Rose’s recent survey showing a significant perceived shift in economic power from the west to the east.  Last year, Norton Rose moved even more partners to their Hong Kong office and Clifford Chance saw more work in all of its offices in Asia.  The majority of opportunity for partner level candidates stems from the continued interest of Western law firms in these emerging markets as US and UK law firms try to diversify and hedge their risks in a down US economy.  More established firms are looking to diversify their platform in such areas as international arbitration, restructuring, private investment funds and energy and/or build out their core strengths internationally by making opportunistic hires and internal transfers (typically from their US or London offices).  Newer offices are taking advantage of the turn in the market and increase in lateral partner movement to avoid the risk and expense of growing organically by hiring partners with regional experience and expertise.  That said, while lateral movement has been scattered among practice areas, most US and UK firms are looking for the same profile: a solo corporate partner with a sustainable and portable book of business valued at a minimum of $2.5 million and significant experience and contacts in the region.  In 2009, we saw over 55 lateral partner moves in Asia and the Middle East and 15 so far this year.

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White & Case has decided to end plans to merge with local alliance partner VentureLaw after being one of the six international firms granted a license to practice Singapore law last December. The firm had been allied with VentureLaw since 2003.

“We have agreed with Venture Law to bring our Singapore formal law alliance with them to an end,” White & Case said in a statement. “Our commitment to Singapore, and our plans for the Qualifying Foreign Law Practice license that we were recently awarded, are unchanged.”

This is quite a turn from when the firm received its local law license last year at which White & Case advertised the long-term benefits of the alliance.

“Our excellent relationship with the lawyers of Venture Law, our formal law alliance partner, has allowed us to deliver on numerous high-profile transactions,” Singapore managing partner Douglas Peel said in a Dec. 4 statement. “We look forward to continued success with them in the united, ‘one stop-shop’ firm that the license will enable.”

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