Whilst the legal market has been a challenging one for many over the last year that has not stopped a number of UK, International and US firms continuing to invest in the Asian market with a series of partner hires across the region.
2023 started with significant partner hires in the employment space with Tess Lumsdaine joining Baker Mckenzie from HSF where she was a Counsel, Kathryn Weaver leaving Lewis Silkin to head up the employment team at Seyfarth Shaw and Wendy Wong later returning to Simmons & Simmons as partner.
Within the family law and private client space we have also seen a number of moves. Jonathan Mok and his team joined Karas So LLP (in association with Mischon de Reya) at the very end of 2022 and are continuing to grow. They will soon be joined by two US tax partners from Withers, Timothy Burns and Wei Zhang. Vanessa Duff joined Charles Russell Speechly as partner leaving Withers where she was Counsel. Stefano Mariani who was most recently the head of the tax and trusts practice at Deacons has joined Baker McKenzie as a Counsel. Hong Kong boutique Hugill & Ip has added family law attorney Kajal Aswani as a partner from another city firm, Gall Solicitors.
The regulatory space has also been busy particularly with firms looking for partners who can advise on regulatory issues within the tech and crypto markets. This year has seen Jill Wong leave Howse Williams for Reed Smith and Deacons hire Isabella Wong from PIMCO.
The disputes market has also seen a number of partner moves. Melody Chan joined Allen & Overy in February as partner from White & Case where she had spent 10 years. White & Case subsequently hired Wilfred Ho from Skadden as well as Sophie Lyall on the restructuring side. Sidley Austin hired Stephanie Chan from Reed Smith also in February of this year. Andrew Battison has joined Linklaters in their arbitration team in Singapore from Norton Rose. Watson Farley added Boon Tat Yeo as a partner in Singapore from Quahe Woo & Palmer as it looks to grow its APAC construction expertise.
Ropes & Gray shut down its Hong Kong restructuring practice this year with their former Hong Kong managing partner and head of Asia restructuring practice joining Freshfields. Sullivan & Cromwell also added a restructuring partner with Jacqueline Tang joining from Kirkland & Ellis in Hong Kong. US firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld added Tarun Warriar to his special situations and private credit team in Hong Kong. Warriar was previously an MD at global investment firm Varde Partners prior to which he was a restructuring partner at Kirkland & Ellis.
The PRC firms continue to hire across the region. Haiwan & Partners recently hired a capital markets team of Tom Chau, Wang Zhong and Isaac Chen who will split their time between the Beijing and Hong Kong offices. Han Kun law Offices have also now opened in Singapore with the hires of Lan Yu and Irene Bao from Duane Morris & Selvam LLP in June. Melissa Kaye pang has joined East & Concord’s GBA offering. The firm has offices in Shenzhen and Guangzhou and has applied to open in Hong Kong. Melissa was president of the Law Society of Hong Kong between 2018 and 2021.
Within the offshore market we have seen lateral moves across litigation and funds with partners moving from other jurisdictions into Asia market or transitioning between Hong Kong and Singapore. Carey Olsen hired two disputes partners — Tim Haynes moved back offshore after spending the last few years at Kobre & Kim and Matthew Watson joined from Cox Hallett Wilkinson in Bermuda. Ian Clark recently moved from Hong Kong to join Maples as a Funds partner in their Singapore office. Appleby has just launched a Shanghai office with the hire of Hannah Yao from Fangda Partners. They also welcomed back Eason Huang as a partner in Shanghai from Carey Olsen and Lorinda Peasland joined from Harneys in February and Kitty Chan has joined from Fangda as a partner in Shanghai and registered foreign lawyer in Hong Kong. Mourant has also announced that it will set up an office in Singapore with the hire of funds partner Craig Luton from Maples.
International firms are continuing to look at growth in Singapore with a number of firms launching this year or making strategic growth hires particularly in the corporate space. RPC launched a Singapore M&A practice with a team from Quahe Woo & Palmer heading by Kenneth Leong. US law firm Baker Botts has hired five partners since its launch in Singapore earlier this year. Andrew Roche became the third partner to join from Ashurst with a focus on infrastructure finance in the energy and natural resources sectors. Ashurst has hired four partners across their Singapore and Seoul offices with Jean-Louis Neves Mandelli, Scott Baggett and Anna Chung all joining from Shearman & Sterling, the moves coming shortly after Shearman announced its proposed merger with Allen & Overy. Baker McKenzie Wong & Leow in Singapore has hired corporate lawyer Theodore Heng as a principal from Herbert Smith Freehills. Reed Smith adds Sidley practice co-head, Han Ming Ho, to lead Singapore funds growth. On the real estate side DLA Piper has added Ciaran Londra as a partner from BCLP to enhance their real estate capabilities in the region.
Further Morgan Lewis hired M&A lawyer George Cyriac as a partner in Singapore from Stephenson Harwood where he led the Asia private equity and Indonesia practices. Jon Bowden, an M&A lawyer specialising in advising financial sponsors joins Freshfields Global Transactions team in Singapore from White & Case. White & Case also lost M&A and PE specialist Tabitha Saw who joined MOFO in Singapore at the start of the year. This follows MOFO’s hiring of Steven Tran from Mayer Brown.
Whilst there has not been so much hiring within the corporate space in Hong Kong Clifford Chance has just hired M&A expert Alex Bidlake from Linklaters bringing with her more than 18 years of experience in the region. As some firms are starting to predict that the global IPO market will look to finish 2023 strong, after the slump of the first half of the year, we are starting to see firms hire capital market partners. Ethan Chen joins Norton Rose from Kirkland & Ellis where he was a partner since 2021. It will be interesting to see if further firms follow suit before the end of the year.
We have also seen a number of firms looking to hire experienced lawyers from in-house. Linklaters has hired Roger Cheng as a partner from the SFC where he was head of the takeovers team. This follows M&A partner Yoshiyuki Asaoka joining in Tokyo and finance partner Rahul Chatterji from Shearman & Sterling in Singapore. In addition Dentons hired Nicholas Chua who was most recently Head of Legal for North Asia at CIMB Bank.
About the author
Camilla is the Founder and Managing Director of Worthington Legal. She has over 18 years of legal experience, initially as a lawyer in a top city law firm in London before moving to Hong Kong in 2014. Camilla regularly presents at partner strategy meetings, advises on market trends and hiring strategies and mentors lawyers at all career stages, both professionally and with the Women in Law Mentoring Programme.
