| American law firm Kirkland & Ellis has bolstered its Hong Kong practice by hiring eight new partners from rival firms. The new recruits, from Skadden Arps, Latham & Watkins and Allen & Overy, will help Kirkland to provide a full-service Hong Kong and US M&A, capital markets and debt finance practice, according to Jeffrey C Hammes, chairman of the firm’s global management executive committee. Partners Nick Norris, Dominic Tsun and Li-Chien Wong, joining from Skadden Arps, will take charge of the new Hong Kong capital markets and M&A practice. Partners John Otoshi, Benjamin Su and David Zhang are arriving from Latham & Watkins to advise on US securities and M&A, while partners Ashley Young and Douglas Murning have come from Allen & Overy to provide support on debt finance. Until recently, Chicago-based Kirkland has run a small office in Hong Kong focusing on private equity. It is the latest of several US firm that have built Hong Kong law practices recently. The growth in local IPO activity in particular has encouraged some of the biggest Wall Street firms such as Sullivan & Cromwell and Simpson Thacher to break tradition and build local capabilities in the Special Administrative Region (SAR). Davis Polk, Milbank Tweed and Cleary Gottlieb have also hired Hong Kong lawyers. |
New partner hires strengthen Kirkland & Ellis’s HK operation
