Ashurst is to strengthen its Singapore corporate practice with the hire of a former partner from Allen & Overy's (A&O) London office.

City-based corporate partner Keith McGuire joined Ashurst's Singapore office on 11 January. The move marks a return to the country for McGuire, who headed A&O's Singapore corporate practice between 1998 and 2005, moving to its City base in January 2006.

The hire will bring Ashurst's 25-lawyer Singapore office to six partners and will boost the City firm's corporate practice in the region. McGuire will work closely with Ashurst corporate partner Susan Roy, who relocated to Singapore from London last year.

Ashurst Singapore managing partner Matthew Bubb said: "Bringing Susan over has really broadened us and we think that this year is the right time to further enhance the corporate practice as we are seeing positive signs in the market. Keith will fit into the office extremely well and is still very well known in the market."

McGuire was promoted to partner at A&O in 1998 having initially joined the Singapore office in 1996 from an in-house position as Asia-Pacific counsel for TI Group.

The Singapore hire comes as Ashurst's Hong Kong office this month gained a four-lawyer team from DLA Piper, led by structured finance partner Peter Kwon.