Ropes & Gray has recruited the Shanghai chief of legacy firm Hogan & Hartson as the much-touted union of Hogan Lovells went live over the weekend (1 May).

Arthur Mok will become Ropes & Gray's first Shanghai-based partner, with the US law firm planning further expansion in China.

Mok had headed up Hogan's Shanghai arm since 2004 when he launched the practice. He will sit in Ropes & Gray's life sciences, M&A and private equity practices.

Mok commented: "[Ropes & Gray] is growing in a deliberate, forward-thinking way that fully embraces the importance of being able to serve clients with their China-related business interests."

It is also understood that the former managing partner of Hogan's Beijing office, Roger Peng, is set to join Paul Hastings Janofsky & Walker, having left the US firm in the run-up to the merger.

In a separate move, small Hong Kong practice Gordon Ng & Co has announced the end of its alliance with Hogan and a new tie-up with US West Coast firm O'Melveny & Myers. The local practice will be resident in O'Melveny's Hong Kong office, operating within the US law firm's corporate finance and capital markets teams.

The developments at Hogan's Asia practice came after last week's news that Lovells Beijing head Robert Lewis had quit to join China's AllBright Law Offices. Lewis, who set up Lovells' Sino-Global Legal Alliance, joined AllBright on 1 May.

Hogan Lovells Asia and Middle East managing partner Crispin Rapinet (pictured) said that the combined firm still had substantial resources in the Asia region.

He added: "We have just made up six new partners in the region which is a huge fillip to our practice, increasing the size of the Hong Kong practice by a third in one fell swoop."

The departures come as Hogan Lovells officially launched at the start of the month to create a 2,500-lawyer firm across 47 offices worldwide. The new firm is set around five core practice areas: corporate, finance, government regulatory, intellectual property; and litigation, arbitration and employment.