Pinsent Masons' Singapore joint venture is set to grow its projects practice with the hire of a partner from Shearman & Sterling.

Project finance partner David Platt will join Pinsents in November and will first spend a period of time in the firm's City office, before transferring to Pinsent Masons MPillay in Singapore next year.

Platt's client portfolio includes the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, the International Finance Corporation and International Power. He has been at Shearman since 2000 in the US firm's Hong Kong office, prior to which he was a partner at Linklaters.

Pinsents managing partner David Ryan, said: "David's hire is part of a larger plan to expand our projects practice globally. Asia is a specific place of growth for us as a firm, as is the Gulf."

Platt's move follows a number of recent project finance hires for Pinsents, including Marcell Nemeth, who joined from Allen & Overy last year, and Al Harith Sinclair, who joined from DLA Piper in April to handle Islamic project finance for London and Gulf-based clients.

Pinsents' ties with MPillay date back to October 2007, when the firm first signed up to an association with the Singapore firm.

In July this year the duo entered into a joint venture that allows Pinsents to practise aspects of local law in the region.