Norton Rose has expanded its Australian arm with the hire of Jones Day Singapore banking and finance partner Herman Yip.

Yip has rejoined the firm in Perth, after leaving Norton Rose's Singapore arm in 2006 to move to Jones Day. He was previously with Norton Rose between 1999 and 2006.

His hire marks the eighth lateral hire by Norton Rose Australia so far this year and brings the total number of partners in Perth to 18.

Yip specialises in project, corporate and structured financings and has represented banks, investment funds, project developers and corporate borrowers.

Norton Rose Australia head of banking Elizabeth Hallett said: "It is one of our main strategies at the moment to strengthen our banking practice in Australia to reflect the strength of our banking practice as a firm globally.

"We are actively recruiting further partners across the firm and have found that lots of people want to speak to us at the moment because we're the only international firm that has a full practice in Australia with offices in all of the major cities."

Yip will be the third partner in the firm's banking practice in Perth.

The firm recruited Pinsent Masons Hong Kong partner Peter Borg to its Brisbane office last month for the construction and engineering practice.

Norton Rose's merger with Australian firm Deacons went live at the beginning of this year.