Linklaters has moved to bulk up its partner ranks in Asia with corporate heavyweight Matthew Middleditch among a senior trio set to relocate to the region.

Middleditch will join the firm's Hong Kong office in January next year, while Amsterdam partner Peter Goes is set to join the Beijing office in early 2012 and Madrid partner Miles Curley will transfer to Singapore next summer.

The relocations are part of the firm's efforts to take advantage of growing activity in the region, and come after the departures of Greater China managing partner Celia Lam to Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and former Beijing managing partner Paul Chow to Davis Polk & Wardwell.

The firm also relocated London corporate partner Robert Cleaver to its Hong Kong office last year.

Goes and Curley's moves mark the first time the magic circle firm has relocated corporate partners to Asia from Continental Europe.

Linklaters global corporate head Jeremy Parr said: "We have been engaged in discussions about increasing our partner base in the region for some months now.

"The increasing sense of opportunity in Asia has made us think about how we can best capture it, and so we are deliberately deploying more senior partners than we have traditionally in recognition of this fact, and in response to the increasing opportunities we are seeing from clients there as they move to invest more in the area."

Middleditch, the firm's global co-head of M&A, holds a number of key client relationships for the firm, including RBS. He will continue to work with the bank alongside the firm's existing relationship team, which comprises City corporate partners Anne Drummond and Simon Branigan and global banking head Robert Elliott.