The Transfer Window is a weekly round-up of recent legal moves in the UK and abroad. Please send all announcements to [email protected].

Former Slaughter and May Beijing head George Goulding has been appointed as a consultant to the management committee of the firm's Indian best friend Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A Shroff & Co.

Goulding will join the committee alongside Boston Consulting Group's former New Delhi head James Abraham. The duo will be expected to spend at least 40 days a year with the firm to help the Indian outfit with management and strategy.

Goulding retired from Slaughters in October last year, with Hong Kong corporate partner Lisa Chung subsequently taking up the role of Beijing head.

Elsewhere in Asia, US firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld is opening a Hong Kong base with partners recruited from Shearman & Sterling and Norton Rose.

Shearman M&A partner Gregory Puff will lead the new office alongside Norton Rose partner Andrew Abernethy.

Puff, a former Shearman associate, rejoined the firm in 2008 from the Hong Kong office of O'Melveny & Myers, where he had been head of Asia M&A, while Abernethy, who focuses on M&A in the energy sector, relocated to Hong Kong in 2010 from Norton Rose's Dubai office. He joined the UK firm as a partner in 2008 from New Zealand's Bell Gully.

"It's hard to have a China practice without being in Hong Kong," said Akin Gump international managing partner Rick Burdick. "It's the New York of Asia, possibly the world."

Squire Sanders is also set to expand its Asia footprint with the launch of a new base in Singapore after making a trio of senior hires from US firm Bryan Cave.

Ignatius Hwang, the former managing partner of Bryan Cave's Singapore office, will lead the March launch of a new office in the city-state, subject to the granting of a practice licence.

Hwang will be joined at Squire Sanders by Mao Tong, the managing partner of Bryan Cave's Hong Kong office, and Peter Chow, a partner and leader of Bryan Cave's international arbitration and dispute resolution practice in Asia.

Back in the UK, Fasken Martineau has added a partner to its London office with the hire of Teacher Stern's co-head of technology and communications Bill Molloy. Molloy, who focuses on copyright, trade mark and licensing issues, as well as commercial disputes and IT outsourcing, was also previously a partner at Blake Lapthorn.

Field Fisher Waterhouse has hired corporate partner Tim Bird from Wedlake Bell, where he was head of the corporate practice. Bird advises on a range of corporate transactions in the energy, natural resources and technology industries, and has been a partner at Wedlake since 2007, prior to which he was with Dechert. He also spent two years in Deutsche Bank's stockbroking team.

Addleshaw Goddard has strengthened its City litigation team with the appointment of partner Clarissa Coleman, formerly a senior litigator at Consensus Business Group, the London-based advisor to property tycoon Vincent Tchenguiz

Coleman also formerly spent nine years in the litigation and dispute resolution team at Clifford Chance.

Addleshaws litigation head Richard Leedham commented: "The single most active type of client currently litigating are high net-worth individuals with disputes often involving multi-jurisdictional fraud and trusts claims for large sums of money. We see this as a major growth area and one where we are already building."

Coleman's appointment follows that of dispute resolution partner Mark Pring, who joined Addleshaws from US firm Chadbourne & Parke last month.

Meanwhile, in Dublin, Eversheds has appointed a new local head of tax with the hire of Justin McGettigan, who joins from McCann FitzGerald.

Across the Atlantic, SNR Denton has recruited DLA Piper's David Hryck as its new US head of tax amid a three-partner hire from the transatlantic rival's tax practice.

The other two DLA partners joining SNR are Jeffrey Korenblatt and David Mason, while Sheila Geraghty has joined as counsel. Hryck, Mason and Geraghty will be based in the firm's New York office, while Korenblatt will be based in Washington DC.