Clifford Chance (CC) has added a partner to its Beijing base with the hire of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld's local investment funds practice head.

Ying White, whose practice has strong focus on fund formation, is joining CC as the second funds partner in the magic circle firm's Beijing office alongside TieCheng Yang, who has more of a regulatory focus.

White has been a partner with Akin Gump since 2007, before which she worked at the World Bank, advising on the investment of its pension fund while based in Washington DC.

At CC, she will focus on onshore and offshore funds formation for private equity and hedge funds, RMB funds, and offshore investments by Chinese institutions.

CC said the hire had come as the firm has seen private investment funds shift their focus to China since the global financial crisis, with Chinese investors increasingly looking to outbound investment options. Prior to the hire CC's Asia investment funds team consisted of seven partners, two counsel and 14 associates.

Hong Kong-based Asia funds practice head Mark Shipman said: "We continue to develop the Asia investment funds team as part of a global initiative to build the private funds practice.

"We have been very active in China to date but have previously done most of our fund formation work from Hong Kong, so the hire of Ying is really adding that extra resource on the ground."

CC is aiming to double Asia-Pacific revenues over the coming years, and is also currently gearing up for a launch in Seoul, after becoming the first to submit a Korea licence application.

The region brought in around 12% of the firm's £1.2bn revenues in 2010-11 and this is expected to increase to 15%-20%.