Covington & Burling has hired Bird & Bird partner Weishi Li as the firm prepares to open an office in Shanghai later this year.

Li, a native Mandarin speaker who specialises in life sciences and technology, was an intellectual property partner at Bird & Bird but will sit within Covington's corporate practice.

Her experience includes advising private equity and venture capital firms on investments in early-stage technology and biopharmaceutical companies in China. She previously worked with O'Melveny & Myers in Shanghai, focusing on licensing, strategic alliances and joint venture arrangements.

The Shanghai office is expected to open later this year after the firm opened its first Asia office in Beijing in 2008.

Timothy Hester, chair of Covington's management committee, said: "Weishi's outstanding technical and legal credentials will make her a strong addition to our growing China practice. When our Shanghai office opens, she will add her technology transactions expertise to our capital markets, M&A and securities practice there."

Covington said in March that it had also applied to open a new office in Seoul, South Korea later this year, to be led by corporate lawyer William Park. In February, it hired a five-lawyer corporate team to help run its operations there and in Silicon Valley.

The team comprised a trio of lawyers from Wilson Sonsini and a further duo from Centrillion Biosciences.