Paul Hastings is considering launches in both Brazil and Singapore as the US firm looks to expand its international presence.

The firm is expecting to open a base in Sao Paulo next year, and is also looking at opportunities in Singapore to build on its existing five-office Asia practice.

The firm's Latin American practice is currently led out of New York by corporate partner Michael Fitzgerald, while to date, the bulk of the firm's Singapore-related work has been led by corporate partner Vivian Lam out of Hong Kong.

Hong Kong office head Neil Torpey told Legal Week that moves into Brazil and Singapore would be a logical step forward in view of the firm's existing client base and growth plans.

"A couple of people in [the Latin America] group have been spending a lot of time in Sao Paulo, so I think there is a pretty reasonable likelihood that some time next year we will actually formally open an office there," he said. "In terms of numbers, I think what we will do down there will be consistent with our peer firms."

Four partners in Paul Hastings' Latin American practice were recruited from now-defunct firm Dewey & LeBoeuf in May this year after its bankruptcy filing. The capital markets and finance quartet includes Fitzgerald, Taisa Markus, Joy Gallup and Arturo Carrillo, all of whom have longstanding ties with clients in Brazil.

As for Singapore, Torpey said the firm was still analysing the market, and would be taking a cautious approach to entry given the flood of firms eyeing a presence there. A potential office in the region would serve as a base for the rest of Southeast Asia and help the firm build closer elationships with Singapore-based clients.

"We have a pretty good idea of what we want to do and who we want to work for down there and so it's really a question of finding the right people. [The office] would be very focused on capital markets, extending the capital markets practice we have built in north Asia and across the rest of the region.

"We never typically have a timetable. I think it's a market that's important but at the moment we feel that we're much more focused on doing it right. Most of the international firms tend to have between a dozen and two dozen people there, so I would guess that over time we would evolve into that kind of situation."

A number of UK firms have launched in Singapore in recent months, including Addleshaw Goddard and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, which relaunched in the city-state after closing its previous office in 2007.

Meanwhile, US counterpart Morrison & Foerster confirmed in October that it would re-open its doors in Singapore early next year after halting local operations in 2009.