Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft has boosted its China capital markets team with the hire of K&L Gates corporate partner Rose Zhu.

Zhu, who specialises in capital markets, M&A and bank financing transactions, has joined the US firm's Beijing branch from K&L Gates' local office, where she has spent around 18 months after moving from Allen & Overy (A&O) in August 2010.

She has 10 years' experience working for China-based issuers on complex cross-border deals and is fluent in both Mandarin and English. Clients she has worked with include China Development Bank, Sinochem, China Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank of China, CITIC Bank and Postal Savings Bank of China.

At A&O, where she was a senior counsel, she was part of the magic circle firm's team which acted as US counsel to the international underwriters on Agricultural Bank of China's multibillion-dollar initial public offering (IPO) in 2010.

Zhu is the fourth partner recruit for Cadwalader's Asia practice in the last 12 months, as the US firm looks to enhance its capabilities in Greater China.

The firm, which currently has two Asian offices in Beijing and Hong Kong which opened in 2005 and 2010 respectively, also hired capital markets partners Joseph Lee, Jeffrey Maddox and David Neuville from Jones Day last May to join its Hong Kong team.

Rocky Lee, the firm's Asia managing partner, told Legal Week in September that the recent dropoff in Hong Kong IPO work represented a good opportunity to seek new talent.

"Rose has a proven track record of providing best in class counsel to some of China's largest corporations," said Cadwalader chairman Christopher White. "Her appointment comes at an important time for Cadwalader as we further advance our practice in both Beijing and China as a whole."