Hong Kong firm Howse Williams Bowers (HWB) has boosted its corporate team with a double hire including Stephenson Harwood London partner Peter Bradley.

Bradley, who is ranked in band 2 by Chambers and Partners for Alternative Investment Market listings, is joining from from Stephenson Harwood's City office, alongside capital markets and M&A lawyer Chia Ching from Reed Smith Richards Butler (RSRB), the Hong Kong arm of Reed Smith.

Ching, who was a senior associate at RSRB, is joining as a partner.

The hires, which come as part of a push by HWB to ramp up its corporate presence, bring the total number of partners in the team to six.

Bradley (pictured), who will start at HWB next month, was previously based in Stephenson Harwood's Hong Kong office, before moving back to the UK to join K Legal in 2000. He rejoined Stephenson Harwood four years later.

He has considerable experience representing both listed and unlisted companies and financial institutions in Asia on many types of transactions, including IPOs, takeovers, acquisitions and fund raising.

Ching formerly practised at Malaysian law firm Zaid Ibrahim & Co, where she represented multinational corporations on cross-border M&A deals and foreign direct investment matters.

HWB was formed at the beginning of 2012, when a trio of partners at RSRB moved to establish their own Hong Kong practice. Professional indemnity co-head Chris Howse, insurance litigation partner Kevin Bowers and corporate partner Chris Williams exited the firm in December 2011 to set up the firm.

At the end of last year, HWB moved offices from its existing base in Exchange Square 2, to bigger office space on the 27th floor of Alexandra House. It secured the option of leasing a second floor in the building with a view to boosting its headcount in the region in the coming years. It currently has more than 80 staff, of which are 15 partners, with eight focusing on dispute resolution.

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