Clifford Chance (CC) New York corporate partner Brian Hoffmann has left the firm to join McDermott Will & Emery, with his departure coming as the magic circle firm has hired Mayer Brown JSM finance partner Alastair MacAulay for its Hong Kong office.

CC Americas M&A co-chair Hoffmann's move marks a return to McDermott, where he was a partner between 1995 and 1999. He advises on a broad range of corporate matters, including hostile takeovers, proxy fights and sales, across industry sectors including energy, healthcare, life sciences and technology.

In 2007, Hoffmann led a CC team advising Terra Firma on its $5.2bn (£3.5bn) acquisition of Pegasus Aviation Finance from a partnership of investment funds.

"I look forward to re-joining my friends at McDermott and taking advantage of the firm's extensive domestic platform and cross-border capabilities," said Hoffmann.

Hoffmann's departure leaves co-head of M&A in the Americas John Healy in the role until his term ends at the end of April. Thereafter, the group will continue to be led by CC's former Americas head Craig Medwick, who was elected as corporate leader for the Americas at the beginning of this month.

News of Hoffmann's departure after more than 10 years with CC has emerged as the firm has hired Mayer Brown JSM partner MacAuley (pictured) for its Hong Kong office.

MacAulay, who focuses on asset and project finance in the transport and energy sectors, is top ranked by Chambers and Partners for asset and shipping finance in Asia Pacific. He has particular expertise in liquefied natural gas (LNG) transportation and offshore maritime services and will lead CC's maritime and offshore efforts in Hong Kong.

Recent roles for MacAulay include advising Mitsui OSK Lines in a six LNG ship project for the transportation of gas from Papua New Guinea and Australia to customers of Exxon Mobil.

CC Asia Pacific finance head Mark Hyde said: "Asian banks are becoming more active in the offshore energy sector creating more demand for sophisticated asset finance transactions. Alastair has extensive leadership experience handling highly sophisticated and complicated cross-border legal work."