The Transfer Window: Asia is a regular round-up of recent legal moves in Asia Pacific. Please send all announcements to: [email protected]

Ropes & Gray has added to its corporate practice in Seoul with the hire of counsel Jaewoo Lee from Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton.

Lee, who joins the US firm as a partner, will initially be based out of New York and Hong Kong but will relocate to Ropes and Gray's Seoul office when his license to practice in the North Asian state is approved.

He has experience advising a mix of Korean companies and financial institutions; working on a host of cross-border corporate deals such private and public M&A and global capital markets transactions. He was previously based with Cleary in Hong Kong.

Another firm which has strengthened its Korean offering in recent weeks is UK outfit Ashurst.

John KJ Kim, who has appointed to partner in Ashurst's Hong Kong office, was previously working for Korean law firm Yulchon, where he was head of the outbound practice group.

He has advised clients in a number of sectors including financial services, healthcare, energy, telecommunications, retail, general industrial and automotive, and on a range of corporate matters.

Prior to joining Yulchon, he worked for Kim & Chang in Korea, where he moved after a stint at the New York office of Cravath Swaine & Moore.

Ashurst does not yet have an office in Korea but has previously stated its interest in the market. It is focusing on outbound investment from the country and advising Korean clients from Hong Kong on a mix of corporate, regulatory and disputes matters.

Also this month, Australian firm HWL Ebsworth has recruited insurance partner David Guthrie from Norton Rose Fulbright.

Guthrie acts for clients on claims for personal injury damages, property damage and economic loss, and has worked on a number of cases defending claims under public and products liability policies, professional indemnity policies and general liability policies.

He also has a track record of advising self-insurers in damages proceedings and defending recovery actions brought by statutory insurers.

His appointment brings the firm's national partner total specialising in insurance-related matters to 32, with 160 partners and 772 staff overall.

Jones Day has meanwhile welcomed banking & finance of counsel Donna Healy in Hong Kong, who previously worked as an of counsel across the banking, debt capital markets and structured finance groups of Orrick Herrginton & Sutcliffe.

Joining the firm's banking and finance practice, her background includes working on general banking and finance transactions as well as structured finance transactions, not to mention cross-border real estate financings in China and cross-border securitization transactions in Korea.

She moved to Hong Kong in 2004 and has since been based with Orrick in the city.

Other firms who have made hires in Hong Kong include Simmons and Simmons and Pinsent Masons.

Simmons has recruited Sidley Austin of counsel Gaven Cheong to joins its asset management and investment funds group as a partner, bolstering its China financial markets practice, whilst Pinsent Masons has hired five lawyers to strengthen its infrastructure group.

Gaven focuses on investment funds and regulatory work, and he has acted for a number of international investors on cross-border and domestic transactions.

With Sidley he covered investment funds and litigation. Prior to this role, he worked at the Hong Kong offices of Clifford Chance and Herbert Smith.

Joining Pinsent Masons' construction and projects team at the same time are three new fee earners Tim Hallworth (associate), Hinson Cheung (solicitor) and Karah Howard (associate) who have moved respectively from Minter Ellison's Hong Kong office, local Hong Kong outfit Chan & Associates, and the Tokyo office of Herbert Smith Freehills.

Also in September, senior associate Joana Seetoh will transfer from the Singapore office to Hong Kong, and Jeremy Nunns will qualify into the team on completion of his training contract. The team now consists of 7 partners and 16 other fee earners.

In Singapore, local outfit Stamford Law has boosted its India practice with the addition of Parikhit Sarma from Duane Morris & Selvam.

Sarma is admitted to the Indian bar and has over a decade of experience working on the subcontinent.

Qualified to practice Singapore law for the purpose of corporate or commercial matters, he has worked on a string of corporate, banking and finance deals in addition to regulatory compliance.

Before joining Duane Morris & Selvam, he also worked for Baker & McKenzie.

Watson Farley & Williams has also enhanced its corporate offering in the island city state this month.

The UK-headquartered firm has relocated partner Chris Kilburn from London in a bid to strengthen its capability in natural resources, energy and transportation sectors specifically.

Kilburn has been with the firm since 1998, advising clients on accessing capital markets in the UK as well as on strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance and commercial deals.

He recently advised Madagascar Oil Limited on its $80m open offer to refinance its heavy oil assets in Madagascar and assisted Great Western Minerals Group Ltd on its ground breaking $90m issue of listed convertible bonds to finance the development of its rare earth project in South Africa.

Corporate lawyer Gang Yuan from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has meanwhile left Asia to join Miller Canfield's China practice in the firm's New York office.

Yuan, who joined the magic circle outfit last July as head of energy and natural resources in China and was promoted to counsel in October, was based in Beijing with Freshfields doing corporate and regulatory work for Chinese SOEs in the energy and resources sector.

In his new role he will continue to focus on global M&A transactions, foreign direct investment and regulatory issues in the Chinese oil and gas industry, as well as representing North American and European companies with their expansion.

Prior to joining Freshfields, Yuan was a Beijing partner at now defunct US firm Dewey & LeBoeuf, and also spent time at Weil Gotshal.

Hong Kong based Kirkland & Ellis partner Matthew Gerber has also relocated from the region to work in London for private equity firm DMC Partners.

Gerber, who focused on private equity and M&A and was promoted to partnership in K&E's Hong Kong corporate practice in October last year, has turned to an in-house role at the European company.