Kirkland & Ellis opens third base in Asia with Beijing launch
Kirkland & Ellis has opened an office in Beijing, giving the firm its third base in Asia. The Chicago-based outfit, whose focus in Asia has been predominantly on M&A, private equity and capital markets work, has fielded corporate partner David Zhang, who has 20 years' experience in China, and Chuan Li, who is currently chief representative of its Shanghai office, to lead the base.
September 16, 2013 at 10:22 PM
3 minute read
Kirkland & Ellis has opened an office in Beijing, giving the US firm its third base in Asia.
The Chicago-headquartered outfit, whose focus in Asia has been primarily on M&A, private equity and capital markets work, has fielded corporate partner David Zhang, who has 20 years' experience in China, and M&A partner Chuan Li, currently chief representative of the Shanghai office, to lead the practice.
Zhang will be based in Hong Kong but will continue to travel to Beijing regularly. Li will now split his time between Shanghai and the capital, whilst a total of nine fee earners including associates and foreign legal consultants will relocate from Shanghai and Hong Kong to be resident in Beijing.
"The Beijing office underscores our commitment to our Greater China practice and is a core element of our long-term investment in Asia," said Jeffrey Hammes, chairman of the firm's global management executive committee.
"Cross-border transactional activity between Greater China and the rest of the world continues to grow. Our presence in Beijing expands our reach throughout the region."
The Beijing office is located in China World Office 2, in Beijing's Central Business District (CBD). It will be the firm's third office in Asia alongside Hong Kong, which launched in 2006, and Shanghai, which opened in 2009.
The focus will continue to be on complex M&A and private equity transactions, as well as international capital markets, fund formation and government enforcement and investigations.
In particular the firm wants to increase its share of the the Chinese outbound investment market, which has been steadily growing in the last year.
The opening follows the firm's decision to significantly ramp up its Hong Kong presence in 2011 with the hire of eight partners from Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom, Latham & Watkins and Allen & Overy (A&O).
Among them were Skadden Asia corporate co-heads Nicholas Norris and Dominic Tsun, alongside A&O Hong Kong finance partner Ashley Young and Latham partner Zhang, who was formerly the firm's vice global corporate chair and co-chair of the firm's greater China practice.
Kirkland now has 55 laywers in Hong Kong and 10 in Shanghai, up from 18 lawyers based across the two offices in 2011.
In the last year, high profile deals it has advised on include the $3.7bn take private of Focus Media, where it represented the company's independent committee, and the $1.78bn Hong Kong IPO of Sinopec Engineering, where it acted for the underwriters.
Related: Kirkland adds eight partners in Hong Kong with Skadden, Latham and A&O hires
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