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

Latham & Watkins has boosted its US practice in Hong Kong with the hire of two corporate lawyers this month.

Senior associate Ben Carale has recently been hired as counsel from Sidley Austin, where he was responsible for building the firm's Philippines practice and working on US corporate finance and securities transactions.

He previously worked for Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz in New York, and earlier for a local firm in the Philippines.

His appointment is a strategic hire for Latham, giving the firm access to the Philippines market and bolstering its US practice in Hong Kong.

Earlier this month, Norton Rose capital markets partner Ji Liu, also joined the firm.

He focuses on US domestic and cross-border transactions, representing issuers and underwriters on IPOs, secondary offerings and high yield bonds.

In Singapore, local firm Stamford Law has been focused on growing its disputes team and has this month hired litigator Adrian Tan from Drew & Napier.

Tan has two decades of experience as a lawyer. His hire follows the appointment of five new directors and two senior foreign lawyers to Stamford Law this year, as the firm looks to grow its capabilities in South East Asia.

Debevoise & Plimpton has meanwhile enhanced its private equity and disputes groups in the region with the promotion of Brian McKenna to international counsel and the recruitment of a former in-house lawyer at General Electric, Andy Soh.

McKenna, resident in Debevoise's Hong Kong office, represents private equity sponsors and multinationals on direct investment into Asia. He has significant experience in the insurance and financial services sectors and acts for sovereign wealth funds on outbound investment deals.

Soh joins from GE where he was executive counsel for Asia-Pacific litigation and investigations.

Also appointed international counsel, he specialises in internal investigations, complex commercial disputes and government enforcement defence. He spent nearly 10 years in private practice in New York and Singapore prior to joining GE.

In Japan, Allen & Overy partner Jeremy White has been recruited by Baker & McKenzie to work on cross-border commercial and corporate M&A matters.

He joins the US outfit as a registered foreign lawyer in Tokyo. He worked with A&O in London before moving to the firm's Tokyo office in 2007 to focus on outbound deals by Japanese companies.

In the past he has spent time as a secondee at an international investment bank and a Japanese private equity house.

Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher has meanwhile appointed Jose Fernandez, the former assistant secretary of state for economic, energy and business affairs in the US, to join the firm as a partner in the New York office.

Fernandez has previously worked on significant transactions for banks and corporate clients doing business in virtually every jurisdiction in Latin America, and has spent a considerable amount of time in the Middle East, leading government and business delegations to the region.

Barrister Teresa Cheng has likewise been elected as the new chairperson of the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (HKIAC).

Her role will commence on January 1 next year, and she will succeed Fried Frank partner Huen Wong who has served as HKIAC chair since 2011.

During her career, Cheng has been actively involved in the development of international arbitration in Hong Kong. She is a vice president of the International Council of Commercial Arbitration (ICCA) and a member of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) panel of arbitrators.

In 2008, she was the first Asian woman elected through a global election as president of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb), and is currently chair of the Financial Dispute Resolution Centre.

She also sat as a Deputy Judge in the Court of First Instance of the High Court of Hong Kong.

Also this month, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has appointed antitrust lawyer Ninette Dodoo as a counsel in the firm's Beijing office and as deputy head of its antitrust, competition and trade practice for China.

Dodoo was previously the head of the antitrust practice in Beijing for Clifford Chance. She worked for the firm for 14 years and was also based in its Brussels office.

She has advised on some of the most significant antitrust matters in China, acting for companies in the pharmaceuticals, consumer goods, food and beverage, mining and healthcare sectors.

She will work alongside Freshfields' China partners Jenny Connolly and Michael Han.

In Hong Kong, Withers has added five new lawyers to its Asian family practice.

Veronica Chan, April Wong, Billy Ko and William Huynh all join from local firms, whilst Tim Carpenter has been relocated from Withers' London base.

The family team in Hong Kong currently consists of 15 lawyers and advises on divorce, prenuptial and postnuptial agreements, forum shopping, child custody and cross border disputes.

Last year, the firm promoted Stacey Devoy to partner and Sharon Ser to regional senior partner to strengthen the Asian family practice, and also made Rita Ku the first Chinese partner globally to broaden the firm's Chinese client base.

At partner level, five new lawyers have meanwhile joined the Australian offices of K&L Gates, adding to its labour and employment, resources, finance and tax practices.

In Perth, former Squire Sanders partner Amber Stanton has been hired for the energy, infrastructure and resources team, whilst labour, employment and workplace safety partner Andrew Kennedy arrives from Newmont Australia, the Australian subsidiary of Newmont Mining Corporation.

In Sydney the firm has added employment lawyer Christa Lenardand tax partner Betsy-Ann Howe from Clayton Utz and Sparke Helmore respectively.

Finance partner Alan Maclean joins the firm's Melbourne office from HWL Ebsworth.

At Paul Hastings China specialist Nan Li has been promoted to partner after his relocation from Hong Kong to Beijing.

His promotion is understood to be part of a wider initiative to integrate the Hong Kong and US capital markets practice with the mainland China work, allowing the firm to better represent Chinese companies and investors in complex cross-border fund raising and outbound investments.

Li, who specialises in capital markets, M&A and private equity, was part of the team that advised Shuanghui, China's largest publicly-traded meat processing company, on its $7.1bn acquisition of US pork producer Smithfield Foods earlier this year.

A new lawyer has meanwhile joined offshore firm Maples & Calder in Asia to help boost its global trusts and private wealth group.

Charlie Sparrow, who previously worked in the firm's London office from 2008 to 2011, joins as an associate in the Hong Kong to help tap the Asian private wealth fiduciary market.

DLA Piper has also recruited Horace Lam from Jones Day to work in the intellectual property and technology group in Beijing.

Lam, who worked with the US firm in the Chinese capital for two years, has been appointed as head of IP for China at DLA, and brings with him a team of four lawyers.

Prior to Jones Day Lam was with UK outfit Hogan Lovells, where he also led the China IP practice and was managing partner of the Beijing office.

In the Middle East, Bennett Jones partner George Vlavianos has relocated from the firm's Calgary office in Canada to Qatari capital Doha where he will serve as Qatar managing partner.

As co-leader of the firm's arbitration group, he has long focused on commercial disputes and construction law, and has been active in Qatar and the GCC since 2010.

In the past he has acted for energy companies and contractors in a wide range of energy and construction disputes.