Minter Ellison has boosted its Asia practice with the hire of two office managing partners from rival international firms.

New York qualified corporate lawyer Jem Li was previously the managing partner for US firm Winston & Strawn in Beijing, whilst projects specialist Rebecca Silli was formerly the head of French firm Gide Loyrette Nouel's Hong Kong base.

Li, who has 10 years' experience practising in China, joins Minter Ellison on 2 December as Beijing managing partner, which is a newly create role at the Australian firm.

It currently has two lawyers on the ground in the Chinese capital, office chief representative and finance partner Nigel Clark and senior consultant Lawrence Lu.

Rebecca Silli, who has been in Asia for 13 years, will join the firm on 6 January as a partner in Hong Kong.

The firm's Hong Kong office at the moment has nine partners, and is headed by corporate partner Fred Kinmonth. He is also Minter Ellison's Asia chairman and heads the firm's regional corporate and commercial practice.

Commenting on the recent hires, Mark Green, Minter Ellison's managing partner for the international offices said the firm's Asia practice remained an important part of the firm's overall offering.

"Asia will continue to play an increasingly important role in the global economy. It's where the greatest growth opportunities are for our firm and for our corporate clients.

"We're very strategic in our positioning in Asia, especially in the key areas of cross-border M&A, energy and resources, infrastructure and inbound and outbound investment.

"Our portfolio of work is strong, and with Jem and Rebecca bolstering our practices in Beijing and in Hong Kong we're able to further support our work for Australian, Asian, US and European clients in this region."

In an interview with Legal Week earlier this year, John Weber, the chief executive partner, said the firm wanted to boost the amount of regional work it did in a bid to combat a sharp decline in domestic M&A activity in Australia.

As part of the strategy, the Sydney-based firm is currently considering opening an office in Singapore, whilst in July it launched a tax practice for Asia with the hire of Ernst and Young (EY) duo Christian Pellone and Edward Lean in Hong Kong.