Latham & Watkins has recruited Vinson & Elkins' (V&E's) former China co-head and senior corporate oil and gas partner David Blumental in Hong Kong.

The hire comes just seven months after Blumental relocated from Shanghai to Hong Kong with V&E, which followed a July announcement that the firm was closing its Shanghai office.

Blumental will be Latham's first full-time energy partner in Hong Kong; tasked with further developing the firm's pan-Asian energy group and contributing to the global practice.

Ranked band 1 by Chambers & Partners for China energy and natural resources work, and fluent in Mandarin and Shanghainese, he is well known for advising big-name clients such as Sinopec and CNOOC on outbound investments ranging from major M&A deals and joint ventures to project development and financing transactions.

His core focus is on LNG, oil and gas, petrochemicals, infrastructure and mining, advising on projects in China, North and South America, Africa, Russia, Southeast Asia and Australia.

Blumental set up V&E's Shanghai office in 2005, helping grow the base to a team of 10 associates and three partners covering China energy work.

When the Houston-headquartered firm announced last July it was closing the office in a move to consolidate its China offering and focus on work coming from Beijing, Blumental relocated to Hong Kong while the firm's other China co-head, Jay Kolb, became a permanent Beijing resident.

Previously, the partners split their time between the two offices.

He is the second partner to leave V&E since the news, with the Shanghai office's third partner, Tju Liang Chua, being recruited by US rival Sidley Austin in Singapore almost immediately after the announcement.

In September it also emerged that a further two of V&E's top China energy lawyers Paul Deemer and Rob Patterson would move from Beijing to London and Moscow respectively, in response to changes in dealflow.

Currently Jay Kolb is the managing partner for V&E's Beijing office, while Hong Kong-based Xiao Yong heads the overall China practice.

The firm now has three offices in Asia; located in Beijing, Hong Kong and Tokyo.