Winston & Strawn has hired a four-lawyer corporate team from DLA Piper in Hong Kong, including the firm's Asia practice head, partner Mabel Lui.

Specialising in commercial and real estate work, Lui has more than 30 years of experience on China related matters, including advising the foreign investor in the first Sino-foreign joint venture in China in 1978.

She has moved to the US firm alongside senior associate Daniel Tang, who has joined as a partner, of counsel Polly Chu and associate Natalie Tsang.

The group's practice focuses on cross-border and international M&A, general commercial, and corporate matters.

Winston & Strawn is in the process of boosting its offering in Asia, opening a Taiwan office at the beginning of last month while planning to grow the number of partners in Beijing and also launch a base in Singapore.

Recent appointments include those of Clyde & Co labour and employment partner Matt Durham, who joined the firm's Shanghai office in May last year, Baker & McKenzie US and Asia anti-trust partner Steve Harris, who came on board in Washington in October, and Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe energy partner Marco Pocci, who joined the firm in Hong Kong in December.

DLA Piper has meanwhile seen a high number of departures since 2012, making approximately 10 job cuts in its Hong Kong capital markets group last February and losing four partners in Singapore in approximately eighteen months.

In a bid to revive its Asia offering, the firm also appointed a new US-led management committee for the region in December, and simultaneously hired Cushman & Wakefield to conduct a real estate review for its offices in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Related: Winston & Strawn eyes Taiwan, Singapore offices in Asia push