DLA Piper has appointed US M&A partner Paul Chen as its new head of corporate in Asia, replacing Mabel Lui, who joined Winston & Strawn with a three-lawyer team last week.

Chen, who is currently based in DLA's Silicon Valley office, will relocate to Hong Kong in June this year, joining a team of 21 partners and two other regional practice heads in the city, namely head of Asia tax Daniel Chan and head of Asia restructuring Mark Fairbairn.

Before joining DLA in 2012, Chen was the Hong Kong managing partner for the now defunct firm Dewey & LeBoeuf.

His experience includes advising corporates and private equity funds on a mix of transactions including M&A, capital raising, investments, joint ventures, leveraged buyouts and divestitures, with a particular focus on insurance clients. Other sectors of interest include financial services, technology, media and healthcare.

Chen's experience in Hong Kong and in the insurance market makes him an appropriate addition to the Hong Kong office, which last year saw the departure of its head of insurance Will Harrison, who left to pursue a job in legal consulting.

His appointment is also consistent with DLA's decision last year to boost the number of US partners in the region; the firm having set up a US-led, three-partner Asia management committee in December to create more synergies between its US and Asia offices.

Speaking with Legal Week at the time, Terry O'Malley, global co-CEO of DLA Piper and a member of the new management committee, said the firm would focus on ramping up its US capability in practices such as capital markets, regulatory, compliance and intellectual property, but would not be making any changes to the two-partnership structure of DLA Piper.

The firm has also been focused on boosting its US partnership globally, earlier this month promoting 21 lawyers in the US out of 45 in total, with Continental Europe seeing 10, Australia four, Asia two and the Middle East one.

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