Two high profile corporate partners from King & Wood Mallesons' (KWM) Hong Kong office are to leave the firm to set up their own boutique.

Larry Kwok and Conrad Chan, understood to be big billers within the Hong Kong practice, will depart from the firm later this year, though the exact date of their exit is unknown.

News of the venture comes just weeks after two former senior KWM partners in Australia – duo Tim Blue and Tony O'Malley – also set up their own boutique in Sydney known as LCR Advisory to provide legal advice at senior executive level on a project-by-project basis.

Speaking about the recent exits, KWM, which last year tied up with UK outfit SJ Berwin, said: "Larry Kwok and Conrad Chan have decided to retire from King & Wood Mallesons Hong Kong. Our strategy is to maintain and build the talent and capability in capital markets and M&A to support our leading brand in the Asia Pacific region. We do not believe that their departures from the firm affect that strategy."

Kwok joined KWM in 2004 along with counterpart Dieter Yih, as part of a merger between the Australian outfit and the specialist firm they co-founded, known as Kwok & Yih.

Previously managing partner for Mallesons' Greater China offices, he is a well known corporate finance solicitor in Hong Kong; last April having been appointed a member of the newly-created Hong Kong Competition Commission, and this year being assigned as chairman of the Independent Police Complaints Commission in the city for a two-year period.

His former partner Yih, who was previously president of the Hong Kong Law Society, left King & Wood Mallesons in January 2011 to head up the new Hong Kong law team of US outfit Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy. He is also expected to depart from his current firm in the coming months as Milbank winds down its Hong Kong practice.

Chan, who has also been a partner at the firm since 2004, specialises in China M&A and capital markets work.

According to Mallesons' website, he is currently a member of the Solicitors' Disciplinary Tribunal in Hong Kong and the Takeovers and Mergers Panel, while also sitting on the Takeovers Appeals Committee of the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC).

Neither partner could be reached for comment.

KWM's Hong Kong office has undergone a number of changes in the last two years following the firm's move towards integrating the Australian and Chinese partnerships in the city and efforts to boost profitability as the end of top-up arrangements for legacy partners draws closer.

Among those to have exited the firm in the last year include corporate insurance partner Stuart Valentine, who is now at Debevoise & Plimpton, special counsel Lynia Lau, who specialises in energy and projects transactions and is now a partner at Clyde & Co, capital markets partner Kevin Tong, who was hired by Deacons in November, regulatory and compliance counsel Jill Wong, now with Howse Williams Bowers, and disputes partner Jeff Lane, who was hired by local outfit Tanner DeWitt.

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