Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman has become the latest firm to open a Beijing office, following the hire of a five-lawyer team from Paul Hastings.

The office will be Pillsbury's third in Asia alongside Tokyo and Shanghai and its second in the PRC, and is expected to boost its existing China corporate practice with a focus on inbound and outbound investment.

Leading the venture will be former Beijing office head at Paul Hastings David Livdahl, alongside his former co-worker corporate and securities partner Jenny Jia Sheng.

Livdahl specialises in cross-border M&A in China and Japan, and also assists clients with arbitration proceedings and other disputes. He has been on the official arbitration panel for the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC) since 2000.

Sheng focuses on PRC related issues, IP matters, antitrust, real estate and private equity investments across industries, and previously spent five years as a legal counselor in the treaty and law department at the Beijing Commission of Commerce before entering private practice more than 15 years ago.

The partners will be joined by three associates, also from Paul Hastings, and form part of a global China team which includes lawyers in almost all of Pillsbury's offices.

"Opening an office in Beijing is an expression of the firm's ongoing and consistent commitment to China's growing role in the world economy and is a recognition of our growing China practice and our desire to meet and exceed our client expectations there," said Pillsbury chair James Rishwain in a statement.

"As the center of government and as a leading destination for financial services and industry, it is the headquarters for many of our clients, including state-owned enterprises. It is essential that we have experienced lawyers like David and Jenny on the ground there and around whom we will grow."

Pillsbury is among a number of non-Wall Street firms currently looking to grow in Asia, and focus in particular on investment into and out of China.

Earlier this year is also enhanced its Japan practice with the hire of Japan projects and energy group leader Anthony Raven from Hogan Lovells, and Simmons' local infrastructure and energy head Simon Barrett.

In the firm statement, Livdahl, who speaks Mandarin and Japanese, said he also wanted to integrate Pillsbury's China practice with its work Japan.