Baker & McKenzie has appointed corporate and real estate partner Milton Cheng as the chief of its Hong Kong, China, Korea and Vietnam offices.

Cheng, who has lead the firm's Asia-Pacific M&A group for four years, while also co-heading the corporate team for Greater China and managing the REIT practice in Hong Kong, is succeeding employment partner Paul Tan, who has held the position for the last two years.

Milton joined the firm's London office in 1990 as a trainee solicitor, relocated to join the Hong Kong office in
1993 as an associate and became an equity partner in 2004.

His focus is on REITs, M&A, corporate finance and financial services regulation, acting mainly for Hong Kong-listed REITs, financial institutions and intermediaries, as well as multinational corporations and asset managers with bases around the region.

His appointment follows a raft of new management appointments at Baker & McKenzie this month, including that of Singapore based Bruce Hambrettas the Asia Pacific regional chairman, succeeding Winston Zee.

Dispute resolution chair Gary Seib in Hong Kong was also elected to serve on the firm's executive committee, while Mini vandePol, also in the Asian financial hub, was made global head of compliance.

Baker & McKenzie has six offices located across the four locations, with two China hubs in Beijing and Shanghai and two Vietnam bases in Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi.

Its Seoul office was opened in May last year, as a string of international firms looked to take advantage of the newly liberalized South Korean legal market.