DLA Piper has this week announced another addition to its Asia practice with the hire of Morrison & Foerster (Mofo) partner Melody He-Chen.

The Anglo-American firm, which last week ramped up in Singapore with three senior recruits, has brought on He-Chen in Hong Kong in a bid to enhance its China capital markets group.

DLA is in the process of rebuilding its Asia team following a string of exits in the last two years. It now has 29 partners in the Hong Kong office and five in Singapore. In Hong Kong, 10 of the team are corporate, and four of those capital markets partners.

In February 2013, Legal Week reported that the firm was downsizing its Hong Kong capital markets team amid a drop off in local IPOs, while the firm has also recently seen a slew of partner departures across the Asia practice, and in Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Korea.

In an interview last year, Terry O'Malley – one of the three partners to take over management of Asia at the end of 2013 – said some changes in the region had been inevitable as management sought to better align the practice with global goals.

He-Chen, who is Hong Kong and US qualified, specialises in equity capital markets involving mostly Chinese corporates, advising on global offerings and listings on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, SEC registered offerings, secondary offerings, rights issues and share placings.

She also has a strong debt capital markets practice spanning high yield debt, credit-enhanced bonds, investment grade and RMB dim sum bonds.

Before joining Morrison & Foerster she was a partner with Herbert Smith Freehills in Hong Kong.