Morgan Lewis & Bockius has hired four more lawyers from Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe as part of its effort to launch a Hong Kong office and expand its mainland China offering.

Last month, Morgan Lewis hired nine Orrick partners in Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai. Now, it has lured four Orrick of counsel – Rosita Chu, Eli Gao, Yan Zeng and Roger Zhou – all of who will be partners at the Philadelphia-based firm.

In January, a nine-partner corporate finance and M&A team led by Orrick's former global head of capital markets Edwin Luk and global co-head of private equity Maurice Hoo, announced they had resigned and would launch a Hong Kong office for Morgan Lewis.

The office will take the form of an association between Morgan Lewis and a local Hong Kong law firm, Luk & Partners, which opened on Monday (13 February), while approval of the association by the Hong Kong Law Society is still pending. All nine are partners with Morgan Lewis.

The four new partners will all be based in Hong Kong. Chu, Gao and Zhou specialise in capital markets offerings, while Zeng focuses on private equity-related M&A work. A start date for the new partners is still under negotiation.

Following the departures, Orrick is left with disputes partner Charles Allen and M&A partners Sook Young Yeu and David Halperin in Hong Kong; intellectual property partners Xiang Wang and Shelley Zhang in Beijing; and intellectual property partner Ethan Ma and corporate partner Jeffrey Sun in Shanghai.