Morrison & Foerster has expanded its offices in China and in Hong Kong, further strengthening its corporate and finance practices in the region.

Lucy Lu and Ruomu Li have joined the Beijing and Shanghai offices, respectively, as corporate partners; while Ke Huang has joined the Hong Kong office as a capital markets partner. The three came from Dechert, Fenwick & West and O'Melveny & Myers, respectively.

Both Lu and Li focus on mergers and acquisitions and private equity. Lu advises on foreign direct investment, corporate restructuring and general corporate matters. In 2017, she was part of the Dechert team that advised U.S. conglomerate Griffon Corp. on a $475 million sale of subsidiary Clopay Plastic Products Co. Inc. to Indiana-based packaging manufacturer Berry Global Group Inc.

"Ke, Ruomu and Lucy all bring to the firm strong U.S. and China legal experience advising clients in the technology and life sciences sectors, which aligns with our clients' inbound and outbound investments and capital-raising needs in the region," said Eric Piesner, Morrison & Foerster's Singapore-based Asia managing partner, in a statement. "Their arrivals underscore the firm's commitment to China, where we have been operating since 1983."

Demand has increased among Chinese clients as they have become more active overseas, according to Paul McKenzie, managing partner of the firm's Beijing and Shanghai offices. "We are also seeing major growth in demand from private equity and VC clients, both on inbound and outbound transactions involving China," he said.

Before Dechert, Lu was counsel at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld and an associate at Latham & Watkins, Allen & Overy and Chinese firm JunHe. She is qualified in New York and Hong Kong as well as in China.

Li, who is also qualified in California and New York, advises on venture capital investments. In 2015, she was part of Fenwick's team that represented Chinese hotel operator Keystone Lodging Holdings Ltd. on the $1.3 billion sale of an 81% stake in the company to Shanghai Jinjiang International Hotels Development Co.

She joined Morrison & Foerster from Fenwick, where she spent five years as counsel, splitting her time between Shanghai and Mountain View. She did a previous stint with the firm as an associate in San Francisco between 2007 and 2011. In between the two stints, Li was an associate in Hong Kong at Davis Polk & Wardwell.

Huang focuses on international capital markets and related transactions in the biotechnology, healthcare and technology sectors. Last year, he was part of O'Melveny's team that advised China Securities International as sole sponsor on Chinese mobile game developer FingerTango Inc.'s $133 million initial public offering in Hong Kong.

Before joining O'Melveny in 2015, Huang was an associate at Allen & Overy and was a telecommunications engineer for five years at AT&T and Lucent Technologies (now part of Nokia) before practising law.

Morrison & Foerster was among the first U.S. law firms to establish an office in Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong. It now has three partners in Beijing, two in Shanghai and 12 in Hong Kong.

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