Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom Hong Kong of counsel Antony Dapiran has left the firm to write a book about the ongoing anti-government protest in the Asian financial centre.

Dapiran has been closely observing the anti-government protest in Hong Kong since it erupted in June, covering it on Twitter as well as commenting about it on media outlets. He has left Skadden to focus full-time on writing a book about it, titled "City on Fire: The Fight for Hong Kong."

Dapiran said the book "is on an extremely demanding publishing schedule—aiming to be published early next year." A Hong Kong-based spokesperson for Skadden said "[the firm] would like to thank Antony for his contribution to the firm and wish him all the best for the future".

Dapiran published his first book, "City of Protest: A Recent History of Dissent in Hong Kong," in 2017, which outlined Hong Kong's history of civil disobedience, from the leftist riots in the 1960s to the Occupy Central movement in late 2014.

At Skadden, Dapiran's practice focused on Hong Kong listings and related mergers and acquisitions for Chinese companies. He was part of the Skadden team that advised on a record number of nine Hong Kong initial public offerings last year, including on Xiaomi Corp., Meituan Dianping and Innovent Biologics Inc.

Dapiran leaves Skadden after two years with the firm. He joined in 2017 as of counsel a few months after leaving Davis Polk & Wardwell, where he was a partner for more than six years. Before that, he practised at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer for almost 12 years, where he made partner in 2008 and served as Beijing office managing partner.

He previously made his name representing large Chinese state-owned enterprises, such as the Agricultural Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and China International Capital Corp. In 2010, he was part of the Freshfields team that advised the Agricultural Bank of China on a dual listing in Hong Kong and Shanghai, which raised $22.1 billion—the third-largest IPO ever globally, after Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and SoftBank Corp.

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