Hogan Lovells has hired Laurence Davidson, who is rejoining the firm in Hong Kong as a corporate partner from an in-house role at Chinese conglomerate HNA Group, where he was a senior counsel.

Davidson specialises in public and private mergers and acquisitions, as well as private equity transactions in the infrastructure, natural resources and real estate sectors in the Asia-Pacific region. He will start at Hogan Lovells on November 11.

He leaves HNA after about two years with the company, during which he handled transactions in the aviation, logistics and real estate sectors.

Before moving in-house, Davidson practised at Hogan Lovells for 15 years in London and Hong Kong. He first trained and practised as an associate at legacy Lovells in London from 2002 and relocated to Hong Kong in 2006. He was promoted to consultant in 2013.

Earlier this year, Hogan Lovells' Hong Kong office hired another corporate partner but also lost one: Stephanie Tang joined in January from Shearman & Sterling while Steven Tran left in March for Mayer Brown.

In July, Hogan Lovells laid off six of its support staff in Hong Kong in an effort to improve the efficiency of its business operations.

Since July of last year, Miguel Zaldivar has been leading Hogan Lovells' Asia-Pacific and Middle East operations as regional chief executive. Zaldivar told Law.com's The Asian Lawyer last year that one of his top priorities is to improve the interconnection between the firm's practices in Asia-Pacific and the Middle East with those in the U.S. and Europe.

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