Bird & Bird has hired Kaichen Xu as a partner in Beijing. Xu joins from the private equity firm Zebra Global Capital, where he was managing director and general counsel for four years.

Xu specialises in Chinese venture capital and private equity investments in the technology sector. At Zebra, he was responsible for fund formation and investment transactions.

Previously, Xu founded and was the chief executive officer from 2013 to 2016 of the now-defunct Fadoushi.com, which was an online legal services platform funded by venture capital investments. Before his startup stint, Xu was a Shanghai partner at DLA Piper and headed its China venture capital and private equity practice. Earlier in his career, he was a Shanghai counsel at O'Melveny & Myers, and New York associate at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman.

In addition to Xu, Bird & Bird has six other partners based in mainland China focusing on intellectual property, corporate matters and employment issues, according to its website. Christine Yiu, Ying Wang and Sven-Michael Werner work from Shanghai; and John Shi, Shan Lai, Rieko Michishita are based in Beijing.