Baker McKenzie has expanded its Singapore office with capital markets and arbitration hires.

Kenny Kwan joins Baker McKenzie Wong & Leow as capital markets principal (equivalent to partner) from leading Singapore firm Drew & Napier, where he was a director and head of the capital markets practice.

Kwan specialises in capital markets transactions in Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia in the following sectors: real estate; industrial, manufacturing and transportation; energy, mining and infrastructure; technology, media and telecommunications.

He joins the global legal giant after just one year at Drew & Napier. Kwan joined the local firm in March 2018 from Allen & Overy, where he was a partner in Singapore. A Singaporean lawyer, Kwan joined Allen & Overy in 2009 as the U.K. firm became the first of six firms to receive the qualifying foreign law practice licenses.

Baker McKenzie Wong & Leow also hired Ashish Chugh as disputes resolution local principal (equivalent to of counsel) from K&L Gates, where he was a Singapore partner.

Chugh focuses on international commercial arbitration, investment treaty and cross-border commercial disputes in the industrial, manufacturing and transportation and energy, mining and infrastructure sectors.

Last August, Baker McKenzie's former Singapore-based global head of international arbitration, Chan Leng Sun, left the firm to join local chambers Essex Court Chambers Duxton.

Baker McKenzie Wong & Leow also recruited Drew & Napier's former real estate head, Geraldine Ong, last June to lead the firm's own real estate practice. And in October, Singapore-based corporate principal Ai Ai Wong was appointed as Baker McKenzie's new Asia-Pacific chairwoman.