Felipe Duque, who joined Shearman & Sterling as counsel one year ago, has left to join Allen & Overy as a capital markets partner in Singapore.

He is the latest in a string of lawyers who have left Shearman in Asia during the past year.

Duque, who is U.S. qualified, specialises in debt, equity-linked and equity offerings, and liability management exercises, particularly in southeast Asia. In 2017, he was part of the team that advised the joint bookrunners of Indonesian oil and gas explorer and producer PT Saka Energi Indonesia's debut bond sale of $625 million.

Also in 2017, Duque advised the joint managers of Vietnamese shopping mall operator Vincom Retail's $709 million initial public offering in Vietnam.

Duque returns to Allen & Overy after a year at Shearman. He practised with the Magic Circle firm in Singapore between 2016 and 2018 as an associate. Previously, he worked in New York at Finn Dixon & Herling and Davis Polk & Wardwell, and also spent five years at legacy Herbert Smith in London and Singapore.

Duque's departure from Shearman is the latest in a string of lawyer departures from the U.S. firm in Asia during the past year. In Hong Kong, at least 15 lawyers left Shearman. Seven from the Hong Kong capital markets practice, led by partners Colin Law and Peter Chen, joined Chinese firm Fangda Partners. In January, mergers and acquisitions partner Stephanie Tang left for Hogan Lovells.

Elsewhere in the region, Tokyo-based M&A partner Kenneth Lebrun jumped to Davis Polk and corporate associate Gordon Palmquist joined Mayer Brown as a partner; Singapore project finance counsel Alfred Ng joined Ashurst as a partner; and Beijing capital markets counsel Yang Ge joined DLA Piper as a partner.

Meanwhile, Shearman has only hired one partner in Asia since last year – former White & Case corporate counsel Karl Pires in Tokyo. The firm is attempting to rebuild its Hong Kong law capital markets practice with external hires as well as internal promotions.

Duque's appointment at Allen & Overy in Singapore recovers an earlier loss of three debt capital markets specialists in Hong Kong: partner Amit Singh moved to Linklaters in Singapore, counsel David Cameron departed last October to join Dorsey & Whitney as a partner, and associate Debolina Saha also left in 2018 for an in-house role.

The Magic Circle firm is currently in merger talks with U.S. firm O'Melveny & Myers, with Legal Week reporting last week that the two are in the final stages of discussions. O'Melveny & Myers' own Singapore office has had no resident partner since 2017.

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