Paul Hastings partner Haiyan Tang, who has served as the firm's chief representative in Shanghai, has left the firm to assume an in-house position – a move that follows the departure of Paul Hastings' Beijing chief representative, who recently left for a Chinese firm.

Tang left Paul Hastings last month to join CBC Group, a Shanghai-based private equity firm focused on the healthcare sector, where she will be chief legal and compliance officer and a managing director. Last year, Paul Hastings served as underwriters' counsel on a $400 million Hong Kong listing of CBC's portfolio company Ascletis Pharma Inc.

Tang leaves Paul Hastings after five years with the firm, where she had been a litigation partner since 2015, focusing on government enforcement proceedings, internal investigations, compliance programmes and dispute resolutions. During her time at the firm, she served as acting regional compliance director in China for U.S. drugmaker Pfizer Inc. when it was fulfilling its self-reporting obligations to the U.S. Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission.

Previously, Tang did stints as an associate at Kirkland & Ellis, O'Melveny & Myers and Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe. She holds a Ph.D. in neuroscience from Yale University.

Tang's departure leaves Paul Hastings with corporate partners Jia Yan and David Wang in Shanghai, while Hong Kong-based real estate partner David Blumenfeld also spends some time in Shanghai. In Beijing, corporate lawyer Meka Meng is the sole partner remaining; Yan and Wang also spend some time in Beijing.

Paul Hastings has also seen significant departures in Hong Kong recently. Last month, partner and Beijing chief representative Nan Li left the firm together with about 11 members of the office to join the firm associated with China's Tian Yuan Law Firm in Hong Kong. Hong Kong partner Bonnie Yung also left last month to join Big Four accounting giant EY's growing affiliated Hong Kong law firm, LC Lawyers. And Hong Kong office chair Steven Winegar left last fall to become international general counsel at China's Ping An Insurance.

The departures occurred at a time when Paul Hastings wanted to pull back from Hong Kong initial public offerings and focus on more lucrative work, such as mergers and acquisitions, former lawyers recently told Law.com Asia.

A Hong Kong-based spokeswoman for Paul Hastings said partners Yan and Wang have managed the Beijing and Shanghai offices for the last five years and continue to do so today.

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