Addleshaw Goddard has hired mergers and acquisitions partner Vivien Yang in Hong Kong.

Yang advises companies and private equity funds across Asia on transactions in the oil and gas, liquefied natural gas and infrastructure sectors, as well as power project development. In 2016, Yang advised Shell International Ltd., a London-based management consulting arm of Anglo-Dutch oil giant Royal Dutch Shell Plc., on a petrochemical joint venture project with China National Offshore Oil Corp. in the southern Chinese city of Huizhou.

She was most recently a partner at Simmons & Simmons for almost seven years until December 2018. Previously, Yang did a two-year stint at Clifford Chance, where she was the Hong Kong head of natural resources and a foreign legal consultant. Before that, she practised at legacy Fulbright & Jaworski in Hong Kong and Houston for seven years, most recently as a senior associate.

Addleshaw Goddard said in a statement that its global construction, energy and infrastructure (CEI) practice is one of the firm's key investment priorities. In February, the U.K. firm hired David McEwing as an energy partner in Aberdeen from Pinsent Masons, and Ton van den Bosch as a corporate partner in Singapore from legacy Ince & Co, where he was of counsel and headed the firm's energy and projects team in south and southeast Asia, as well as the global terminals and maritime infrastructure practice.

The firm said its CEI practice has about 30 partners and more than 130 other fee-earners globally. Jonathan Tattersall, co-head of Addleshaw Goddard's CEI practice, said in a statement that the firm plans to assemble one of the strongest global CEI practices in the market by 2021, as global energy demand is expected to increase.

Bob Charlton, Addleshaw Goddard's Asia head, added in a statement that Yang also adds public and private M&A capabilities to its Hong Kong office.

Addleshaw Goddard has been in growth mode in Asia since the arrival of Charlton in May last year. In addition to van den Bosch in Singapore, Charlton recruited Locke Lord's former east Asia head of arbitration, Ronald Sum, and his two-lawyer team in May, and corporate lawyer Lance Jiang as a partner in November from Chinese distressed debt manager China Great Wall AMC International Holdings Co. Ltd., where he was co-head of the legal department.