Cooley has recruited Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom partner Will Cai as the firm plans to launch its third Asian office in Hong Kong.

Cai, who is qualified in both the U.S. and Hong Kong, regularly advises Chinese tech and internet companies on listings in Hong Kong and the U.S. Last year, he worked on several big-ticket initial public offerings, including acting for Chinese video streaming site iQiyi Inc. on its $2.25 billion Nasdaq listing in March and representing smartphone maker Xiaomi Corp. on its $4.7 billion IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

He also advises on mergers and acquisitions and private equity deals; in 2017, he represented Beijing-based mobile content provider Bytedance Technology Co. on a $1 billion acquisition of video app Musical.ly.

Cai, a Chinese native, has been a partner at Skadden since 2014. At Skadden, Cai, alongside the firm's China practice head Julie Gao, Hong Kong partner Christopher Betts and Shanghai partner Haiping Li, has been part of one of the most active capital markets teams in China.

“Will is a highly respected colleague and lawyer. We thank him for his contributions and wish him all the best,” said Skadden Hong Kong office head Jonathan Stone in an emailed statement.

Including Hong Kong, all of Cooley's three Asian offices are in Greater China. The Palo Alto-based firm first entered Asia in Shanghai in 2011, and in early 2018, it added a second office in Beijing. Both Beijing and Shanghai offices specialize in the firm's strong funds practice; in addition, the China offices also advise on life science matters and private equity M&As.

Last year, Cooley reported $1.23 billion in gross revenue, up 14.4 percent from the previous year. The firm posted double-digit growth in profits, too, with profits per equity partner going up by 14.3 percent to $2.38 million.

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