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International Edition

Simmons cuts China associates after partner recall

Simmons & Simmons is bringing back three senior corporate partners from China to London, making several local associate redundancies as a result. China corporate head Damon Le Maitre-George and corporate partner Charles Mayo will relocate from Hong Kong to London over the coming months, while Jane Newman will move back to the City from Shanghai. The upcoming departures led the firm to lay off three corporate associates in Hong Kong last month from its total of 18 across the two China bases.
2 minute read

International Edition

DLA restructures Dubai amid late payment claims

DLA Piper is restructuring its Middle East practice amid claims that the firm has been in talks with a major client to resolve payment issues in the region.The law firm said last week it had laid off eight associates in Dubai, equating to around 8% of the office's fee earners, but it has also emerged that it has placed almost 20% of the remaining lawyers on either a six-month sabbatical or secondment. Those taking the sabbatical are not guaranteed a job when it is over.Additionally, DLA Piper has relocated a number of lawyers from Dubai to Abu Dhabi and agreed reduced working hours and pay for other staff.
3 minute read

International Edition

Linklaters confirms Shao as new Asia chief

Linklaters has named a new Asia managing partner. Zili Shao, presently the Shanghai-based head of the magic circle law firm's China practice will relocate to Hong Kong to take on the regional role, effective as of 1 May. As Asia managing partner, Shao will join Linklaters' executive committee. Shao is succeeding Giles White, who is leaving the firm at the end of the month to become group general counsel for Jardine Matheson, the Hong Kong conglomerate and longtime Linklaters client.Shao joined Linklaters as a partner in 1998, launching the firm's Shanghai arm the same year. He also spearheaded the firm's opening in Beijing in 2001. Before joining Linklaters, Shao was a partner in Hong Kong and Sydney for Allen Allen & Hemsley, one of the predecessor firms to Allens Arthur Robinson.
2 minute read

International Edition

Indian law society attacks 'sell out to global players'

The president of the Society of Indian Law Firms has laid out the case against opening his country's legal market to foreign lawyers. In an opinion piece published in India's Economic Times, Lalit Bhasin of New Delhi's Bhasin & Co calls "totally unacceptable" the idea that the legal profession in India should be treated as a business that "can be acquired, merged, amalgamated, taken over and sold to global players". He points to the number of Indian lawyers serving in the judiciary and government, claiming that the profession's civic role could be diluted by the entrance in the market of foreign lawyers.
2 minute read

International Edition

Freshfields leads on Morgan Stanley Japan tie-up

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Sullivan & Cromwell have taken lead roles on the merger of the Japanese securities units of Morgan Stanley and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), a deal which will form the third-largest brokerage in the country. Freshfields acted for Morgan Stanley, with a team led by Tokyo-based partners James Lawden, Naoki Kinami, James Wood, Junzaburo Kiuchi and Kazuki Okada. The US bank had previously instructed Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz on its $9bn (£6.4bn) sale of a 20% stake to MUFG shortly after the collapse of Lehman Brothers last September. MUFG turned to Sullivan for advice on the merger - the same firm its used on the Morgan stake purchase.
2 minute read

International Edition

With bankruptcies set to sweep Asia, foreign firms face resource crunch

When economic crisis struck Asia in the late 1990s and early 2000s, international law firms with newly-crippled clients in the region flew in their top restructuring specialists from the US and Europe.This time around, though, those lawyers are much in demand at home, leaving Asian offices somewhat strapped for bankruptcy talent."There will be a resource crunch," says Matthew Bersani, Asia managing partner for Shearman & Sterling. His firm worked on some of the region's largest restructurings of the past decade - including those of Chinese conglomerate Guangdong Enterprises and Singapore-based Asia Pulp & Paper - largely by relying on big-name bankruptcy partners from New York.
5 minute read

International Edition

Corporate lawyers on edge as China blocks trophy Coke deal

Chinese authorities have blocked a $2.4bn (£1.7bn) bid by Coca-Cola to acquire Chinese beverage maker Huiyuan Juice Group, prompting concerns about the impact the decision will have on M&A in the region. The deal, which would have represented the largest ever takeover of a Chinese target by a foreign company, was rejected in one of the first major tests of the country's recently-adopted antitrust law.
3 minute read

International Edition

SJ Berwin set for Asia launch with ex-Dewey pair

SJ Berwin is set to launch its first Asian office with the hire of a former Dewey & LeBoeuf Hong Kong co-head, it has emerged.Daniel Liew has been designated Asia managing partner for SJ Berwin, which is presently awaiting permission to operate as a foreign law firm in Hong Kong, where it intends to practice fund formation, private equity, infrastructure, litigation and real estate law.Liew, who previously launched Dewey's Hong Kong office when he joined the firm in 2007, has a general corporate practice covering private equity, M&A, project finance and capital markets. Prior to joining Dewey, Liew was a partner at Simmons & Simmons' Hong Kong branch.
3 minute read

International Edition

CC to relocate more partners to Middle East

Clifford Chance (CC) is set to relocate two further partners from London to the Middle East. The latest partner moves includes the co-head of the firm's public/private partnership (PPP) practice, Andrew Rolfe, who is set to relocate to Abu Dhabi along with Catherine Cook. Both are partners in the London real estate practice. They will take with them a team of associates.The moves are part of the firm's drive to boost its Middle East capability in projects, PPP work and major real estate developments, as well as construction.The news comes on the back of the relocation of New York corporate partner John Graham to Abu Dhabi in January and that of US-qualified capital markets partner Michael Dakin to Dubai from London earlier this month.
2 minute read

International Edition

Samsung appoints Asia heavyweight as legal chief

Electronics giant Samsung has appointed a former United Nations ambassador and South Korean trade minister as its president and chief legal officer. Kim Hyun-Chong will join Samsung on Monday (23 March) in what may be the most senior in-house legal position to date at a major Asian corporation. Samsung spokesman James Chung says the chief legal officer position was a new one at the company and Kim would report directly to chief executive officer Lee Yoon-Woo.The role of in-house lawyers has generally been less pronounced in large Asian corporations than in their American and European counterparts. Relatively few companies have fully-fledged general counsel, with the top legal role frequently filled by a vice president or director instead of a senior-level executive.
2 minute read

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