Loeb & Loeb LLP announced today that it has added a team of four trusts and estates lawyers to its Hong Kong office. The move expands the firm’s preeminent reputation in private client work into Asia for the first time. Partners Erik Wallace and Laurence Ho will lead the newly formed Hong Kong Trusts and Estates team, which will include associates Sarah Lai and Letao Tao. The team joins Loeb & Loeb from Stephenson Harwood.
The group joins Loeb & Loeb’s top-ranked Trusts & Estates Department, and will enable the firm to better serve clients in Hong Kong and the greater Asia region and provide additional high-level counsel on cross-border private client matters. The group primarily advises Asia-based clients on U.S. trust, tax and estate concerns.
“Erik, Laurence, Sarah and Letao bring a solid set of skills that will allow us to strengthen our international capabilities while bolstering our presence in this important market in Asia,” said Bruce Wexler, co-chair of Loeb & Loeb’s Trusts & Estates Department.
“With one of the strongest trusts and estates practices in the U.S., my colleagues and I have always held Loeb & Loeb and its brand in very high regard. Loeb’s U.S. national trusts and estates platform will enable us to provide seamless service to our clients,” Wallace said. “We are honored to join this esteemed group and expand the firm’s private wealth platform to our Hong Kong- and Asia-based clients.”
Wallace has been a practicing trusts and estates lawyer for more than 20 years and has spent the past eight years in Hong Kong, and most recently established the U.S. private client practice for Stephenson Harwood. He assists high net worth individuals and families with succession planning, structuring or restructuring trusts, and establishing private trust companies and charitable foundations. He also works on international probates, postmortem tax planning and pre-immigration tax planning.
Ho brings more than a decade of experience advising clients on U.S. tax, trust and estate planning matters as well as reporting compliance issues. Ho counsels individuals, multinational families, family offices, estates and fiduciaries. He speaks English and Cantonese and is conversant in Mandarin.
“The addition of this strong and talented team in Hong Kong furthers our strategic build in the Hong Kong market,” said Lawrence Venick, managing partner of Loeb’s Hong Kong and Beijing offices. “They bring to bear the experience and skill that will serve our international clients well, and reinforce Loeb’s reputation as a go-to firm for private client matters.”
Wallace received his LL.M. in taxation from New York University School of Law, his J.D. from Emory University School of Law and a B.S.B.A. in accounting from the University of Arkansas. Ho earned an LL.M. in tax at New York University School of Law, a J.D. from Boston College Law School and a B.B.A. in accounting and finance from the University of Michigan’s Stephen M. Ross School of Business. Lai received her P.C.L.L. and J.D. from the University of Hong Kong, and Tao received an LL.M. in international taxation from New York University and Sun Yat Sen University.
