As part of a strategic drive to expand our client service offering in the Asia-Pacific region, we are delighted to welcome five new partners to our offices in Asia. Four join us from other firms and one has been appointed internally.

We first entered the Asian market with an office in Hong Kong in 1995 and have since entered Shanghai, Beijing and Singapore*. These new appointments bring the total number of partners in the region to 26. 

Our five new partners are all highly experienced in cross-border and domestic matters, and those based in our China offices have particular expertise in assisting international clients to navigate the complexities of China’s business, judicial and regulatory environment.

Lorraine Tay has joined us in Singapore from Baker & McKenzie. Lorraine has 15 years experience in intellectual property, focusing on trade marks, non-contentious and general IP advisory work. She has a particular expertise in dealing with multi-jurisdictional trade mark portfolios and complex cross-border IP issues and disputes, including oppositions and negotiations and in managing global due diligence. 

Catherine Mun has joined our Hong Kong office, also from Baker & McKenzie, as a partner in our international dispute resolution practice group. She has 15 years’ experience in complex domestic and international commercial disputes and has particularly focused on arbitration proceedings on behalf of major international corporations based in Europe, the US and the wider Asian region. 

We have strengthened our corporate capability in Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai. Marcus Chow, who joins us from a leading law firm in Singapore, focuses on mergers and acquisitions, private equity and equity and debt capital markets as well as corporate governance and Singapore stock exchange related matters. He is highly experienced in cross-border transactions in the Asian region.

John Koh has been promoted to partner in our international corporate practice group after three years working in our Hong Kong office. John is dual qualified in Hong Kong and England and Wales and he has deep knowledge of the local law in the Asia Pacific region as well as experience working closely with teams in our European offices. 

Xia Chao has joined our Shanghai office, also in our international corporate practice group. Xia studied law in the US as well as China and her fourteen years’ experience in working on complex transactions with international clients will be instrumental to developing our corporate practice in the region.

David Kerr, CEO commented: “We are very pleased to welcome Xia, John, Lorraine, Catherine and Marcus to the partnership. Our new partners all bring a wealth of experience in working with international clients as well as detailed understanding of the local regulatory environment. We look forward to working with them as we continue to develop our presence in Asia, as our existing and potential clients’ needs in the region increase.”

*Our presence in Singapore is through a global association agreement with ATMD Bird & Bird LLP