DLA Piper boosts Hong Kong and Tokyo

DLA Piper has boosted its Asian offering by hiring two new partners to its Tokyo and Hong Kong offices.

Corporate finance specialist Koji Ishikawa joins DLA Piper’s Tokyo office from US firm O’Melveny & Myers as a partner and cross-border IPO and M&A specialist Esther Leung joins the firm’s Hong Kong office from Australian firm Mallesons Stephen Jacques.

Leung is a welcome addition to the firm’s Hong Kong office which, earlier this month, was raided of two corporate partners, Claudio de Bedin and Jason Carmichael, who left the firm to join Clyde & Co.

De Bedin was hired by DLA Piper in October 2002 from Barlow Lyde & Gilbert to launch the firm's Asia banking practice alongside Deacons partner Grant Docherty, who quit the firm in July 2004.

DLA Piper has three offices in China, Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai, with more than 100 lawyers.

Earlier this year the firm hired Henry Wang, the former general counsel of Shanghai General Motors as a partner in its Shanghai office, in a bid to further strengthen its China offering.

The firm grew rapidly in the region last year thanks in part to its raid on Coudert’s China practice including China chief Jingzhou Tao and at least 20 lawyers.