Ben Moshinsky
Eversheds raids DLA for HK partners" />Eversheds has boosted its Asia practice with the hire of a five-partner team from DLA Piper in Hong Kong.
The move, which comes two weeks after the launch of Eversheds’ office in Singapore, signals the firm’s intention to ramp up its Asia arm. Eversheds will open its doors in Hong Kong at the beginning of March after hiring Heller Ehrman Asia chief Nick Seddon last October.
Seddon said: “There’s no doubt that the economic malaise has affected Hong Kong. There isn’t much in the way of IPOs and private equity, but there isn’t the same sense of despondency here as there exists in other parts of the world. The smart money’s on a recovery in the second half of the year in Asia.”
Eversheds has hired banking partners King Tak Fung and Michael Yau from DLA Piper, along with litigation partners Ivan Ng, Ronald Sum and William Leung. Joining the five DLA Piper partners is Stephen Mok, a corporate partner from Fried Frank.
Seddon said he expected Eversheds to continue hiring in Hong Kong, adding: “In terms of size we expect to be at about 50 lawyers in three years’ time. We’ll be broadly full-service, only we might stay away from having a big conveyancing department. The local firms in this market tend to do that side of things.”
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Readers' comments (1)
harry clark | 17-Feb-2009 6:57 am
Well done Eversheds
DLA had an office there before and during the great boom time of the 90's. During the Chinese gold rush it made negligible impression in the highly competitve environment of Asia's leading commercial city. So good luck to Eversheds.
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