Minter Ellison has continued its expansion in Asia. The Australian firm has hired Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison partner Fred Kinmonth to head its corporate and commercial team in the region.
Kinmonth has been a partner with Paul Weiss since 1998, but is probably better known for the years he spent as the managing director of Peregrine Capital. Prior to Peregrine, he was the managing partner of Herbert Smith’s Hong Kong office.
While at Paul Weiss, Kinmonth advised the Hong Kong government on the establishment of Hong Kong Disney. He was also a key adviser to the Shanghai government on the establishment of the $870m (£548.1m) theme park Shangai Universal.
Minters has poached a number of top Hong Kong partners from large international firms: last year it took on CMS Cameron McKenna’s head of energy projects Julian Hill and associate Stephen Yip; it also took Linklaters energy and M&A partner Elaine Kwee, who joined the firm as special counsel.
“Over the past couple of years the Hong Kong office has tripled in size,” said Hong Kong managing partner Sam Farrands, adding that the firm has not finished its hunt for lawyers yet. “We continue to be busy working on [French construction company] Dragages’ successful tender for the HK$2.3bn (£185.8m) exhibition centre at Chek Lap Kok Airport, the $13bn (£8.2bn) Guangdong LNG supply deal and Manila’s new airport development. And we’ve just been appointed to advise Manulife International on its Asia Pacific IT data centre outsourcing.”