Kirkland hires third restructuring partner in Hong Kong

Naphtali will join Kirkland from insolvency and litigation boutique firm Lipman Karas’ Hong Kong office, where she was a partner. She moved to Hong Kong from Australia in 2002 and has practised at White & Case and Hogan Lovells. She was made up in 2010 at Hogan Lovells before moving to Lipman Karas in 2011.

She rejoins former colleague Neil McDonald, who joined Kirkland from Hogan Lovells in September 2014. McDonald was the head of Hogan Lovells’ Asia restructuring practice and helped launch Kirkland’s restructuring practice in Hong Kong. Kirkland also hired Hogan Lovells restructuring partner Damien Coles for the launch, just months after he joined the firm from O’Melveny & Myers.

Naphtali’s appointment is set to boost the firm’s litigation capability for the restructuring group, whereas McDonald and Coles’ practice has a transactional focus. Dual-qualified in Australia and Hong Kong, she is experienced in cross-border litigation and insolvencies and pursuing claims arising from corporate collapses. 

It is understood that a number of associates will also follow Naphtali to Kirkland. The firm’s restructuring team in Hong Kong currently has seven lawyers, and the latest hires will likely to bring the number to over 10.

Kirkland is currently acting on four major restructurings in Asia, involving new casino in Macau Studio City, Kaisa Holdings, Bumi Resources and Berau Coal. All four cases had financial liabilities of over $1bn.

The US firm has been in hiring mode in recent months. Most recently, it recruited debt finance partner David Irvine from Linklaters.

However, it has also lost a number of partners to rival firms, including Beijing co-founding partner Ya-Chiao Chang who joined Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe and Asia government enforcement and investigations head Samuel Williamson, who left to launch the Shanghai office for Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan.

Kirkland confirmed Naphtali’s hire without any further comment.