Apr 14 2009
latham still beefing up hong kong office despite downturn
Seems like there is still a silver lining even for firms being rocked by the economic downturn. Latham & Watkins, still most recently famous for its gigantic layoff of attorneys and staff (and deferring first year associates), has poached partners from the Hong Kong office of Allen & Overy. It seems like this economic climate is rife for poaching–and so Latham ran off with seven partners, in addition to relocating a London partner to HK. A seven lawyer bagging and an eight lawyer beefing up in HK is some good news indeed.
The source after the jump.
The National Law Journal published this article (free subscription required) today with the details and names of the folks, entitled “ BigLaw & the Hong Kong Cavaliers: Firm Adds Seven Far East Partners“:
Latham & Watkins has added seven corporate attorneys to its Hong Kong office, including several who practice English and Hong Kong law. The seven attorneys have joined Latham as partners from Allen & Overy: Michael Liu, Stanley Chow, Simon Berry, Kenneth Chan, Cathy Yeung, William Woo and Jane Ng.
Also joining is David Miles, a finance partner in London, who has relocated to Hong Kong to lead the firm’s English law finance practice in Asia. Miles is the first member of the firm’s executive committee to be based in Asia. The group advises Chinese state-owned enterprises, public and private companies in Hong Kong, private equity firms and commercial banks in mergers and acquisitions, public company takeovers, private equity transactions and joint ventures, regulatory work, initial public offerings and restructurings.
“This is a very significant step forward in our growth strategy for the region and globally,” said Robert M. Dell, chairman and managing partner of Latham & Watkins, in a prepared statement. “When the markets rebound, we expect the Asia-Pacific region will play a larger, more critical role in global transactions.”
So it’s not all downhill for the firm: there is still reason to think that its worth poaching partners in the Hong Kong market. And of course, as you can tell, even Robert Dell knows that this is an investment for the future. The question is, when will the market rebound? That’s like playing with a crystal ball. And the other question is, even when the market rebounds, will Latham make out like a bandit or not? Hard to say. But Latham wants to take on this risk now. Should be interesting to monitor the China legal market trends in this economy.
