Common Sense: A Lawyer and Partner, and Also Bankrupt

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Obermayer Hires Zoning and Land Use Partner From Mattioni Ltd.

Philadelphia-based Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel has hired zoning and land use attorney Dawn M. Tancredi as a partner in its business and finance department.

DealBook: Big Law Firm to Cut Lawyers and Some Partner Pay

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Lincoln Financial Hires Morgan Lewis Partner to Head Business Law Unit

Lincoln Financial Group has hired a new head of business law and compliance in its Radnor, Pa.-based law department.Former Morgan, Lewis & Bockius partner James DelBello has joined Lincoln Financial and will serve as senior vice president and head of business law and compliance.

DealBook: Former Goldman Sachs Partner Fined for Unauthorized Trades

Goldman SachsGlenn Hadden

Goldman Sachs and Glenn Hadden, one of Wall Street’s top traders, have been fined by the CME Group over a Treasury futures trade in 2008.

The CME Group, which runs commodity and futures exchanges, has notified both Goldman and Mr. Hadden, once a trader and partner at Goldman Sachs who now runs the global interest rates desk at Morgan Stanley, that both face fines and other sanctions in connection with the trade, according to a disciplinary action reviewed by The New York Times.

Goldman has been ordered to pay $875,000 and was cited for failure to supervise Mr. Hadden. Mr. Hadden has been ordered to pay $80,000.

He faces a 10-day suspension, starting July 15, from “directly accessing all CME Group Inc. trading floors, and indirect and direct access to all electronic trading and clearing platforms owned or controlled by CME Group Inc.”

Mr. Hadden is one of the highest-paid professionals at Morgan Stanley and has been known throughout his career for aggressive and profitable risk-taking. As The Times reported in December, it is unusual for someone of Mr. Hadden’s stature to be the target of such an investigation.

Mr. Hadden joined Morgan Stanley in 2011. He was hired after Goldman Sachs, which had concerns about some of his trading activity, put him on leave in 2009. Those concerns included the episode involved in the sanction.

Mr. Hadden, according to the CME disciplinary action, in the last minutes of trading on Dec. 19, 2008, engaged in trading that violated CME rules.

Mr. Hadden, the CME Group said, was trying to cover some market risk associated with a position he had just before the day’s close. He had difficulty with the trade because the market was quite illiquid, and was found to have not unwound the position in an orderly manner. Goldman was fined over failing to supervise Mr. Hadden.

A spokesman from Goldman Sachs said the firm was happy to have the matter resolved. A Morgan Stanley spokesman said “Mr. Hadden is an employee in good standing as the global head of rates at Morgan Stanley.”

James Benjamin, a lawyer for Mr. Hadden, said his client was also glad the matter was settled. “This matter arose from standard risk-management procedures for Treasury note futures contracts. Although Mr. Hadden acted in good faith and attempted to follow a textbook approach, he had difficulty liquidating the futures position in an orderly manner in light of stressed and illiquid market conditions.”

The disciplinary action is likely to increase speculation about Mr. Hadden’s future at Morgan Stanley. Last week his boss, Kenneth M. deRegt, the executive in charge of Morgan Stanley’s fixed income department, announced he was retiring. That set off speculation inside Morgan Stanley that Mr. Hadden might also leave, or see his responsibilities diminished.

However, people close to the firm who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record about a personnel matter, say there are no plans to move or sever ties with Mr. Hadden.

Mr. Hadden was a big hire for Morgan Stanley, and was brought in just as the firm was working to rehabilitate its fixed income department. That unit, where Mr. Hadden now works, was badly bruised during the 2008 financial crisis.

DealBook: Former Partner at KPMG Charged With Insider Trading

Federal Bureau of InvestigationScott London, left, of KPMG, accepting payment from Bryan Shaw.

11:05 p.m. | Updated

The payments came in various forms. There were envelopes of $100 bills wrapped in $10,000 bundles. There were expensive tickets to a Bruce Springsteen concert. There was a 2011 Rolex Cosmograph Daytona valued at $12,000.

Bryan Shaw, a jeweler in the Los Angeles area, bestowed these gifts upon Scott I. London, a senior executive at the accounting giant KPMG. It was the least that he could do for Mr. London, who routinely gave him secret information about KPMG’s clients. Mr. Shaw traded on the tips, earning more than $1 million in illegal profits.

Prosecutors filed criminal charges against Mr. London on Thursday, laying bare a brazen two-year insider trading scheme. Mr. Shaw was not criminally charged, but named in a related civil action brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission. In recent days, both men have publicly confessed to their misconduct.

“As a leader at a major accounting firm, London’s conduct was an egregious violation of his ethical and professional duties,” said Michele Wein Layne, director of the S.E.C.’s Los Angeles office.

Early this year, Mr. Shaw turned against Mr. London after investigators confronted him with evidence of insider trading. He became a government informant, recording telephone conversations and in-person meetings to help the authorities build a case against Mr. London.

“He viewed it as an unfortunate but necessary part of the process to making things right,” said Nathan J. Hochman, a lawyer for Mr. Shaw. Last month, Mr. Shaw participated in a sting operation to ensnare Mr. London. The F.B.I. provided Mr. Shaw with $5,000 in cash, which was placed in a manila envelope and then wrapped in a black paper bag. Mr. Shaw met Mr. London in the parking lot outside of a Starbucks and handed him the bag.

Federal agents took photographs of the exchange, and included one of them in the government’s complaint. Two weeks later, two F.B.I. officials showed up at the home of Mr. London, who admitted his crimes.

J. Emilio Flores for The New York TimesScott London, right, a former senior partner at KPMG, with his lawyer, Harland Braun.

The sting was an ignominious end to what had been a flourishing friendship in the San Fernando Valley. Mr. London and Mr. Shaw met in 2005, shortly after Mr. Shaw joined the North Ranch Country Club in Westlake Village, Calif. They frequently golfed together and socialized with each other’s families.

Mr. London, a former college baseball player at California State University, Northridge, spent his entire career at KPMG. He worked at the firm for about 29 years, rising to a senior partner in the firm’s Los Angeles office, where he supervised more than 500 accountants and oversaw the audits for some of its most important clients. He established himself as a player in Los Angeles business circles, joining the board of the city’s Chamber of Commerce and serving as chairman of the Los Angeles Sports Council.

Meanwhile, Mr. Shaw’s family-owned jewelry business was sputtering, having been particularly hard hit by the financial crisis. Mr. London said that in 2010, he began to give Mr. Shaw confidential information about his clients because of Mr. Shaw’s deteriorating economic situation.

Over two years, Mr. London secretly passed confidential information to Mr. Shaw about several KPMG clients, including Herbalife, the nutritional supplement company; the footwear manufacturers Skechers and Deckers Outdoor Corporation; and Pacific Capital Bancorp, the government said.

Late Thursday, KMPG’s chief executive, John B. Veihmeyer, said that the firm would soon be bringing legal action against Mr. London.

The tips started with leaks about companies’ quarterly earnings announcements, but escalated into more lucrative secrets about pending mergers and acquisitions.

The case surfaced earlier this week, when KPMG issued a statement saying that it had fired the partner in charge of its audit practice in Southern California because of an insider trading violation and that it was resigning as auditor for two companies — Herbalife and Skechers — because its independence had been compromised.

Even before the government filed its charges, Mr. London and Mr. Shaw had publicly confessed to their misconduct.

“I regret my actions in leaking nonpublic data to a third party,” Mr. London, 50, of Agoura Hills, Calif., said in a statement on Tuesday. “What I have done was wrong and against everything that I had believed in.”

Mr. Shaw, 52, of Lake Sherwood, Calif., said he accepted “full and complete responsibility for what I have done and know that I will spend the rest of my life trying to make up for my tragic lapses of judgment.”

Herbalife proved to be an especially fertile source of illegal tips. The company’s shares have been volatile because of a public feud between prominent investors — William A. Ackman, who has a big bet in place against the company, and Carl C. Icahn, who owns a big stake — over the value of its stock.

In a telephone conversation that Mr. Shaw secretly recorded in February, Mr. London discussed rumors that Herbalife might be a takeover target, and outlined a classic strategy of insider trading schemes.

“What we ought to do is, when I know that it’s going to start happening, what you do is you start just buying in small blocks, right, so it doesn’t draw attention and then, you know, then it doesn’t look unusual at all,” Mr. London said.

Though Mr. Shaw was struggling financially, he rewarded Mr. London handsomely for the tips. He paid Mr. London more than $50,000 in cash, according to prosecutors, which he usually delivered in bags outside his store, Shaw Diamond Company, on Ventura Boulevard in Encino.

Mr. Shaw also routinely covered the cost of dinners and concerts they attended with their families, including a Springsteen show. All told, Mr. London received more than $100,000 worth of kickbacks.

Federal authorities opened an investigation last fall, after the brokerage firm Fidelity raised red flags about activity in Mr. Shaw’s account.

Last summer, Fidelity froze the account, and Mr. Shaw called Mr. London in a panic, expressing worry that they had been found out.

“Mr. Shaw said that Mr. London reassured him that there was no reason for concern, and explained that insider trading was like counting cards at a casino in Las Vegas,” the government’s complaint said. “If you were caught, they simply ask you to leave because they cannot prove it.”

Lynnley Browning and Michael J. de la Merced contributed reporting.

Morrison & Foerster Partner Moves to Mori Hamada

Former Morrison & Foerster Tokyo partner Tony Grundy has joined Japanese law firm Mori Hamada & Matsumoto as a senior of counsel in Singapore.

Grundy, who focuses on capital markets, structured finance and bank lending, mainly advises financial institutions, borrowers and trustees.

He joined Morrison & Foerster in 2008 from Linklaters, where he was a partner for more than two decades. From 2000 to 2007, Grundy was managing partner of Linklaters' Tokyo office, which he helped launch in 1987. He also previously headed the U.K. firm's Singapore office and worked stints in its London and Hong Kong offices.

Mori Hamada opened its Singapore office in 2011 to target Japanese companies expanding in Southeast Asia. The Tokyo-based firm, which has 336 lawyers, now counts six lawyers in Singapore, including Grundy.

In a separate move, Mori Hamada has announced that the former head of Japan's top competition authority is joining the firm as a non-lawyer adviser in its Tokyo headquarters.

Kazuhiko Takeshima served as chairman of the Japan Fair Trade Commission from 2002 until last year. During that time, he successfully pushed for more aggressive prosecutions and stiffer penalties for antitrust violations. Prior to leading the JFTC, Takeshima also held a series of other senior government positions, including heading the national tax agency and serving as director general of the economic planning agency.

Simmons Recruits Partner for Singapore Launch

Simmons & Simmons has hired a new partner for a planned Singapore office.

Dan Marjanovic was previously a Sydney partner with Norton Rose, where he headed the firm's banking and finance practice in Australia.

London-based Simmons & Simmons is currently applying to open an office in Singapore. Marjanovic will initially join the firm's Hong Kong office and relocate once the Singaporean government approves the new office.

Qualified in the U.K. and in Australia, Marjanovic specializes in advising banks, sponsors and corporate borrowers on cross-border financings.

Marjanovic has previously worked in Singapore. He joined the Singapore office of now-defunct Coudert Brothers as a partner in 2004 and moved to DLA Piper's local office the following year. In 2006, he joined the Singapore office of Deacons Australia and subsequently relocated to Sydney; Deacons merged with Norton Rose in 2010.

Prior to moving to Singapore, Marjanovic was a partner in London with the former Denton Wilde Sapte.

Simmons & Simmons, which has more than 1,500 lawyers worldwide, says its Singapore office will focus on project finance and technology. The firm also has Asia offices in Hong Kong, Beijing and Tokyo.

Squire Sanders Adds Partner for Sydney and Silicon Valley

Squire Sanders has hired a new partner who will be dual-based in its Sydney and Silicon Valley offices.

Richard Horton was previously a partner in the East Palo Alto, Calif., office of DLA Piper. Dual-qualified in Australia and in the U.S., Horton focuses on intellectual property, venture financings, and mergers and acquisitions related to the technology industry. He frequently advises Australian technology companies moving into Silicon Valley or U.S. tech clients on their Australia deals.

Before joining DLA Piper in 2007, Horton was a partner in the now-closed San Francisco office of Australian firm Minter Ellison. Earlier in his career, he also worked for the firm now known as King & Wood Mallesons and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.

Cleveland-based Squire Sanders opened its Sydney office last October. According to its website, the office has five lawyers, including Horton. The firm, which has 1,200 lawyers worldwide, also has a Perth office in Australia.

Mintz Levin Takes Private Equity Partner From Latham

As it makes another attempt to grow in the San Francisco Bay Area, Mintz Levin has hired a corporate partner from Latham & Watkins.

Robert Burwell will join Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo's newly launched San Francisco office this week.

Burwell, who represents middle-market private equity firms and companies, was a member of Latham's private equity practice. He said he will have more flexibility to set the right rates for his clients at Mintz. He expects most of them to come with him.

"I feel like Mintz is a really good fit for [middle-market work], whereas Latham has been moving pretty steadily up market," he said.

Burwell is one of the first lateral partners to join Mintz in San Francisco, where the firm opened up last April after shuttering its outpost in Silicon Valley. The firm set up shop in San Diego and Palo Alto in 2006, but the Silicon Valley office -- once home to about 15 lawyers -- had dwindled to just a handful of practitioners by last March. San Francisco office managing partner Paul Churchill, who joined the firm in October, said the lateral partners Mintz has attracted since opening in S.F. show it was the right move for the firm.

A hire from Latham & Watkins will help the firm gain momentum, legal recruiter Larry Watanabe said. And as the office's first private equity lawyer, Burwell will broaden Mintz's corporate practice in San Francisco considerably, Churchill noted. He added that he is interviewing other potential lateral partners and hopes to hire lawyers who do work in venture capital and emerging companies, among other practices, in the coming months.

"For any new office, corporate is a core and essential practice area," Watanabe said. "It can often be the most difficult practice area to gain traction."

Burwell said there are no plans for other lawyers to move with him from Latham.

"Rob has been a terrific colleague, and we wish him well," said Karen Silverman, managing partner of Latham's San Francisco office.

K&L Gates Adds Brisbane Partner

Flag of Australia/clipart.com 2012

K&L Gates has hired a new partner for its banking and finance practice in Brisbane.

Deborah Bean joins from Australian firm Gadens Lawyers, where she was also a partner in Brisbane. She mainly advises banks and other financial institutions on financing for construction projects in the agribusiness, elder care, pharmaceutical, and energy and resources sectors.

Bean joined Gadens in 2006 after spending more than a decade working at Brisbane firm McCullough Robertson.

Pittsburgh-based K&L Gates entered the Australian market at the beginning of the year via its merger with 300-lawyer Middletons, which adopted the U.S. firm's name.

With Bean on board, K&L Gates has 24 lawyers based in Brisbane. The firm also has Australian offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. K&L Gates has around 1,800 lawyers worldwide.

Ex-Banker Joins Corrs Chambers as Partner in Melbourne

By Tom Brennan All Articles 

The Asian Lawyer

February 27, 2013

Corrs Chambers Westgarth has recruited a former investment banker as a partner for its Melbourne office.

Jonathan Farrer will join Corrs Chambers March 1 from Greenhill Caliburn Pty Ltd., the Sydney-based Australian subsidiary of New York boutique investment bank Greenhill & Co. He joined Australian predecessor firm the Caliburn Partnership in 2006.

As a banker, Farrer advised on a number of transactions, including Rio Tinto Group and Mitsubishi Corp.'s $10.8 billion acquisition of Coal & Allied Ltd. in 2011, Newcrest Mining Ltd.'s $9.5 billion purchase of Lihir Gold Ltd. in 2010, and Oxiana Ltd. on its $12 billion merger with Zinifex Ltd. to form OZ Minerals Ltd. in 2008.

Prior to joining Caliburn, Farrer worked in the investment banking division of Macquarie Group for seven years. He worked at the former Allens Arthur Robinson for two years before that.

Corrs Chambers is also boosting its Brisbane office with the addition of partner James Minchinton. An energy and resources specialist, he most recently worked as of counsel at Clayton Utz.

Minchinton's work has focused on project development, exploration activities, and mergers and acquisitions, among other issues, in the energy and resources space. He began his legal career at Clayton Utz in 1998.

Corrs Chambers has around 550 lawyers in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane offices.

Howse Williams Adds Hong Kong Partner

By Jessica Seah All Articles 

The Asian Lawyer

February 25, 2013

Hong Kong firm Howse Williams Bowers has added a new partner to its corporate practice.

Chia Ching Tan was previously an associate at Reed Smith Richards Butler. Howse Williams was founded last year by a group of former Reed Smith lawyers. The firm now has more than 50 lawyers, with 14 partners including Tan.

Admitted to practice in Hong Kong and Malaysia, Tan advises on a wide range of corporate matters including initial public offerings, corporate restructurings, acquisitions and disposals, and regulatory compliance issues.

Prior to joining Reed Smith's Hong Kong office in 2007, Tan was an associate at Zaid Ibrahim & Co. in Malaysia.

Cooley Takes Corporate Partner From Latham

Corporate partner Jamie Leigh, who helped broker the Walt Disney Co.'s acquisition of Lucasfilm, has hopped from Latham & Watkins to Cooley's San Francisco office.

In its first lateral hire of the year, Cooley added Leigh to its M&A group, which handled more than 90 publicly announced deals last year. The group had been so busy trying to keep up with demand from clients that it hadn't been able to pursue new work, said Barbara Borden, chair of Cooley's M&A practice.

"She's a talented young M&A lawyer with a good deal list," Borden said. "We could use more people with her skill set to help us execute on work we already have and expand our work."

Leigh's hiring is in keeping with the firm's strategy of shifting to more high-value work, Borden said. She added that Leigh, who was part of the public company representation practice at Latham, will be helpful as the group tries to expand its public M&A practice.

Leigh, who began her career at Davis Polk & Wardwell, has built a practice that centers on complex M&A, joint ventures, private equity investments and restructurings. In perhaps her highest-profile deal, she was one of the lead attorneys advising Lucasfilm in its $4 billion acquisition by the Walt Disney Co.

But Leigh moved to Cooley to pursue a different type of work. She said she was drawn to the firm by its prowess in life sciences and technology.

"Cooley just has an incredible client base in those industries, and that's really where I enjoy practicing the most," Leigh said.

Leigh was active in the life sciences space as well last year, serving as one of the lead attorneys representing Schiff Nutrition International in its $1.2 billion acquisition by Bayer HealthCare.

Leigh said no other lawyers from Latham plan to join Cooley with her at this time. Leigh is not bringing any clients with her to Cooley, but the firm expects her to help attract new business, Borden said.

"She has practiced in the Valley for a while, and she has relationships," Borden said.

Goodwin Procter Adds Hong Kong Partner

By Anthony Lin All Articles 

The Asian Lawyer

January 11, 2013

Goodwin Procter has added a private equity partner to its Hong Kong office.

Gloria Liu was previously an associate with Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. She has advised investment groups including Oaktree Capital, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., and Goldman Sachs Principal Investment Area, on a variety of transactions in China and Taiwan.

Prior to joining Paul Weiss' Hong Kong office in 2006, Liu was an associate in the New York and Silicon Valley offices of both Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman and now-defunct Coudert Brothers.

In addition to bringing Liu aboard, Boston-based Goodwin Procter is also boosting its Hong Kong office with the relocation of litigation counsel Jay Chiu, who will focus on intellectual property and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act matters.

With the new additions, the firm will have eight lawyers in its Hong Kong office, which opened in 2008. Goodwin Procter has 850 lawyers worldwide.

Mandatory Retirement Policy Prompts Weil Partner to Move to K&L Gates

Mary Korby, a longtime partner at Weil, Gotshal & Manges in Dallas, joined K&L Gates' Dallas office as a partner on January 1.

Korby says she moved to K&L Gates because she had reached Weil Gotshal's mandatory retirement age and wanted to continue to practice law.

"Their philosophy is: If you don't push more mature partners out the door, you don't have room for the younger to come up. I was not at all ready to quit, so I ended up at K&L," says Korby, a transactional lawyer who chaired Weil Gotshal's associate compensation committee until August 2012.

Korby says she considered several firms for the next chapter of her practice, but K&L Gates has a "really incredible" network of offices overseas, which fits with her cross-border work.

"It was the international scope and also just the depth of expertise across the various practice areas. There are, what, 2,000-plus attorneys here," Korby says.

Korby joined K&L Gates' Dallas office with commercial litigator T. Gregory Jackson, who came from Geary, Porter & Donovan in Dallas.

Jackson says it is a good move for his practice because he has clients that "have needs on a national basis."

"I see it as a way to expand my practice and be able to retain matters that my clients have on a more national basis," he says.

Neither Jackson nor Korby would identify clients they brought with them to K&L Gates, which has 46 offices.

Craig Budner, administrative partner in Dallas for K&L Gates, says the firm is thrilled to have Korby and Jackson in its partner ranks. He says Korby adds international transactional expertise, and Jackson has done a lot of oil and gas litigation, which is an area K&L Gates wants to strengthen.

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Baker & McKenzie Hires Korea Partner for Hong Kong Office

By Jessica Seah All Articles 

The Asian Lawyer

January 16, 2013

Baker & McKenzie has hired a new Korea practice partner for its Hong Kong office.

Former Kim & Chang foreign legal consultant Seong Soo Kim specializes in cross-border project financings and international securities deals involving Korean companies.

Kim had worked at Kim & Chang, Korea's largest law firm, since 2002. Before that, he was an associate in Hong Kong with Shearman & Sterling.

Though Baker & McKenzie is opening a Seoul office, pending regulatory approval, it is unclear if Kim will work in that office. A firm spokeswoman says Baker & McKenzie has so far only decided to send three other Korean-speaking lawyers to Seoul when the office begins operations.

Baker & McKenzie announced it was applying to open a Korea office in November. It will be the firm's 73rd worldwide.

Haiwen Picks Up Veteran Expat Partner

By Jessica Seah All Articles 

The Asian Lawyer

January 9, 2013

Michael Hickman, the former Shanghai office head for both Simmons & Simmons and Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, has joined Chinese law firm Haiwen & Partners.

Most recently a senior counsel in Simmons & Simmons' Beijing office, Hickman will work as an international partner in Beijing-based Haiwen's Shanghai office. He advises on joint ventures, foreign direct investment deals, and cross-border mergers and acquisitions.

Hickman has had senior roles in the China practices of several international law firms. He began his legal career at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton in New York and was a partner in that firm's Hong Kong office before moving to the Shanghai office of U.K.-based Simmons & Simmons in 2002.

He served as head of that firm's Shanghai office until 2006, when he and a number of other partners left to join Fried Frank. In 2008, Hickman moved to Dechert, where he was a partner in the firm's Beijing office. He rejoined Simmons & Simmons in 2010.

Haiwen is a corporate boutique firm with around 100 lawyers working in Beijing and Shanghai.

Bingham McCutchen Partner to Become SEC General Counsel

By Andrew Ramonas All Articles 

The National Law Journal

January 10, 2013

A Washington, D.C.-based Bingham McCutchen partner will succeed Mark Cahn as the Securities and Exchange Commission's general counsel, the agency announced on Monday.

Geoffrey Aronow, a Bingham partner since 2008 and the head of the Enforcement Division of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission from 1995 to 1999, will become the SEC's chief legal officer later this month. Cahn left the SEC last week. The agency said in December that the former Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr partner would return to the private sector.

Aronow said in a written statement that he is "truly honored to re-enter public service" at the SEC.

"It is humbling to lead a dedicated staff of so many talented and distinguished lawyers in the Office of the General Counsel, and I look forward to working with them closely as we provide the wisest advice possible to Chairman [Elisse] Walter, the other Commissioners, and agency staff," he said.

Walter said in a written statement that Aronow has "the ideal combination of practical knowledge, expertise, and common sense" for the job.

"Geoff is a faithful steward of the securities laws with a comprehensive understanding of law enforcement who shares our commitment to excellence and passion for investor protection," Walter said.

This article first appeared on The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times.

Edwards Wildman Hires Partner in Hong Kong

By Jessica Seah All Articles 

The Asian Lawyer

January 8, 2013

Edwards Wildman Palmer has hired a new partner for its Hong Kong litigation practice.

John Yiu was previously a partner with local firm ONC Lawyers. He focuses on complex commercial litigation and arbitrations, including insolvency, employment, shipping, regulatory and intellectual property matters.

Yiu joined ONC only last year from another Hong Kong firm, Vivien Chan & Co., where he was of counsel. He also previously practiced as an associate at international firms Holman Fenwick Willan and Paul Hastings.

Edwards Wildman launched an association with local firm Lister Lo Lui & Choy in 2006 and formally merged January 1 this year. The firm has 625 lawyers in 15 offices worldwide, including Hong Kong and Tokyo in Asia. According to its website, the firm has 10 lawyers in its Hong Kong office, five of whom are partners.