KWM expands Hong Kong practice with promotions of partners and next generation of legal leaders

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King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) is pleased to announce the strategic promotion of 12 lawyers and the addition of two lawyers in the Hong Kong office, demonstrating the firm's commitment to strengthening its capability to capture the burgeoning cross-border activities and opportunities from the Greater Bay Area (GBA) region and to Greater China.

Zhang Yi, Chairman of KWM China Management Committee said, "We are delighted to welcome this dynamic, outstanding and diverse group of lawyers to the partnership. With the growing momentum of the GBA (a key priority of the national strategy), we are committed to providing a premier one-stop-shop offering as part of our strategy to capture the numerous opportunities that the GBA has to offer. This group of new partners, along with the next generation of leaders across our strategic locations in the Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Shenzhen offices will contribute to the firm's strategy to raise the firm's presence in the international marketplace."

Hayden Flinn, the Co-Chief Executive of KWM Hong Kong, added, "These promotions reflect the firm's consistent growth and continued investment in talent across Corporate & Securities, Dispute Resolution, and Banking & Finance. I would also like to welcome Jia Liu and Anthony Jacobsen who will be joining the Hong Kong office. Jia's substantive track record in cross-border transactions and Anthony's experience at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEx) will play a key role in offering strategic cross-border advice to help our clients achieve their domestic and international business ambitions. Anthony Jacobsen's insights from his time at the HKEx will be valuable to this."

The four newly promoted partners in 2018 include:

  • Ricky Lioe, Corporate & Securities: Mr. Lioe has solid experience in a broad variety of corporate and commercial matters, including mergers and acquisitions, capital markets transactions, listed companies takeovers, compliance matters for Hong Kong-listed companies, intra-group reorganization and general commercial matters. He has recently acted in a number of transactions involving share transfers of investment holding companies which hold high-value real properties in Hong Kong and/or China, and is also experienced in handling employment related matters.
  • Michael Lu, Corporate & Securities: Mr. Lu represents corporate clients and international financial institutions in a wide range of debt and equity capital markets transactions. He has in-depth knowledge about the PRC regulation on cross-border financing activities and his expertise and experience span a variety of industries, including real estate, consumer products and services, manufacturing, infrastructure and automobile manufacturing and distribution. From 2007 to 2014, Mr. Lu practiced at the Hong Kong office of a Wall Street law firm and one of the magic-circle firms.
  • Kanne Leung, Corporate & Securities: Mr. Leung focuses on initial public offerings, corporate, securities and M&A transactions in Hong Kong and the PRC. He has advised various investment banks and companies on initial public offerings in Hong Kong, including state-owned enterprises and red-chip companies and related equity capital markets transactions; listed companies in relation to compliance matters under the Hong Kong Listing Rules and the Securities and Futures Ordinance; cross-border mergers and acquisitions and general corporate matters.
  • Cindy Shek, Corporate & Securities: Ms. Shek specialises in all aspects of funds management, including both retail and private funds establishment, fund registrations, ongoing compliance, regulatory and licensing issues. She is experienced in a diverse range of investment funds, including ETFs, SFC authorised funds, approved pooled investment funds, private equity funds, property funds, cross-border funds, SPCs and hedge funds.

The firm also made two new additions to the Hong Kong office including:

  • Jia Liu, Registered Foreign Lawyer (New York, USA), Corporate & Securities: Beijing Partner Ms. Liu has relocated from the Beijing office to Hong Kong and she will split her time between both offices to strengthen our cross-border transactional capabilities, in particular, our US capital markets capabilities in the region. She specialises in capital markets transactions, private equity fund investments and M&A.
  • Tony Jacobsen, Corporate & Securities: Mr. Jacobsen will be a counsel of the Hong Kong office and will be joining in August. He has broad capital markets and general corporate practice with a focus on advising issuers and sponsors for initial public offerings on the HKEx. Prior to joining the firm, he was a Senior Vice President at the IPO Vetting department of the HKEx and has many years of experience in private practice.

We have promoted eight counsels and senior associates in Hong Kong namely:

Counsels
  • Agnes Chan, Banking & Finance
  • Nichole Hou, Dispute Resolution
  • Crystal Luk, Dispute Resolution
Senior Associates
  • Heidi Chiu, Registered Foreign Lawyer (NSW, Australia), Banking & Finance
  • Owen Ow, Corporate & Securities
  • Candy Tse, Corporate & Securities
  • Gisele Vanderweerden, Registered Foreign Lawyer (Queensland, Australia), Dispute Resolution
  • Jeff Wong, Corporate & Securities

These new appointments follow the promotions of our PRC and Australia offices.

The Hong Kong office's latest appointment was the promotion of Jingjing Jiang to partner, and the re-joining of Donovan Ferguson in 2017. KWM now has 33 partners based in Hong Kong.

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