Headline Partner moves Asia – October 2017 to February 2018


Headline Partner moves Asia – October 2017 to February 2018	Headline Partner Moves	Headline Partner Moves	Headline Partner Moves	Headline Partner Moves
Name	To	From	Practice Area	Notes
Siri Wennevik	HFW	Wikborg Rein	Finance	Siri Wennevik joins HFW from Wikborg Rein, where she was previously Singapore managing partner. Her practice covers a broad range of shipping and offshore finance and commercial transactions for Norwegian, Chinese and international clients, with a particular focus on asset, project and cross-border financings.
Alistair Duffield	HFW	White &Case	Projects &Energy	Alistair Duffield has more than 25 years’ experience in South East Asia, advising mining, energy and natural resources companies on M&A transactions and the structuring, development and financing of major projects. His practice also covers ports and infrastructure work, and spans the entire Asia-Pacific region, including Singapore, Indonesia, Myanmar and Mongolia.
Ivan Chia	HFW	Watson Farley & Williams	Corporate	Ivan’s practice covers a range of corporate transactional work across the energy and transport sectors. He is a specialist in renewable energy matters and has advised on approximately 1,000 MWs of onshore wind farm projects in Asia Pacific. He also advises clients on marine-related corporate work, including local joint ventures for liquid natural gas and floating regasification projects. He is dual-qualified in Singapore and England and Wales.
Prakash Raja Segaran	Allen & Overy	Shook Lin & Bok	Banking & Finance	Prakash Raja Segaran acts both for banks and borrowers on a variety of banking transactions ranging from acquisition finance, property finance and Islamic finance and ship financing through to restructurings. He regularly acts as Singapore law counsel on cross-border transactions across the ASEAN region as well as in China and India.
Sumeet Malhotra	Hill Dickinson	Noble Group	Dispute Resolution	He began his career as an advocate at the Mumbai Bar, practising at a Chambers which specialised in shipping and commodity trading matters. He went on to occupy an in-house position at Bernhard Schulte Shipping in Hong Kong, where he dealt with charterparty disputes, marine casualties, crew compensation claims, piracy matters and ship manager’s liability claims.
Bree Miechel	Reed Smith	Simmons& Simmons	Energy & Natural Resources	Bree was admitted as a solicitor in New South Wales, Australia in 2005 before relocating to Hong Kong in 2006. She has also practised in Beijing and Abu Dhabi and is fluent in conversational Mandarin and Japanese. She serves as co-chair of the British Chamber of Commerce Energy & Utility Business Group, and as a council member of the Society of Construction Law Singapore. She has more than 12 years’ experience working in Asia and the Middle East, advises sponsors, lenders, government authorities and contractors on conventional and renewable power, energy efficiency, water and waste, oil and gas, transport and social infrastructure projects.
Luke Grubb	Clifford Chance	Latham & Watkins	Corporate	Luke has more than 20 years’ experience advising on commercial contracts, technology driven mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures, as well as intellectual property, data privacy, cyber security, fintech, and payment systems
Hong Kong
Frank Bi	Ashurst	Slaughter & May	Equity capital markets	Frank has more than ten years’ experience and specialises in equity capital markets, M&A and Hong Kong listing compliance work. He is admitted as a solicitor in Hong Kong and the UK, as well as qualified in the PRC.
Mike Suen	Withers	DLA Piper	Corporate	Mike focuses on initial public offerings on the main and growth enterprise market board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, including the listing of real estate investment trusts. He also has experience in mergers and acquisitions, corporate reorganisations, compliance relating to Hong Kong listing rules and local securities regulatory compliance. He is trained as a chartered accountant and corporate finance lawyer.
Benjamin Su	Latham & Watkins	Kirkland & Ellis	Corporate	Benjamin Su has rejoined the firm in Hong Kong as a partner in the corporate department. Benjamin focuses on corporate and securities law matters, and represents both issuers and underwriters in a variety of capital markets transactions, including registered equity offerings, Rule 144A/Reg S equity and debt offerings, and private placements. He also regularly executes PIPEs, convertible bonds offerings, and going private transactions. Su has experience in a broad range of industries, including technology, financial services, education, and renewable energy and has led a number of high profile IPOs in the region.
Eric Tan & Daniel Lau	Ashurst	Fangda Partners / Allen & Overy	Banking & Finance	Eric Tan has more than 15 years of experience acting for major banks in the region on complex financing deals. He specialises in acquisition finance, cross border lending, structured finance and other banking matters. Daniel Lau joins from Allen & Overy’s Beijing office, where he advised on a wide range of debt related transactions such as structured and acquisition finance, real estate finance, project finance and syndicated loans. He has significant experience working with financial institutions and corporates in financings for China outbound investment and acquisition by Chinese companies.
Callum McNeil	Walkers	Campbells	Insolvency, Restructuring & Dispute Resolution	Callum has over 16 years’ legal experience with 11 of these focused on offshore law, working in the major offshore jurisdictions of The British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands and Guernsey. He has broad experience across the contentious sector, with particular expertise in investment funds disputes, shareholder disputes, cross-border insolvency and trust litigation
Laurence Ho	Stephenson Harwood	Withers	Private Wealth	Laurence’s practice focuses on international tax, trust and estate planning matters for high net worth individuals, families, estates and fiduciaries. He has experience of advising on US expatriation and pre-immigration matters, as well as advising on US tax compliance and foreign bank account reporting obligations.
Everton Robertson	Maples & Calder	Travers Thorp Alberga	Corporate & Funds	Everton Robertson has extensive experience in finance and private equity law and advises major Asian corporations, financial institutions and private equity firms on a range of legal matters. He first joined the firm in Hong Kong in 2000 and has previously worked at Shearman & Sterling, White & Case and Linklaters in London.
Douglas Freeman & Victor Chen	Goodwin	Paul Hastings	Private Equity	Douglas Freeman’s practice focuses on representing public and private companies, private equity firms and investment banking firms in connection with M&A, public offerings and corporate transactions. He has particular experience in advising on cross-border M&A, reorganisations, leveraged buyouts, listed company transactions, and hostile or contested control transactions. He has also acted on a number of going-private transactions involving China-based companies listed in the US. Victor Chen represents private equity sponsors, multinational corporations and institutional investors in their M&A transactions and investments, with a focus on Asia cross-border deals. He has extensive experience in advising private equity, venture and institutional investors in their Greater China and US transactions, and has also been active in going-private deals.
Jonathan Crompton	Reynolds Porter Chamberlain	Proskauer Rose	Dispute Resolution	Jonathan Crompton specialises in banking and finance related disputes, including advising financial services firms on white-collar and regulatory investigations, and cross-border litigation. He also acts for multi-national clients in the communications, media and technology, and sports industries. Jonathan is dual-qualified in England and Hong Kong, having trained at Allen & Overy in London before moving to Hong Kong nine years ago.
Alan Linning	Mayer Brown JSM	Sidley Austin	Dispute Resolution	With more than 25 years of experience, Alan Linning focuses his practice on financial services regulatory matters, investigations and proceedings, as well as commercial litigation. In particular, he advises companies that are facing investigations and are defending civil claims and criminal prosecutions brought by various regulatory agencies, including the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), Hong Kong’s securities regulator; the Hong Kong Monetary Authority; and the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong. His clients include international and Chinese banks, private equity funds, asset and fund managers, and listed companies and their directors. Before his most recent stint in private practice, Alan was the managing director and head of Asia regional compliance at an investment bank. Previously, he served as the executive director of enforcement and a board member of the SFC. Earlier in his career, Alan was the co-head of the dispute resolution practice in the Hong Kong office of another international law firm. He is qualified to practice Hong Kong law and is admitted in Scotland.
Shanghai
May Lu	Simmons & Simmons	McDermott Will & Emery China Law Offices	Employment	May Lu joins from MWE China Law Offices (a strategic alliance with McDermott Will & Emery), where she advised on labour and employment law, investigations and labour arbitrations in China. She works closely with multinationals as well as Chinese clients.
Bangkok
Suraphon Rittipongchusit	Kennedys	DLA Piper	Litigation	Suraphon Rittipongchusit is an insurance and commercial litigation specialist with experience of advising on high profile disputes in Thailand. He acts for major insurers and reinsurers and also has experience in advising on cross-border corporate transactions.
Supreedee Nimitkul	Kennedys	DLA Piper	Corporate &Commercial	Supreedee Nimitkul specialises in corporate and commercial matters and has more than 20 years’ experience on reorganisations, debt restructurings, complex project financing, joint ventures and mergers and acquisitions.
Tokyo
Rika Beppu	Squire Patton Boggs	Hogan Lovells	Corporate	Dual-qualified in the UK and Hong Kong, and a registered foreign lawyer in Japan since 2001, Rika focuses principally on advising Japanese multinational companies on corporate and M&A transactions. Since 2015, Rika has served as the chair of the Legal Services Committee of the European Business Council in Japan. She is also a founding member and chair of Women in Law Japan.