Asia (LAWFUEL) – DLA Piper’s promotion of 53 lawyers worldwide includes six appointed to its partnership in Asia. In addition to the new partners, another lawyer has been promoted as legal director.
Two lawyers were promoted in each of the Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong offices, with one promoted to partner in Tokyo. Partner and legal director promotions in Asia are highlighted below.
Alastair Da Costa, Asia Managing Director, DLA Piper, said: “These promotions follow a series of recent strategic hires in our Asia offices. They form part of a strategy optimising our team at a time when clients need the best legal and business advice to deal with heightened uncertainty. Asia remains vitally important to companies, which is why we are also deepening our investment, talent, and services here. Well done to the new partners and we look forward to driving success in this region together.”
Promotions in Asia
Beijing
Chris Terry, Partner – Chris has been appointed to DLA Piper’s Greater China Corporate Group based in the firm’s Beijing office. Chris’ principal areas of practice include advising institutional and corporate investors in connection with structuring venture capital and private equity investments and representing acquirers and targets in negotiating and consummating cross-border mergers and acquisitions and foreign investments in China. He has also represented several state-owned enterprises in connection with overseas investments in South America, Southeast Asia and Africa. Clients include AIG Global Investment Corporation (Asia) Ltd., Merrill Lynch (Asia Pacific) Ltd. and JAFCO Investment (Asia Pacific) Ltd.
Sammy Fang, Legal Director – Sammy heads DLA Piper’s litigation & regulatory group in Beijing. He has extensive experience in dispute resolution, having assisted clients in a wide range of industries in China, Hong Kong, Australia, Singapore and Indonesia. Sammy specialises in China-related disputes and forensics and investigations, ranging from product liability, crisis management, customs, joint ventures and other FDI-related disputes, contractual disputes, corporate frauds, labour disputes and arbitration (particularly class action claims by employees), problems regarding acquisition of land, liquidation-related issues and problems and compliance. Sammy speaks fluent English and Mandarin.
Hong Kong
William Leung, Partner – William joined DLA Piper in 2001. He handles a wide range of contentious matters including disputes involving commercial and building construction matters with a particular emphasis in marine and air transport and related insurance matters. His experience also includes specialising in family law (divorce, custody and ancillary relief matters) with emphasis on acting for clients with substantial cross-border assets. William’s clients include Bank of China Insurance, Royal Sun Alliance, QBE Hongkong and Shanghai Insurance Ltd.
Michael Yau, Partner – Michael specialises in banking and finance law, including syndicated and bilateral lending, international trade finance, structured commodities finance, factoring, account receivables financing, acquisition finance and various general banking and compliance matters. Michael has worked with many local and international banks. His clients include Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) Ltd., KBC Bank N.V. and Standard Bank (Asia) Ltd.
Shanghai
Claudio d’Agostino, Partner – Claudio has been based in China for over 10 years and has been engaged in a broad variety of commercial and corporate matters, focusing on joint ventures (“JV”), M&A and restructurings. Claudio also advises on consumer goods matters, including those related to the fashion, food and beverage industries, in particular covering full range of transactions including those related to manufacturing, distribution, retail and franchising. Claudio’s clients include Illva S.p.A., Inticom S.p.A. and Marzotto Group. A member of the Milan Bar, Claudio is admitted as a qualified foreign lawyer in China. He is fluent in Italian, English and Mandarin.
Kit Kwok, Partner – Kit will be based in Shanghai yet will spend significant time working with other members of the corporate team in DLA Piper’s Beijing and Hong Kong offices. His expertise includes advising multinationals on legal and regulatory issues related to their investment and commercial activities in China, including mergers & acquisitions, joint ventures and general company representation matters. Kit joins DLA Piper from Roosevelt Sino Retailers where he was Chief Operating Officer and Legal Counsel overseeing all legal and operation matters for the company.
Tokyo
Hajime Iwaki, Partner – Hajime joined DLA Piper in November 2006. His principal areas of practice are corporate restructuring, M&A and dispute resolution. He has worked on matters such as global spin-offs of multinational companies, regional post-integration of global acquisitions, workout negotiations of distressed companies, bankruptcy trustee activities, court representations in local courts in employment and commercial litigation. His experience also includes copyright, licensing, cyber-space and privacy protection laws. Hajime’s practice frequently involves working with technology and software companies in the media and entertainment industries. Hajime is admitted in Japan and California. He is fluent in English.
