The New York office of Baker & McKenzie has hired former Asian Development Bank general counsel Barry Metzger.

Metzger's hire is part of Bakers' acquisition of approximately 70 partners and other legal staff from Coudert Brothers' New York office. He joins the firm's banking and finance practice group as a partner bringing over 30 years of international finance and investment transactional experience with a particular focus on the Asia-Pacific region. In his new role, he will frequent the Asia-Pacific offices of his new employer.

Acting for strategic investors and financial institutions expanding their investment activities in Asia and other emerging markets, Metzger also advises Asian investors and financial institutions involved in: international trade, finance and investment transactions; multilateral institutions such as the Asian Development Bank; and has involvement with government advisory work with law reform issues.

He is currently representing the Chinese government's export credit insurance agency and the Chinese bicycle industry in coming to the rescue of the bicycle manufacturers' principal American customer, Huffy Corporation, which will soon emerge from bankruptcy.

Metzger said: "The marriage of Baker & McKenzie's resources in Asia with those of the Coudert partners in New York is directly responsive to the growing international investment activities of many Asian, and particularly Chinese, companies and financial institutions. We're entering a period of dramatic growth of Asian companies' international expansion."

Beginning his career with Coudert in New York in 1974, Metzger took up the reins of general counsel of the Asian Development Bank from 1995 to 1998. During his time at the ADB he was intimately involved in the international financial community's response to the Asian financial crisis, reorganised management of the bank's legal function and expanded the its legal technical assistance to its developing member countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

Metzger returned to Coudert's New York office at the completion of his role in 1999 and has since served as an adviser to the Korean and Russian governments on corporate governance reform, in addition to his work on cross-border investments between Asia and the US.