Shearman & Sterling’s Hong Kong office will gain Hong Kong law capability after it merges with the new law firm of two former O’Melveny & Myers (OMM) lawyers.
Corporate lawyers Colin Law (pictured) and Peter Chen left OMM in late December to launch their own Hong Kong law practice, Colin Law & Co. That firm will be merged into Shearman & Sterling’s Hong Kong office, giving Shearmans a strategic advantage providing a local law service.
Having launched its Hong Kong office in 1978, Shearman & Sterling now intends to build up its office with a critical mass of locally qualified lawyers, required under the Law Society of Hong Kong’s regulations. The move is a major step for the firm as it will provide the six-partner office with an avenue to advise Chinese corporations, focusing on both international and local laws in its principle specialities – M&A and capital markets.
Once Shearman Hong Kong has enough locally qualified lawyers, Law and Chen will be transferred across to Shearman & Sterling, providing the firm with an extra arrow in its quiver. “[The] inability to provide that was an inconvenience previously and we think this will open a lot more opportunities for us,” said Shearman’s Hong Kong managing partner Matthew Bersani. “There’s a market-wide preference for law firms that can service both [local and international laws] as increasingly more deals involve multiple jurisdictions. It’s been an accelerating trend and now a permanent fixture in the Hong Kong legal market. For us it was a ‘need-to-have’, not a ‘nice-to-have’,” Bersani said.
Another international firm to have gained Hong Kong law capability through strategic partner appointments was Weil Gotshal & Manges. In October last year it formed an association with the new law firm of two former Simmons & Simmons lawyers, Henry Ong and Jasson Han. PRC firm King & Wood also saw its three year association with Hong Kong’s Arculli Fong & Ng come to fruition last year, gaining Hong Kong law capability through its merger.
Colin Law joined OMM in 2006, a year after being made partner at Lovells. Both Chen and Law headed up several capital markets deals while at OMM – the duo most recently advised the underwriters in Mingfa Group’s US$276m global offering in February 2009.
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