Just as Freshfields announced it had finally wound up its Singapore office to concentrate on the China market, the head of its China practice, Doug Markel, left the firm to head up the newly minted Beijing office of US competitor Simpson Thacher & Bartlett.

Markel's departure is the second China practice head to depart Freshfields in a little over a year, with Michael Moser having left for O'Melveny & Myers in early 2006. The firm also lost previous long-time China practice head Thomas Jones to Allen & Overy last year, when he was heading up the firm's anti-trust, trade and competition practice. At the time, then China head Markel told ALB that Jones was not a core loss to Freshfields, as the firm had decided to focus on the high-end corporate work of its clients, and all the key lawyers that had been essential to the firm's innovative deals were still in place.

The firm responded quickly after Markel's departure to appoint Hong Kong-based dealmaker Teresa Ko as China managing partner, with Chris Wong to step up as Beijing office managing partner, in place of Markel. Clive Rough and Melissa Thomas will remain managing partners of the Hong Kong and Shanghai offices respectively. Ko is a long-serving corporate partner made up in 1993, who has of late been well known for advising on complex global IPO offerings including the listing of Chinese enterprises, such as advising CICC, Morgan Stanley and CCB International Capital on the US$9.2bn global offering of China Construction Bank on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

With corporate and M&A-focused Markel now on board at Simpson Thacher, the new office will focus on M&A, private equity and capital markets transactions for Chinese companies and for international companies and financial investors interested in China. Simpson Thacher senior partner Chris Lin was the resident partner in Beijing, with Markel taking over after moving across. The firm's China group includes capital markets lawyer Leiming Chen, and M&A counsel Shaolin Luo in Beijing. ALB