HSF announces new regional head for South East Asia
Herbert Smith Freehills has announced a new head for its south-east Asia region. Current litigation partner Alistair Henderson takes over from Michael Walter who is retiring from the firm next year and will stay in Singapore until then. Henderson has been with the firm for many years having joined legacy Herbert Smith in 1999. He has extensive knowledge of the market having also worked in Hong Kong and Beijing.
Another global duo plan to merge
International law firms Locke Lord and Edwards Wildman have signed letters of intent to merge. If approved by partners the combination would occur in early 2015 with Locke’s current chair Jerry Clements continuing in that role in the new firm, which would be called Locke Lord Edwards. The merged firm would have gross revenues of approximately US$675 million, placing it among the top 50 US law firms. It would have around 1000 lawyers in 23 locations worldwide, including Hong Kong where both firms currently have offices. The plan is the latest in a series of mergers and acquisitions for US firms; yesterday we reported the speculation of a tie-up between Bingham McCutcheon and Morgan Lewis & Bockius.
New corporate partner at Hogan Lovells
Hogan Lovells has announced that partner Steven Tran will join its Hong Kong corporate practice next week. Tran specialises in private equity and M&A across a broad range of sectors and joins the firm from Kirkland & Ellis.
Pizza firm claims conflict of interest for law firm
A pizza firm that was targeted by computer hackers is claiming that its former law firm has a conflict of interests. Fox Rothschild had represented Zpizza and was therefore privy to confidential information; it is now representing the son of a Russian lawmaker charged with hacking into US companies. Fox Rothschild says that there is no conflict of interest as Zpizza is no longer its client and the lawyers who worked with the company previously have been barred from communicating with those in the hacking case. A US district court will now make the decision in a hearing later this month.
