Peng's hire will further strengthen the firm's private equity franchise in Asia
Kirkland & Ellis has hired private equity and M&A lawyer Peng Yu as a partner in its Hong Kong office. Focusing on Greater China, Yu has extensive experience in advising global and regional private equity and corporate clients on a wide range of strategically important transactions, including buyouts, take-privates, PIPEs, growth capital investments, divestitures, joint ventures and other cross-border transactions. He is joining Kirkland from the Hong Kong office of Ropes & Gray LLP.
“Peng’s market stature, experience and energy will help us deepen and expand relationships in Asia with leading global and regional private equity funds as well as marquee corporate clients,” said Jon A. Ballis, chairman of Kirkland’s executive committee. “Our leading private equity platform continues to attract top talent, like Peng, across the U.S., Europe and Greater China — a key region for our international strategy.”
Kirkland’s footprint in Asia consists of more than 140 lawyers and other legal professionals in Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai handling cross-border private equity/M&A, capital markets, fund formation and financing transactions, as well as complex restructuring, litigation and white collar matters.
“Our strategy in Asia is to focus on a diverse range of high-end, high-value transactions and litigation matters. We have built a strong private equity franchise in Asia known for handling the most complex and cutting-edge transactions. Having Peng join us represents another milestone of our growth in the region,” said Hong Kong-based transactional partner David Zhang.
“We are thrilled to add Peng to our market-leading transactional platform,” said Hong Kong-based transactional partner Gary Li. “With Peng’s deep experience and recognition in the market, he will bolster our China private equity brand by enhancing our capabilities in serving the increasingly diverse and sophisticated needs of our private equity clients.”
