Haiwen & Partners is on the cusp of opening a Hong Kong office next month aimed at securing capital markets, M&A and private equity work.
The new office will be driven by Shenzhen-based partner Lu Guiping, who will register a Hong Kong law firm and enter into an association with Haiwen.
The office is expected to house five partners and an additional 10 lawyers subject to regulatory approval. The firm has also hired counsel Andrew Wood from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, where he is a senior associate acting in M&A and capital markets matters.
Traditionally strongly independent, the outbound trend seems to have caught on to Haiwen & Partners as this will be its first office outside the mainland, and fourth in total, after Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen—the last of which opened over a year ago.