https://www.law.com/international/sites/international/2017/12/04/reed-smith-names-hong-kong-partner-as-new-asia-pacific-head/

Reed Smith has appointed Hong Kong partner Denise Jong to be the firm’s next managing partner for the Asia Pacific.

Jong will take over on Jan. 1, 2018, from incumbent Roger Parker, who has overseen Asia from his base in London over the past decade. She will be the first Asia-based partner to hold a regional leadership position since the 2008 merger of Pittsburgh-based Reed Smith and U.K. firm Richards Butler.

 “We’ve always felt that there will come a time when Asia will reach a sufficient critical mass with enough boots on the ground and [we will have] a managing partner in Asia to deal with issues from the region,” said Jong. “We’ve actually reached that milestone.”

The firm’s Hong Kong office, still branded as Reed Smith Richards Butler, negotiated and merged with the U.S. firm separately from the legacy U.K. firm. Hong Kong and a small Beijing office were at the time the firm’s only base in Asia. In 2012, four years into the merger, three Hong Kong partners, including former office senior partner Chris Howse, left to launch their own practice.

A Richards Butler partner in Hong Kong since 1998, Jong advises on China-related corporate transactions, including securities offers and mergers and acquisitions. In 2016, she advised longtime firm client Dalian Wanda Group Co. Ltd. on a $4.4 billion deal to take subsidiary Dalian Wanda Commercial Properties Co. Ltd. private from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

In long-running proceedings that ended earlier in 2017, Reed Smith’s Hong Kong office also successfully defended Chinese investment company Citic Ltd. against market misconduct allegations brought up by the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission.

Jong said the firm’s Asia practice set itself apart from peers by having a stable mix of local clients and not relying heavily on referrals from the rest of the world into the region.