The Lawyer (UK) and other legal media have reported that…
US and international firm Kirkland & Ellis is to open in Shanghai in November to create its second Asia office.
Corporate partner XY Li, formerly of Jun He Law Offices in Beijing and King & Wood, will? be relocating from Hong Kong to lead the launch. He will be joined by fellow corporate partner Chuan Li.
XY Li
The Lawyer reports:
The move is a significant one for the Chicago-headquartered firm, which has a conservative approach to international expansion.
Its Hong Kong office was opened three years ago on the back of its private equity business. Since then the firm has acted on Asia investments for a raft of private equity houses, including Bain Capital, Oaktree Capital, Golden Gate Capital, GTCR, Silver Lake Partners and Sun Capital.
Kirkland?s move will be seen in its wider context of increasing opportunities for foreign investors into China, with several recent launches of renminbi (RMB) demoninated funds. Earlier this year Blackstone formed its first RMB regional private equity fund in Shanghai.
Hong Kong private equity partner David Patrick Eich told The Lawyer: ?China is a complex place in which to do a deal. Boots on the ground are critical.
?It?s pretty simple: we follow our clients, they?re investing heavily in China, and Shanghai is the financial capital of China.?
http://www.thelawyer.com/kirkland-and-ellis-launches-in-shanghai/1001783.article?nl=TL-LND
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Here’s Li’s profile at the K&E site
Professional Profile
Xiaoyang (“XY”) Li, the senior Chinese corporate partner of Kirkland & Ellis International LLP, has more than 20 years of experience advising clients in China.
Kirkland’s China Practice Group now numbers more than 25 lawyers across multiple practice groups worldwide, most of whom are native Chinese and speak Mandarin.
Mr. Li, who is resident in the Hong Kong office, represents private equity funds and international and domestic public and private companies in mergers and acquisitions and other complex corporate matters in China.
Mr. Li joined Kirkland from Jun He Law Offices in Beijing, one of China’s leading M&A firms, where he was a senior partner. Prior to Jun He Law Offices, he was the managing partner of the corporate practice group and a member of the management committee of King & Wood, the largest law firm in China.
