Slaughter and May Hong Kong corporate partner Laurence Rudge has left the firm to join supply chain manager Li & Fung as deputy general counsel.
In his new role Rudge will work closely with Li & Fung general counsel Marcus Tsang, who has been in the top job for five years. Li & Fung is a global supply chain manager for US and European retailers including Walmart and Marks & Spencer.
Rudge started his legal career with Slaughters in London in 1997 as a trainee. He was relocated to the firm’s Hong Kong office in 2002 and was made up to partner in 2008. His practice centred on corporate and capital markets transactions, IPOs, debt offerings and M&A transactions.
Li & Fung has a long-standing relationship with legacy Hong Kong firm JSM and the relationship was transferred to Mayer Brown JSM following the firms merging in 2008. It is understood Li & Fung has not used Slaughter and May for any major transactions in the past.
Prior to Rudge’s departure, the previous Hong Kong partner to have left Slaughters was corporate partner Paul Chow who joined Linklaters in 2006 and later moved to Davis Polk & Wardwell in 2011.