Three Hogan Lovells energy and project finance partners and two associates have defected to Jones Day in Singapore.
James Harris, Bruce Schulberg, Alex Cull, Julien Reidy and Kanyi Lui will all join Jones Day as partners.
Harris is Hogan Lovells’ Asia head of infrastructure, energy, resources and projects (IERP). He was the firm’s Singapore managing partner for 11 years until 2014 when private equity partner Stephanie Keen took over the role.
Schulberg and Cull joined Hogan Lovells’ energy and resources practice as lateral hires. Schulberg joined in 2012 from Clifford Chance and Cull in 2014 from Norton Rose Fulbright.
The three partners will be joined by two senior lawyers, Reidy in Singapore and Lui in Beijing. They were both counsel at Hogan Lovells but will become partners following the move. Reidy was previously Hogan Lovells’ Philippines desk head in Singapore, while Lui is experienced in advising Chinese financial institutions.
Jones Day Singapore head Sushma Jobanputra said: “The energy and infrastructure outlook for South and East Asian countries is buoyant with an estimated US$500bn infrastructure spend over the next 10 years according to an Asian Development Bank report.
“There has been an exponential increase in private and government investment in these sectors on the back of significant reforms and rapidly growing demographics,” she added.
Hogan Lovells’ Asia regional managing partner Patrick Sherrington confirmed the departures, adding: “We still have a large practice in Asia with 75 partners, and the projects practice is important to us.
“We are committed to Asia and the projects practice. In one sense it’s an opportunity for restructuring and to allow bright young people to come through to the partnership,” Sherrington said.
Hogan Lovells recently relocated projects partner Samantha Campbell from its Ho Chi Minh City office to Singapore. Campbell joined the firm’s IERP practice last year in Vietnam from French firm Gide Loyrette Nouel.
Meanwhile sources close to Jones Day said the firm has been pushing its energy and project finance practices in Asia in recent months.
In Beijing, the firm added two energy partners from King & Wood Mallesons, Dirk Walker and Dina Yin, in March this year.
However Jones Day has lost a number of partners recently in Singapore. These include capital markets partner and head of India Manoj Bhargava, who has joined Sidley Austin with three lawyers, and construction disputes partner Emerson Holmes, who moved to King & Spalding in January 2016 just one year after he joined Jones Day from Nabarro.
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