Linklaters Hong Kong partner Christopher Kelly has joined White & Case to head up the US firm’s corporate practice in Asia.
Kelly is one of the three partners who retired from Linklaters’ partnership at the beginning of this year. He is joining White & Case’s Hong Kong office to become the firm’s Asia corporate head.
Kelly spent over 20 years of his career with Linklaters, where he started in London in 1995 and was made up in 2000 before relocating to Hong Kong in 2004.
Among the major M&A and equity capital markets transactions he has acted on, the $20.5bn spin-off by AIG of its Asian insurance arm AIA group and Rio Tinto’s proposed acquisition of a $19.5bn strategic stake by Chinalco stand out.
He will rejoin former Linklaters Hong Kong private equity partner Peggy Wong, who left the magic circle firm for White & Case at the beginning of 2015.
Since the beginning of 2015, a string of partners have left Linklaters’ Hong Kong office for a rival firm. Most recently, debt finance partner David Irvine left the firm to join Kirkland & Ellis.
Other partners to have left during the past year include capital markets partner Jon Gray who moved to Davis Polk & Wardwell’s Tokyo office and Asia US securities head David Ludwick who jumped ship to Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.
Linklaters also lost two partners from Beijing, with projects partner James Douglass joining King & Wood Mallesons’ London office and banking finance partner Thomas Ng leaving for Freshfields’ Hong Kong office.
In addition, a number of managing associates and counsel in Hong Kong also moved to rival firms. Counsel Kyungseok Kim and managing associate Jini Lee, for example, have been made partner at White & Case and Ashurst respectively.