Morrison & Foerster Adds Partners Across its Three China Offices; Continues Strengthening Local Corporate and Finance Practices

USA - English

• USA - English

HONG KONG, May 21, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Morrison & Foerster, a leading global law firm, is pleased to announce that Ke Huang, Ruomu Li, and Lucy (Qiong) Lu have joined the firm as partners. Mr. Huang joins Morrison & Foerster's Hong Kong office in its Capital Markets practice. Mses. Li and Lu both join the firm's Corporate practice, and are based in the Shanghai and Beijing offices, respectively. Between them, Mr. Huang, Ms. Li, and Ms. Lu bring to Morrison & Foerster a wealth of combined experience across Hong Kong and U.S. capital markets, and People's Republic of China (PRC) corporate and Private Equity and Venture Capital (PE/VC) transactions.

"I am delighted that we have added these three talented lawyers to our team in China," said Eric Piesner, Morrison & Foerster's Asia managing partner. "Ke, Ruomu, and Lucy all bring to the firm strong U.S. and China legal experience advising clients in the technology and life sciences sectors, which aligns with our clients' inbound and outbound investments and capital raising needs in the region. Their arrivals underscore the firm's commitment to China, where we have been operating since 1983."

Ke Huang Grows the Firm's China Capital Markets Practice

Mr. Huang's Hong Kong-based practice spans capital markets transactions, including Hong Kong IPOs, U.S. IPOs, and debt capital markets matters. He advises equity capital market clients across a variety of sectors such as biotech, healthcare, and technology. Mr. Huang's debt capital markets experience includes investment-grade offerings, high-yield offerings, perpetual securities, liability management, convertible bonds, exchangeable bonds, RMB bonds, and AT1 preference shares, among others. He has advised issuers from the PRC, Hong Kong, and Southeast Asia, with an increasing focus on investment-grade offerings from the PRC in recent years.

"Hong Kong continues to be one of the leading global financial centers and a buoyant IPO market," said Timothy Blakely, managing partner of Morrison & Foerster's Hong Kong office. "Ke's broad capital markets experience across both equity and debt will strengthen both our local capital markets and corporate practices, and will help us continue to meet our clients' needs in these key areas."

Ruomu Li and Lucy Lu Expand the Firm's China Corporate Practice

Qualified in California and New York, Ms. Li started her career in Silicon Valley before she moved to Asia. Her Shanghai-based practice covers mergers and acquisitions, strategic investments, private equity transactions, and venture capital investments with a focus on the technology and life sciences sectors. She typically represents strategic and financial investors, and public and private companies, in mergers and acquisitions, strategic investments, and joint venture transactions in both the U.S. and China. Ms. Li also advises investors and early-stage and late-stage private companies in equity and debt investments, restructurings, exit transactions, and other general corporate matters.

Ms. Lu's Beijing-based practice focuses on a broad range of PRC-related corporate matters, including M&A, foreign direct investment, private equity, corporate restructuring, and general corporate matters. She also has extensive experience in PRC real estate, regulatory, and employment issues. Qualified in New York and Hong Kong, and having passed the PRC bar, Ms. Lu typically represents multinational corporations and financial institutions on their entering into the Chinese market. In recent years, Ms. Lu also has represented a number of Chinese companies on their overseas investments and acquisitions.

"We are seeing greater demand for support from our Chinese clients as they become more active overseas, investing in companies, acquiring technologies, and interacting with government regulators in the U.S. and elsewhere," added Paul McKenzie, managing partner of the firm's Beijing and Shanghai offices. "We are also seeing major growth in demand from private equity and VC clients, both on inbound and outbound transactions involving China. Adding Ruomu and Lucy to our China offices is an important step as we continue to enhance our corporate offering in mainland China to both Chinese and international clients."

MOFO IN CHINA
Morrison & Foerster was among the first U.S. law firms to establish an office in each of China's major business centers: Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong. Having advised on major matters in greater China for 36 years, the firm has more than 50 multilingual attorneys in the region. MoFo is ranked in Tier 1 for TMT in leading independent directories such as Chambers Asia Pacific and The Legal 500 Asia Pacific. Further, the firm is recognized by Chambers Asia Pacific 2019 as an Elite Firm for Corporate/M&A among international firms in China. Refinitiv (formerly Thomson Reuters) ranked MoFo as the #1 international law firm for any Chinese involvement M&A deal-by-deal value in both Q1 2018 and Q1 2019. Bloomberg ranked the firm as the #1 M&A firm by deal volume and market share for any Asia Pacific involvement in Q1 2018. MoFo was also named 2018 "Deal Firm of the Year" at ALB's Hong Kong Law Awards, and was recognized as advisor to the 2018 "Private Equity Deal of the Year" by China Law & Practice Awards, as well as the 2018 "M&A Deal of the Year for North Asia and South Asia" by The Asian Lawyer.

ABOUT MOFO
We are Morrison & Foerster — a global firm of exceptional credentials. Our clients include some of the largest financial institutions, investment banks, and Fortune 100, technology, and life sciences companies. The Financial Times has named the firm to its list of most innovative law firms in North America every year that it has published its Innovative Lawyers Reports in the region; the most recent edition of the FT Innovative Lawyers Asia-Pacific Report also recognizes the firm in its list of most innovative international law firms. In the past few years, Chambers USA has honored MoFo's Privacy and Data Security, Bankruptcy, and IP teams with Firm of the Year awards, the Corporate/M&A team with a client service award, and the firm as a whole as Global USA Firm of the Year. Our lawyers are committed to achieving innovative and business-minded results for our clients, while preserving the differences that make us stronger. The firm also has a long history of commitment to the community through providing pro bono legal services, including litigating for civil rights and civil liberties, improving public education for poor children, advocating for veterans, promoting international human rights, winning asylum for the persecuted, and safeguarding the environment.

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