Next stop, Hong Kong

Weil, Gotshal & Manges announced the opening of its office in Hong Kong in December, continuing its expansion into Asia to better serve its private equity clients in the midst of their own entry into the region.
Akiko Mikumo is managing partner for Asia and head of the Hong Kong office.
Mikumo will be joined by David Meredith, a corporate partner from Shanghai who specializes in securities financings, and Peter Feist, a corporate partner from New York who focuses on private equity and mergers & acquisitions. The firm first established offices in Asia, three and half years ago, in Shanghai.
“When we were looking to first expand into the greater China region, we discovered a terrific talent in Steve Xiang who was based in Shanghai, so we decided to start there,” says Mikumo.
Xiang would go on to build a team of around 25 attorneys in Shanghai, and pave the way for the Hong Kong office. “We always knew that Hong Kong was important – and as more of our clients saw the growth opportunities for their
businesses in Asia, the firm focused its attention on expanding in Asia and adding a Hong Kong office,” says Mikumo.
As much as the mantra for many firms entering Asia for the first time has been to staff locally, the firm eschewed that approach. “We had internally bred attorneys that were conversant with our current clients that we wanted to deploy,” says Mikumo. She explains that while they explored the option of hiring locally, expert private equity lawyers with the right combination of skills were hard to source. “So we relied on the best and the brightest attorneys in New York and elsewhere that were also internationally minded.”
While they may have founded the Hong Kong office with Western talent, they collaborate closely with local lawyers. “The influx of private equity firms, along with the increase in corporate activity, has really created significant legal demands in many local markets. So we’re looking to work alongside the local firms, and together provide seamless counsel to our clients,” says Feist.
The new Hong Kong office will also have a broader mandate. “The Hong Kong office will focus beyond just greater China to all of Asia, including places such as Southeast Asia, Japan and India,” he explains.
With plans already underway for a Beijing office in 2008, the firm is pursuing the same bullish approach to the continent as the deal makers it represents.