Anglo-Australian firm Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF), which has announced plans to form a combined firm with New York-based Kramer Levin, has aimed to capitalise on an expanded US practice to further build sectoral expertise in Asia.
This comes 12 years after HSF its New York office, which is currently the Anglo-Australian firm’s sole outfit in the country.
Graeme Preston, HSF’s Asia managing partner based in Tokyo, told 含羞草社区 that HSF set out to grow expertise in sectors such as energy and technology in Asia with Kramer Levin, with companies in both the US and Asia dominating the global technology and energy industries.
“The proposed combination intends to agree an investment plan for both US and international expansion in talent and location to serve clients in these critical sectors (technology and energy) in particular,” said Preston. He added that the expansion of HSF’s presence in Silicon Valley and Washington DC, in which Kramer Levin operates, would match expertise in those sectors.
On 11 November, both firms announced their plans to combine to form a merged entity called Herberth Smith Freehills Kramer, consisting of more than 2,700 lawyers including 640 partners across 25 offices. Kramer Levin, which operates in New York, Silicon Valley, Washington DC and Paris, was founded in 1968, and is currently led by co-managing partners Paul Schoeman in white-collar defence and investigations, and Howard Spilko in M&A and joint ventures.
Subject to a vote of the partners at each of the firms, the merger would see a combined entity focusing on growing key practice areas including disputes and transactional expertise globally, covering private capital, M&A, arbitration, securitisation, restructuring and so on, Herbert Smith Freehills said on 11 November.
The Tokyo-based Asia head said Asia clients were looking to the US market for opportunities and were demanding integrated legal expertise that could advise on deals or disputes in both US and Asian markets.
“It could be a global dispute or investigation that requires US litigation or representation before regulators, an Asia-US joint venture between corporations, or private capital investments into Asia that require US law advice to complete,” said Preston.
HSF currently runs three offices in Greater China, operating in Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai. In mainland China, the firm also has a joint operation established in 2019 with Shanghai-based Kewei Law Firm enabling it to offer Chinese law advice. Justin D’Agostino, the firm’s global chief executive officer, is dually based in Hong Kong and London, with the Hong Kong office also being the base for the Korea group’s global co-chair Dana Kim.
Preston said HSF’s current structure in China would remain unchanged under a merged firm, which would be able to offer enhanced transactional and disputes expertise to China clients.
“The proposed combination would extend our market-leading global disputes practice to the most important courtrooms in America for China clients, from lower Manhattan to Washington DC,” said Preston.
The Anglo-Australian firm also has a Tokyo office, in which current Asia managing partner Preston is based, with 29 lawyers advising practice areas including cross-border M&A, international dispute resolution and energy. In Singapore, it has been operating a formal law alliance with local law firm Prolegis since 2015 with a combined team of 68 lawyers, working with Herbert Smith’s Bangkok branch and associated office with Hiswara Bunjamin & Tandjung in Indonesia. Last year, Prolegis launched a disputes practice with the hiring of litigator Daniel Chia, who is now the alliance firm’s managing director, and three other lawyers from Morgan Lewis.
“Our Asia focus on private capital, energy transition, technology and infrastructure fits very well with Kramer Levin’s strengths and for our future investment plans for the proposed combination,” said Preston.
Kramer Levin’s co-managing partners Schoeman and Spilko did not respond to a request for comment.
