Wu Yuting, the former leader of Skadden’s Shanghai office, has joined social media platform RedNote as its general counsel and following his departure, sources say, the US-based law firm’s Beijing office will now be solely led by partner Du Shu.
A Skadden spokesperson told ?China Business Law Journal: “Yuting Wu has left the firm to join a client.?We thank Yuting for his contributions to our market-leading China practice and wish him well in his new position.”
This marks the second time in recent years that Skadden’s China team has lost a key figure to a tech company. In April 2022, Julie Gao, Skadden’s former head of China practice and veteran capital markets partner, left to join ByteDance as CFO to assist with its IPO preparations — a move that sent shockwaves through the legal industry.
Wu was originally set to relocate to Beijing alongside Hong Kong-based partner Du as co-managing partners of Skadden’s Beijing office following the closure of its Shanghai branch. Sources said the Beijing office would be solely led by Du, pending approval from China’s Ministry of Justice.
Wu has been with Skadden for nearly 15 years. He specialised in capital markets, M&A and corporate governance, and was particularly familiar with the technology, media and telecommunications sector. His notable deals included DiDi Chuxing’s acquisition of Uber China, Hesai Technology’s Nasdaq IPO, NIO’s strategic equity investment from CYVN Investments and Xiaomi’s HKD42.5 billion share sale.
His RedNote recruitment comes amid speculation that the company is planning to go public. The social media platform, valued at RMB26 billion, has yet to debut on the HKEX, but the recent establishment of its first offshore branch in Hong Kong this year is widely seen as a strong signal of its IPO preparations.
