| DLA Piper has appointed Wan Li as a partner in its China team. Wan Li is an expert in corporate transactions relating to Greater China, with a focus on the infrastructure, natural resources and energy sectors. With over 20 years of experience in the natural resources and energy sectors in both China and Australia, he will lead the firm’s corporate team in advising clients on M&A, private equity and corporate matters, including restructuring, on both domestic and multi-jurisdictional transactions across the region.
K&L Gates LLP has added Michael J. Pollen and Christopher Tung as dispute resolution partners in the firm’s Singapore and Hong Kong offices, respectively. Pollen, a qualified solicitor in Hong Kong and England and Wales, joins K&L Gates from DLA Piper in Singapore. Tung, who has been based in Hong Kong since 1992, arrives at the firm after 13 years with Mallesons Stephen Jaques. Pollen has arbitrated on marine law and construction issues for more than 35 years, with a focus on shipbuilding, offshore oil and gas, ship repair and conversion, and ship sale and purchase. An experienced projects and dispute resolution practitioner, Tung handles contentious aspects of building, infrastructure, clean energy, and carbon finance projects throughout Asia. He is one of only a few globally recognized sustainability, environmental, and climate change lawyers based in Asia. Vinson & Elkins has appointed Ahmed T. el-Gaili, and Jay T. Kolb as partners. el-Gaili, who joins the firm from Sullivan & Cromwell, will be located in the UAE. He has extensive experience in M&As and project development and financing, with a focus on projects in energy and the Middle East. He has advised on landmark energy project financing transactions in the Middle East and Caspian region, including the Dolphin gas project between Qatar and the UAE, Yemen LNG in Yemen, and Tengizchevroil in Kazakhstan. A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, el-Gaili also worked in the Global Energy Group at Morgan Stanley in New York where he provided investment banking advice on mergers and acquisitions for energy companies. A native speaker of Arabic, he lived in Saudi Arabia for more than 16 years. Kolb, who will be based in the firm’s Shanghai office, is a pre-eminent international M&A, project development and finance lawyer with deep expertise in the energy industry. He was a lawyer at Baker Botts for 25 years, where he opened and served as the partner-in-charge of three of the firm’s international offices in Moscow, London, and Baku. Kolb’s experience includes advising one of the world’s largest energy companies on the formation of a $2 billion joint venture to own and operate an LNG terminal and pipeline system in Texas, as well as other LNG projects in North America, Europe, and the Middle East. He also was the lead corporate legal advisor to a consortium of energy companies that constructed and operates the $4 billion Balu-Tbilisi-Ceyhan crude oil pipeline system. |
