HSA Advocates has added Vatsal Gaur as an associate partner, operating out of the firm’s Delhi office. In the process, Gaur merges his independent practice with the firm. With over eight years of experience in corporate commercial and M&A transactions, Gaur specialises in PE investment transactions, having acted for diverse PE funds, VC and Angel investors across the entire spectrum of the investment and divestment cycle. He assists clients in transaction structuring, contract negotiations and drafting, advising on applicable legal and regulatory frameworks, corporate and commercial issues and transaction management. Gaur was running his independent practice for over two years, prior to which he had worked with Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan, Khaitan & Co and JSA.
King & Wood Mallesons has added Katherine Ke in its banking and finance practice in Hong Kong. She joins from Clifford Chance and has over 15 years of experience advising Chinese and multinational clients on cross-border financing transactions. Native in Mandarin and fluent in English, Ke represents lead arrangers, lenders, sponsors and corporates in a range of Chinese inbound and outbound transactions, including general syndicated loans, project finance, structured finance, trade finance and receivables finance. She also has a particular focus in asset finance and the aviation sector.
K&L Gates has added Guiping Lu as a corporate/capital markets partner in its Hong Kong office. Joining from the Hong Kong office of Beijing-based Haiwen & Partners, Lu focuses his practice on equity and debt capital market deals and cross-border M&As, in addition to advising clients on private equity, pre-IPO, venture capital financing and various US securities law matters.
Reed Smith has added Mark West as a partner in its litigation practice in Hong Kong. West has extensive experience in advising and representing Hong Kong-listed companies, multinational companies and high net-worth individuals on a wide array of regulatory investigations, high-value and complex commercial litigation and arbitration, white collar crimes and fraud investigations, and prosecution defense. Previously co-head of regulatory at Kennedys in Hong Kong, he is a member of the Law Society of Hong Kong. He was admitted to the court in Hong Kong in 2002 and in England and Wales in 2009. West attended the University of Southampton and the College of Law in the UK, and the Chinese University of Hong Kong.