Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas has added Swati Sharma as a partner and head of its Intellectual Property Practice, along with a team of highly experienced and qualified IP attorneys and engineers under her. To be based in the firm’s Delhi-NCR office, Sharma comes with almost two decades of experience in IP. Sharma and her teams’ experience ranges from IP transactional and commercial, strategy and disputes to prosecution. Over the years, she has been involved in prestigious IP re-branding, brand adoption, IP strategy, tie-ups, IP M&A, IP disputes, business set up and commercial transactions involving IP, and has most recently been associated with the Air India re-branding project. She is also credited for getting well-known declarations before the Trademarks Office in India for marks such as TCS, The Tata T Logo and Flipkart. Sharma is a 2007 graduate of the Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha...

Mayer Brown has added Allison Lee as a partner in its Corporate & Securities practice. With 15 years’ experience advising public and private companies and private equity firms on cross-border M&A, joint ventures, strategic investments, distribution arrangements and secondary sale transactions across Asia, Lee joins from Debevoise & Plimpton, where she was a member of the firm’s Corporate Department, and Private Equity and M&A Groups in Hong Kong. She speaks Mandarin, and is admitted to practice as an attorney in New York and as a solicitor in Hong Kong. A partner with Mayer Brown, she will become a partner of Mayer Brown Hong Kong upon completion of the relevant requirements with the Law Society of Hong...

Yoon & Yang has added leading international construction and arbitration expert Joseph Lee in the firm’s head office in Seoul, South Korea. A dual-licensed lawyer admitted in New York (2011) and England and Wales (2022), Lee has re-joined the firm as a partner after having worked at international law firms, such as K&L Gates and Pinsent Masons in their Doha offices for eight and a half years from 2015 to 2023. During this period, he successfully represented construction contractors in major international arbitral proceedings in various fora, including the ICC, LCIA, DIFC and QICCA. Lee also advised many Korean companies undertaking major construction projects in the Middle East region in resolving the difficulties and challenges they face during the execution of those projects. He is also an excellent front-end projects lawyer who has ample experience in developing project, construction and project finance documentation. Lee’s most notable and high-profile cases include advising a Korean contractor JV, comprised of four major construction companies in Korea, on the Karbala Oil Refinery Plant in Iraq, where he successfully advised the JV by preparing the strategic roadmap, claims documentation and various legal position papers, so that the JV could successfully negotiate a contract amendment for an additional US1.5 billion with a state entity there. His efforts were pivotal for the JV in resolving the dispute commercially, rather than escalating it to a formal dispute resolution procedure. Lee also successfully represented an international client in three arbitral proceedings, in respect of Umm Al Houl IWPP project in Qatar (a power and desalination plant) before renowned arbitrators, such as Sir Robert Akenhead or Sir Rupert Jackson....

Clifford Chance has added Philip Podzebenko as a partner in the firm’s corporate practice in Sydney. As one of Australia’s foremost real estate and infrastructure M&A lawyers, Podzebenko will add senior capabilities in real estate and infrastructure investments, deepen relationships with private capital investors and strengthen the firm’s market-leading offerings in private equity, energy transition and infrastructure. He brings more than 20 years of experience advising private capital and strategic investors on real asset M&A, public M&A and capital markets transactions. He has advised leading pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, private equity, investment banks, insurers and other financial investors on real asset investments, both in Australia and across Asia. In the infrastructure space, Podzebenko has advised clients on investments in the transportation, energy, telecommunications and digital infrastructure sectors. He joins from Herbert Smith Freehills in...

K&L Gates has added Paul Haswell as a partner in its Hong Kong office. Haswell joins from Seyfarth Shaw (Hong Kong), where he was head of its regional technology practice, handling both contentious and non-contentious technology matters. Haswell has been practicing in Hong Kong for more than 12 years, and is dual qualified in Hong Kong and England and Wales. He is a well-known technology lawyer in Asia who advises clients on wide-ranging issues, including data and cybersecurity, telecommunications, outsourcing, licensing, cloud and datacenters, and evolving technologies, such as artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency and blockchain. He has worked on major technology disputes that have been resolved through litigation, arbitration and mediation. Haswell also regularly speaks and presents on technology matters across Asia, on topics ranging from cloud computing and data protection to social media and AI.   Read a recent interview with Paul Haswell, published in IHC Magazine. Getting To Know…Paul Haswell....