Ashurst has substantially bolstered its energy and infrastructure offering with the hire of five partners across the UK and Asia, as the firm responds to client demand driven by the accelerating transition to net zero. All joining from Shearman and Sterling are London-based project finance expert Sanja (Sonny) Udovicic, Seoul-based Anna Chung, Singapore-based Jean-Louis Neves Mandelli and Scott Baggett, and London-based energy M&A and project development expert Julia Derrick, who returns to Ashurst. Chung was a partner in the Project Development & Finance practice in her previous firm. She concentrates her practice in the development and financing of projects, with a focus on the power, infrastructure, LNG, oil & gas and petrochemical sectors. She represents sponsors and lenders, and numerous regional development banks and multilateral institutions, such as K-EXIM, K-Sure, KDB and IFC. Mandelli was the Singapore Managing Partner at Shearman & Sterling, and a partner in its Project Development & Finance practice group. He has extensive experience advising both sponsors and lenders (including DFIs and ECAs) on all development and financing aspects of power (including LNG to power, conventional and renewables), oil & gas and infrastructure transactions worldwide, as well as advising on structured financings, refinancings and sustainable and sustainability-linked financings. Baggett was counsel in his previous firm’s Project Development & Finance practice. He has a wide variety of financing and development experience spanning projects across a number of industries, with an emphasis on the power, petrochemicals, oil & gas and mining & metals sectors. He has also advised on a number of joint venture and M&A transactions, as well as restructurings and refinancings. He has extensive experience...

HFW has continued to strengthen its leading global aerospace practice with the hire of senior partner Peter Coles, one of the market’s top aviation regulatory and disputes experts. Coles joined on May 15, 2023 from Clyde & Co, where he headed the firm’s APAC aviation practice. He previously spent more than eight years as an aerospace partner at HFW. Coles has more than 30 years’ experience advising on a wide range of contentious and non-contentious aviation issues, including regulatory, employment, insurance, commercial and transactional, contingency planning and emergency response, investigations and prosecutions, multi-jurisdictional claims and disputes, enforcement, insolvency and bankruptcy proceedings, parting out and end-of-life. He acts for major international airlines, operators, MROs, business and private aviation companies, and other industry clients. Coles is dual-qualified in England and Hong Kong, and is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical...

HFW has expanded its Australian Employment practice with the hire of partner Simon Billing, who is recognised as one of the leading specialist industrial relations, safety and employment law solicitors in Perth. Billing has over 30 years of employee relations experience, both as a legal practitioner in private practice and employee relations consultant for the Australian Resources & Energy Group. In addition to advising clients in the firm’s core sectors, particularly mining, oil and gas, shipping and maritime, engineering and construction, he also acts for clients in the hospitality, health, education and telecommunication sectors. Billing brings with him a team that includes a specialist workplace...

Carey Olsen has welcomed expert litigator Tim Haynes, who has joined the firm as a partner in the dispute resolution and litigation team in the Hong Kong SAR office. Haynes has over 20 years’ experience representing a wide range of Asia Pacific-based clients in all aspects of commercial dispute resolution under the laws of Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands. He advises on high value, cross-border management, shareholder, commercial, insolvency and corporate restructuring disputes, often with a connection to China and Hong Kong. Haynes is the former head of the Insolvency and Dispute Resolution Group at Walkers in Hong Kong. Immediately prior to joining the firm, he was a partner at Kobre & Kim (Hong Kong), a multi-jurisdictional dispute resolution and investigations practice. Haynes was admitted as a solicitor in England and Wales (non-practising), and called to the bar in Hong Kong in 2003 (non-practising), and was admitted as an attorney in the Cayman Islands in 2009. He has been a practising solicitor of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court since...

Squire Patton Boggs has added Lian Yok Tan as a partner. She joins from K&L Gates, where she was global co-head of the energy, infrastructure and resources practice. With almost 30 years’ experience in the energy and infrastructure industries, Tan has advised on a wide range of projects, including renewable, hydrogen, LNG, power, oil and gas, infrastructure, mining and technology matters. Acting for government-linked corporations, financial institutions and private companies, she has significant experience advising on project development and construction, as well as financing, including project, structured, trade and asset financing and derivatives. Tan was admitted to the New York bar in 2000, and as a solicitor in England and Wales in 2002.  She is an advocate and solicitor in Singapore, and was also admitted in Malaysia. Tan is a Fellow of the Singapore Institute of Arbitrators (SIArb), and has completed the Singapore Chamber of Maritime Arbitration (SCMA)’s Maritime Arbitrator Accreditation...