The Magic Circle law firm has appointed William Liu as head of China. He is replacing corporate partner, Fang Jian who is retiring. In his new role, Mr Liu, also the head of Capital Markets Asia, will oversee the firm’s strategy and vision for China as well as sitting on the Linklaters’ Asia Executive Committee, responsible for key management decisions to help shape the firm’s strategy and vision across the region. He has led transactions such as the recent landmark US dollar bond issue by the China Ministry of Finance. He has been involved in an extensive range of public debt, equity and equity-linked transactions as well as private and proprietary illiquid and PIPE investments in the China region involving both PRC and overseas issuers.

Strong leadership

Nathalie Hobbs, Asia panaging partner said: 'I am excited to confirm William’s appointment. As well as the strong leadership, energy and dynamism he will bring to the role, as demonstrated by the growth and strength of the capital markets practice, his experience advising clients in the mainland and Hong Kong is ideally suited to the firm’s ambitions to grow and develop our already impressive China offering. William’s background will enable us to have the teams across China work even more closely together and enable us to achieve our goal of being the leading firm in China across all areas.'  Linklaters has a team of over 200 lawyers working across China’s three major business centres: Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong.