Mishcon de Reya has opened two new offices in the Middle East and been granted a licence to practise as a firm of solicitors by the Law Society of Hong Kong, in a major expansion of its international operations.
The firm said the new offices in Abu Dhabi and Dubai were launched in response to growing client demand as well as the increasing capital, business and family interests and opportunities in the region. They follow the firm establishing a dedicated family office consultancy, MDR Mayfair, in London in 2017.
The new offices will work with international corporations, family offices, families and individuals, offering legal services in corporate, commercial, employment, technology and media, real estate, IP, dispute resolution and private client work.
Christopher Skipper has been appointed managing partner of the UAE offices. Skipper, who joined the firm earlier this year as a consultant from Greenberg Traurig, has more than 20 years’ experience spanning M&A, joint ventures, shareholder arrangements, corporate structuring and reorganisation, corporate governance and private equity.
“Mishcon has advised clients across the Middle East and North Africa for more than 30 years and already has a deep understanding of the market,” Skipper said. “Opening offices in Abu Dhabi and Dubai is a natural development for us, so that we can better serve our clients in the world’s fastest growing global financial centres and wider region.”
Skipper added the firm expected to add new partners and colleagues in the UAE in the coming months.
Meanwhile, in Hong Kong, the firm obtaining its licence comes nearly four years after it entered the market through an association with local firm Karas So, with the intent to become certified to practise local law. Mishcon said the association would continue and offer greater opportunities for mutual collaboration.
The Mishcon de Reya LLP office in Hong Kong will be led by Wei Zhang as managing partner, with partner Jonathan Mok joining from Karas So alongside his team. It will focus on private client, family and non-contentious work, including international tax and wealth planning, immigration, family office advisory, family law, corporate and employment advice.
“Our ambition is to build one of the leading private client firms in Asia,” Zhang said. “We have exceptional lawyers in our Hong Kong firm with skills and experience across all aspects of private client work. And we have the benefit of drawing on the expertise of our colleagues across the world to ensure that we deliver exceptional results for our clients, whatever their need.”
The office will house Hong Kong, English and New York qualified lawyers and, across Singapore and Hong Kong, including the associated office of Karas So, the firm has more than 60 fee-earners in the region.
Karas So, led by managing partner Jason Karas and Kevin So, will continue to focus on dispute resolution including major litigation and international arbitration, insolvency, fraud, asset recovery and professional negligence, with disputes lawyer Mark Davis joining the firm from Mishcon.
Mishcon has also appointed Patrick Yip as Asia vice chair. Yip is admitted as a lawyer in California and is a chartered public accountant who led the Deloitte private tax offering in Hong Kong as vice-chair of Deloitte China before exiting for Mishcon in June. He is expected to grow the firm’s tax and private client offering in Hong Kong and across Asia, with a particular focus on China and the Chinese diaspora.
The moves form part of the growth strategy Mishcon set out last month, which will see it focus on the innovation economy, private wealth and private capital, and real estate over the next five years as well as on internationalisation and maintaining its status as a disputes powerhouse.
Firm chair, Kevin Gold, commented: “With some of the fastest growing economies in the world, Asia and the UAE have never been more important markets. Working alongside our colleagues in Hong Kong, Abu Dhabi and Dubai, our teams across London, Oxford, Cambridge, Singapore, Israel and in MDR Mayfair will all be able to offer clients a truly international service. Our focus is simple: to deliver the highest quality legal services and fiercely guard our clients’ interests.”
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