Law firm Ashurst named Jini Lee as a partner in its Hong Kong-based securities and derivatives group to fortify its debt capital markets pratice, the London-headquartered firm said on Friday.
Ashurst wooed Lee away from Linklaters, another UK-based firm, where she gained international capital markets experience as a managing associate working on a range transactions.
She advised both issuers and underwriters whilst at Linklaters, the firm said in a statement.
Working from Linklater's offices in Hong Kong and London, Lee advised clients on medium-term notes, equity-linked transactions and liability management exercises.
Ashurst's new partner is fluent in Mandarin and qualified as a solicitor in Hong Kong. She is also qualified as a solicitor and advocate in Singapore, and as a solicitor in England and Wales.
"The continued growth of the offshore Rmb bond market and the need for China to diversify away from domestic funding for outbound M&A activities means that DCM is a growth area," Paul Jenkins, co-head of the firm's finance division said in the statement.
Lee's page on LinkedIn notes that she joined Linklaters in 2005 and has most recently been working on bond issuance by corporates and financial institutions in Greater China -- a fact which plays into Ashurst's China ambitions. The firm has recently added headcount to its office in Beijing in the hopes to securing business from Chinese banks and international banks operating in China, Jenkins said in the statment.
According to her LinkedIn profile, Lee was seconded to Barclays for ten months from April 2008 to work on various capital market transactions, supporting the British bank's IBD, FIG and DCM desks.
Lee's appointment brings the total number of partners in the firm's Hong Kong office to 16.
