Mayer Brown has just made public the arrival of two partners from other firms. Guoging Li, formerly a partner in Jingtian & Gongcheng, has joined the Beijing office as a consultant. Meanwhile, former Herbert Smith partner Betty Tam is taking up the post of partner in the Shanghai office. She has, according to Mayer Brown, 'more than 12 years of experience advising on cross-border M&As and foreign direct investment matters in the People’s Republic of China. She has extensive experience advising multinationals on issues relating to their investment in Mainland China, including acquisition and divestment of Chinese companies, formation of joint ventures and matters related to their operations, such as corporate governance, employment, foreign exchange and regulatory/compliance matters.'

Herbert Smith Freehills fights back

Herbert Smith was quick to follow Mayer Brown's press statement with a release of its own, stating that it 'has recently appointed two highly-regarded senior lawyers to its Greater China dispute resolution practice. Arthur Ma joins the firm’s international arbitration team in Beijing as a Counsel and Emily Lam joins its commercial litigation team in Hong Kong as a Senior Consultant'.  Mr Ma was a partner in Fangda Partners.