Bracewell & Giuliani has opened an office in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Partner David Stockwell will head the new office; he is a 25-year resident and legal practioner, as well as a former senior U.S. diplomat in residence there. The Dubai office will advise clients on doing business in Dubai, local labor law, commercial and corporate law, arbitration, licensing, litigation, energy, and environmental matters in the Arabian Gulf region.

Source: www.metrocorpcounsel.com

Bingham McCutchen has recruited Japanese lawyer, Hiroshi Iyori, for its Tokyo office. Iyori joins Bingham’s antitrust practice from Asahi Law Offices. Prior to entering private practice, he was the secretary general and then commissioner of the Japan Fair Trade Commission. Bingham plans to expand its Tokyo office to more than 50 attorneys by the fall. The Japanese practice focuses on large-scale cross-border, corporate, mergers and acquisitions, finance, antitrust and intellectual property matters.

Source: www.nylawyer.com

International firm Reed Smith is in merger talks with Richards Butler’s Hong Kong partners. The Hong Kong practice was not a part of the merger between the two firms last year; it was treated as financially separate from the London and European partnership of Richards Butler. Partners from both firms are favorable towards a merger, and an agreement is expected to be reached by the end of the summer.

Source: www.legalweek.com

Philadelphia’s Duane Morris has recently opened two new offices in Vietnam. The offices in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi will specialize in energy, mergers and acquisitions, and project finance. They are intended to supplement the firm’s office in Singapore, which has become an up-and-coming hub of pharmaceutical development and international finance. The Singapore office opened in January with eight attorneys focusing primarily on finance and energy. Duane Morris has been growing over the past decade, opening offices in nine cities between 1997 and 2005, and more than doubling its size. The firm now has about 650 lawyers.

Source: www.philly.com

Shearman & Sterling has opened an office in Shanghai, its third in China after Beijing and Hong Kong. The new office will be headed by project finance partner Andrew Ruff. Ruff was previously a partner in the firm’s Hong Kong office, but he relocated to Shanghai last October to prepare for the opening. The Shanghai office also includes five associates, and will focus on project finance, capital markets, and M&A work. Shearman & Sterling has 20 offices worldwide.

Source: www.law.com