Watson Farley & Williams (WFW) has entered into an alliance with Hanoi-based LVN & Associates, previously Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe’s partner firm in that country.

WFW sealed the alliance after hiring LVN’s founding partner, Linh Quynh Doan as an of counsel in its global energy and infrastructure practice in Hong Kong from Orrick.

Linh’s work focuses on the Asian power market, and her experience includes advising government entities, sponsors, lenders and investors on power plant developments and financings in the region.

She divides her time between Hanoi and Hong Kong. While at Orrick, she advised Toyo on a thermal power plant project in Vietnam worth $3.5 billion.

“There is a large amount of regional and international investment in the Asian energy market currently, with many investors seeking multi-jurisdictional investments. The combination of Linh’s experience and WFW’s existing platform, in which we are already leaders in the maritime and transportation sectors, will allow us to advise these clients and in doing so expand our wider Asian practice,” said Madeline Wong, head of WFW Hong Kong.

The association with LVN is part of WFW’s “continued growth and expansion plans in Southeast Asia, which is an important part of the firm’s business strategy and focus,” said the firm in an email interview with ALB. Linh played an instrumental role in forging this tie-up, as “she envisaged a strong synergy in having WFW and LVN join forces,” added the firm.

The LVN alliance is expected to provide WFW “with quality Vietnamese legal capability to build and better service our developing Vietnamese client base and transactions.” WFW said that it will focus on the country’s transportation, energy and natural resources.