Ropes & Gray has appointed Daniel Anderson, the co-head of its special situations practice, as managing partner of the firm’s Hong Kong office. He fills the position left vacant by the departure of Paul Boltz to Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in April.

Anderson regularly advises creditor groups, debtors and office holders in restructurings, as well as investment funds and proprietary trading desks on their debt and equity investment, principally in distressed and special situations.

Prior to joining Ropes in 2012, Anderson was a director in the special situations group at hedge fund Citadel Investment Group in Hong Kong from 2007 to 2011. Before that, he had stints as an associate at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Davis Polk & Wardwell.

“Ropes & Gray enjoys an outstanding reputation in Hong Kong for working on high profile, complex, cross-border deals and Dan’s depth of knowledge and insight makes him ideally placed to lead our efforts in further developing and consolidating this. His appointment is good news for the firm and our clients across the region,” said Arthur Mok, the firm’s regional managing partner of Asia, said in a statement.

Ropes’ Hong Kong office was busy this year, not only with deals – such as Unilever’s $2.71 billion buy of Korean skincare business Carver Korea and Baring Private Equity Asia on its $1.8 billion sale of Weetabix to Post Holdings – but also with several partner departures, which affected the firm globally.

So far in 2017, about 20 partners left the firm across four offices worldwide, seven of which were from the Hong Kong office.

Despite the partner exits in Hong Kong, David Chapin, Ropes & Gray’s managing partner, told ALB earlier this year that he is unruffled. “It’s part of the natural lifecycle,” he said. “We wish everybody well, but for us, it’s business as usual. Hong Kong remains a central part of our strategy, and our commitment to the region remains as strong as ever.”

The Hong Kong office currently has 40 lawyers, including 12 partners.

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