Kirkland & Ellis has appointed restructuring specialist Kelley Naphtali as partner in its Hong Kong office.
Dual-qualified in Australia and Hong Kong, Naphtali was previously a partner at Lipman Karas, a boutique firm specialising in insolvency and litigation, and Hogan Lovells.
Naphtali will help boost K&E’s litigation capability for its restructuring team, which was launched in September 2014 with fellow ex- Hogan Lovells partners Neil McDonald and Damien Coles. Her work covers cross-border litigation and insolvency as well as pursuing claims arising from corporate collapses.
Some associates are expected to join Naphtali at K&E, which has a restructuring team comprising seven lawyers. At present, it is advising on four major restructurings in Asia: those involving casino Macau Studio City (financial liabilities of more than $2 billion), Kaisa Holdings ($2.5 billion), Bumi Resources ($1 billion) and Berau Coal ($1 billion).
Recently, K&E has witnessed a flurry of comings and goings, including the hiring of debt finance partner David Irvine from Linklaters. However, it recently lost Beijing co-founding partner Ya-Chiao Chang to Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe, corporate partner Mengyu Lu to Sidley Austin, and Asia-based government enforcement and investigations practice head Samuel Williamson, who went on to launch Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan’s Shanghai office.
