UK law firm HFW has hired three new partners – Siri Wennevik, Alistair Duffield and Ivan Chia – as it continues its steady growth in Asia.
Wennevik joins from Norwegian shipping firm Wikborg Rein, where she was the Singapore managing partner. Meanwhile, Duffield, a former Southeast Asia managing partner at Berwin Leighton Paisner, was most recently running a legal risk consultancy called Delta Beta and a legal recruitment agency called Outlaw. Chia was hired from Watson Farley & Williams, where he was a partner.
The addition of the trio to the Singapore office follow the relocations of admiralty partner Toby Stephens and ship finance partner John Forrester from London to the city-state in August last year, and the recruitment of aerospace partner Ling Lui from Hogan Lovells in September. HFW now has 18 partners in Singapore, and a total of 58 in the Asia-Pacific region.
Wennevik specializes in shipping and offshore finance and commercial transactions for Norwegian, Chinese and international clients, with a particular focus on asset, project and cross-border financings.
Duffield, a partner at HFW between 2003 and 2011, advises mining, energy and natural resources companies on M&A transactions and the structuring, development and financing of projects. His practice also covers ports and infrastructure work. Prior to his first stint at HFW, Duffield was a partner at White & Case for almost a decade.
Chia, who focuses on corporate transactional work across the energy and transport sectors, is expert in renewable energy matters and has advised on approximately 1,000 MWs of onshore wind farm projects in Asia Pacific. He also advises clients on marine-related corporate work, including local joint ventures for liquid natural gas and floating regasification projects.
HFW established its Singapore office in 1990, and entered into a formal law alliance with local firm AsiaLegal in 2015. The firm also has alliances with China’s Wintell & Co. and Indonesia’s Rahayu & Partners, established in 2016 and 2017, respectively.
