DLA Piper today announces the appointment of Arthur Tso as a partner in its Corporate practice, based in Hong Kong.

Arthur joins the firm from Kirkland & Ellis where he has been a partner since 2016. Arthur has been involved in a number of initial public offerings (IPO), secondary listing and dual primary listing on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. He has also been involved in public and private mergers and acquisitions, privatizations, auction sales, convertible bond issuance and other compliance matters relating to listed companies. Prior to joining the profession, he gained private wealth management compliance experience working in the legal and compliance department of Morgan Stanley. Before joining Kirkland & Ellis, Arthur worked at Skadden.

Commenting on this hire, Luke Gannon, Head of Corporate Group Asia, said: “Arthur is a strategic hire for our Asia capital markets practice, reflecting our aim to further invest in and strengthen our offering in this area. We continue to see significant opportunities in the market and Arthur will play a key role in driving the practice forward.”

Global Co-Chair of DLA Piper’s Corporate Group, Bob Bishop, added: “Asia’s capital markets remained resilient in 2020. ECM deals across the Asia Pacific region accounted for more than 40% of global totals, and Hong Kong finished the year as the world’s second most popular IPO destination (behind only Nasdaq). That trend looks set to continue in 2021. Expanding our capital markets capability in Asia is a strategic priority and we’re delighted to welcome Arthur into our team.”

Arthur’s hire follows the firm’s recent onboarding of a number of other partners in Asia, including Philip Lee (Herbert Smith Freehills), Vincent Seah (Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer) and David Kuo (Milbank) in Singapore; Samata Masagee (Werrawong, Chinnavat & Partners) and Warren Vanichprapa (Baker & McKenzie) in Thailand.