Hogan Lovells has expanded its operations in Australia with the appointment of Andrew Crook and Scott Harris. Crook will be joining from Gilbert & Tobin, where he has been a partner in Sydney. He has outstanding international experience, having worked in New Zealand with Russell McVeagh, in Singapore with Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and in London with Skadden Arps Meagher & Flom. Crook is a private equity specialist but also has extensive experience in mergers and strategic investments and divestments, including transactions covering multiple jurisdictions. His practice also includes equity capital market transactions, financial restructurings and reorganisations. He is English and Australian qualified. On the other hand, Harris will be joining from DLA Piper in Sydney, where he has been the head of its restructuring group in Australia. He also has outstanding international experience, having worked for Hogan Lovells in London for over 5 years before returning to Sydney to join Henry Davis York as a senior associate and, subsequently, DLA Piper as a partner in 2009. His practice is both contentious and non-contentious. His specific areas of expertise include workouts, debt restructuring, asset management and security enforcement for financial institutions and advising on special situations opportunities (including asset acquisition/loan to own) through deeds of company arrangement or schemes of arrangement. Harris advises financial and non-financial institutions, insolvency practitioners, corporations and governments in relation to all aspects of insolvency, including the formal appointment of receivers, administrators and liquidators. Since his time at Hogan Lovells, he has also continued to advise clients in relation to regulatory investigations and commercial litigation matters. In addition to having led the restructuring group at DLA Piper, Harris has also been the relationship partner for Westpac and the deputy relationship partner for HSBC. He is Australian qualified.

Howse Williams Bowers has added Christopher Yu as a partner in the firm’s corporate practice. Previously a partner at Goodwin Procter in Hong Kong, Yu has substantial experience in private equity and Hong Kong capital markets transactions. He regularly advises private equity clients and HKSE-listed companies on strategic investments in and outside of Hong Kong and China.


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