Squire Patton Boggs has announced the appointment of partner Li Hua, who has joined the firm’s Global Corporate Practice. Ms. Hua is a seasoned corporate and competition lawyer with substantial governmental experience, including working at the former Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC) in Beijing, and as Vice-Director of Foreign Trade at the former State Commission for Economy and Trade.

A graduate of French Ecole Nationale de l’Administration (ENA) in Paris and a member of the Paris Bar, Ms. Hua has represented many Chinese, French and other multi-national companies on inbound and outbound cross-border transactions, antitrust/competition and regulatory compliance matters.  Recognised as one of the leading competition and anti-trust lawyers in China by Chambers and Partners, she has considerable experience of international trade matters, including WTO-related legal issues and trade defense proceedings, such as anti-dumping, anti-subsidy and safeguard procedures.  Ms. Hua is also a specialist in anti-monopoly laws and has assisted more than 20 multinational companies in the PRC procedure of notification of anti-monopoly.

Sungbo Shim, managing partner of Squire Patton Boggs in Beijing, said: “Li Hua is one of the leading lawyers in her field, with extensive corporate and competition law experience, and a strong government relations practice.  Her arrival will further strengthen our capabilities across Greater China and, indeed, globally.”

“The expansion of our Global Corporate Practice and the development of our expertise in competition law are key strategic goals for the firm.  Li Hua is one of a number of senior appointments we have made around the world over the past year, bolstering our ability to handle cross-border transactions and competition matters of any type anywhere in the world,” commented Stephen Chelberg, Asia Pacific Chair of the Global Corporate Practice.

Li Hua’s appointment follows that of China outbound corporate specialist Dr. Benjamin Kroymann, who joined Squire Patton Boggs in Shanghai with a team of lawyers from Dentons at the end of last year.

Squire Patton Boggs was ranked ninth of all US firms based in the Asia-Pacific by The Asian Lawyer in its 2014 Asia 50 Survey and the firm is a finalist in the Financial Times Asia-Pacific Innovation Lawyers Awards for “Innovation in International Strategy – Strategic Expansion in Asia-Pacific”.

The firm’s Global Corporate Practice represents nearly one-third of all Fortune 500 and FTSE 350 companies, including in areas of corporate activity such as corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions, public takeovers, IPOs and secondary offerings, private equity, venture capital and joint ventures.