DLA Piper has advised Allianz Real Estate GmbH (Allianz) in the acquisition of a 31,426 square meters grade-A office asset located in Zhongguancun, a sought-after hub for IT and technology companies in Beijing. Branded as China's Silicon Valley, Zhongguancun Software Park has seen strong rental growth and one of the lowest levels of vacancy in the capital city.

The office space is currently 100 percent occupied and leased to leading Chinese technology companies, some are well-known internationally.

Hamburg – The international law firm CMS has advised Merkur Offshore GmbH as project company and its shareholders and investors Partners Group (headquartered in Switzerland), InfraRed Capital Partners (based in the United Kingdom), DEME (based in Belgium), Agence de l'Environnement et de la Maîtrise de l'Énergie (based in France) and General Electric (based in the United States) in connection with the revised financing of the construction and the operation of the offshore wind farm "Merkur" under a syndicated loan facility of over EUR 1.5 billion.

CMS is advising Solid Brain sp. z o.o. and its shareholders on the sale of a majority stake of shares to IT Kontrakt sp. z o.o., a company belonging to the portfolio of the funds Oaktree Capital Management and Cornerstone Partners.

Krakow-based Solid Brain provides outsourced specialised teams of software engineers and specialists in the design, management and development of software for large international companies.

On 3 July 2018, King & Wood Mallesons advised CMC Inc. (formerly named CMC Holdings) on the closing of its approximately RMB10 billion series A round financing. The completion in the latest round of the financing gives CMC Inc. a valuation of nearly RMB40 billion. The financing was led by a new investor China Vanke Co., Ltd. and two founding investors – Alibaba Group and Tencent Holdings Limited. Other investors included CMB International Capital Corporation Limited and a number of international financial institutions.

Kirkland & Ellis LLP has announced that it is expanding with the opening of an office in Dallas — the Firm’s ninth in the United States, second in Texas and 14th worldwide. Kirkland’s Dallas office will be located in Bank of America Plaza, 901 Main Street.

Morrison & Foerster, a leading global law firm, is pleased to announce that Lisa Phelan has joined the firm as a partner in Washington, D.C.*, in its Global Antitrust Law Practice and Investigations + White Collar Group. Ms. Phelan brings to Morrison & Foerster unmatched criminal investigations and enforcement experience. For the last 16 years, she was Chief of the National Criminal Enforcement and Washington Criminal I Sections of the Antitrust Division at the U.S. Department of Justice, after previously serving as a senior criminal litigator.

In a recent move to further increase the firm's tech focus, Dr Alastair Moore has been appointed in the newly created role of Head of Data Analytics and Machine Learning.

Moore previously lead a masters programme in analytics at the UCL School of Management. His experience spans a number of sectors, and he is a UCL PhD computer scientist with 10 years’ experience in early stage tech.

Chief Technology Officer Nick West said Moore has “off the charts data skills” and that his hire was part of a push to make sure the firm’s lawyers are “much more focused on tech”.

Fieldfisher LLP has appointed Philippe Freund as a Partner in its Tax Disputes and Investigations team.

Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP has announced that Sam Wilson will join the Firm as a partner in the Asset Management Practice. He will be based in the London office.
 
Mr. Wilson has extensive experience representing private equity fund sponsors and advising clients on fund formation, co-investment structuring, fund financing arrangements, and other complex transactions. At Fried Frank, Mr. Wilson's practice will focus on private investment funds and complex corporate transactions, with a particular emphasis on European fund formation.
 

Renowned real estate lawyer Joel H. Rothstein has joined global law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP as chair of Asia Real Estate Practice. Before joining Greenberg Traurig, Rothstein was a partner at several international law firms, spending nearly two decades in Asia in leadership roles in one firm’s Tokyo and Beijing offices and launching and expanding that firm’s Asia Real Estate Practice.