Winston & Strawn has lost a six-lawyer corporate team – including head of Greater China commercial practice Mabel Lui and partners Polly Chu and Daniel Tang – to Withers. Their departure comes as the Chicago-headquartered firm closed its offices in Beijing and Taipei.

Lui is expected to hold a similar role at UK-based Withers. Prior to her Winston stint, she was the head of DLA Piper's Asia corporate team. She has more than 40 years of experience advising clients on China-related business matters, including as advisor in the first Sino-foreign joint venture in China in 1979 and was on the Hong Kong team of counsel advising one of the first H-share issues by Chinese corporations with dual listing in Hong Kong and New York Stock Exchanges in 1993.

Chu, who joined Winston as of counsel in 2014, specialises in corporate real estate matters. On the other hand, Tang focuses on cross-border international M&A, joint ventures, private equity/venture capital as well as corporate and commercial matters relating to investment in mainland China and Hong Kong.