DLA Piper has hired Crystal Chen as a partner in its finance, projects and restructuring practice from Linklaters, the U.S. firm’s fourth lateral hire in Hong Kong in the past six months.
With expertise in banking and finance, Chen focuses on the development and financing, as well as acquisition and disposal, of projects in China’s power, petrochemical and mining sectors.
According to Reuters, Chen has advised lenders on multiple infrastructure finance projects that form a part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, especially a series of projects in Pakistan known as the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.
Her clients include Standard Chartered Bank, Bank of China, the Silk Road Fund, the International Finance Corporation, and the Mongolian government, Reuters added.
A former Shearman & Sterling associate, Chen joined Linklaters in 2017, and was promoted to the firm’s partnership in 2019.
Following the addition of Chen, the DLA’s Hong Kong office now has 25 partners, including George Wu and Russell Wilkinson, who joined in December 2021 from Herbert Smith Freehills and the departing Baker Botts, respectively, and Kristi Swartz, who joined in November 2021 after her firm Swartz, Binnersley & Associates closed down.
