Global law firm Reed Smith has added the co-leader of Sidley Austin’s Asia funds group, Han Ming Ho, in Singapore to launch and lead its own regional funds practice.

The firm currently does not list any other funds partners across its Asia offices, making Ho’s hire a significant expansion of offerings in Asia.

Ho’s practice is focused on the structuring and formation of a range of investment funds. He also advises fund managers on the establishment of business operations in Singapore, together with the formation, structuring, and registration of investment funds in Singapore and numerous other jurisdictions across Asia-Pacific and various offshore fund domiciles.

Ho also represents clients within the virtual assets ecosystem in Singapore, advising on structuring and offering of tokenised funds and non-fund tokenised offerings, as well as supporting the evolving regulatory requirements for managing investments in, and operating secondary exchanges for, virtual assets.

His clients have included Dymon Capital Asia, Quantedge Capital, Kings Court Capital, FengHe Fund Management, EQT AB, DigitalBridge Investment Management, and Investcorp.

Ho is Reed Smith’s first partner hire in Singapore this year, and its third in Asia, including the addition of financial services regulatory specialist Jill Wong as a partner in Hong Kong from Howse Williams.

With Ho’s arrival, Reed Smith now has 140 lawyers, including nearly 50 partners, across its four offices in Asia: Beijing, Shanghai, Singapore and Hong Kong.