U.S. law firm Mayer Brown has hired banking and financing specialist Janelene Chen as a partner in Singapore from Norton Rose Fulbright.

With roughly 17 years of experience, Chen advises financial institutions and corporate borrowers on trade finance, including receivables, payables and commodities, event-driven financing, structured lending such as asset-based lending, and general banking with a focus on matters covering Singapore, Indonesia and other ASEAN countries, Hong Kong and the PRC.

Chen joined Norton Rose in 2011 and became a partner in 2020. Previously, she was at local Big Four firm WongPartnership.

She becomes Mayer Brown’s first lateral partner hire in Singapore since its joint law venture (JLV) in October 2022 with PK Wong & Nair. It had made three partner hires earlier in 2022, including banking and finance expert Soumitro Mukerji.

With Chen’s arrival, Mayer Brown now has 19 partners in Singapore.