Newly launched UK-based firm Broadfield has marked the Year of the Snake with its first overseas office in Hong Kong, just two months after its official debut.
Hong Kong managing partner Effie Vasilopoulos said the firm would leverage its strong local expertise and market-leading position to drive growth in China.
Vasilopoulos told Law.asia that Broadfield selected Hong Kong as the inaugural location for its Asia-Pacific expansion due to the city’s status as a gateway to mainland China as well as the local government’s support for the development of the asset management and private capital sectors.
The Hong Kong office hosts a team of investment fund legal specialists with a focus on providing investment fund formation, financial services regulation and private equity M&A services to investors, fund manager sponsors, sovereign wealth funds, and multinational and regional companies.
Against the backdrop of international law firms scaling back their operations in China, Vasilopoulos is confident that her office will excel. “We believe that our operational advantage, market-leading practice capability and sector-focused model are key reasons our model will successfully scale while others are exiting the market,” she said.
The operational advantage that Vasilopoulos refers to is the support from Alvarez & Marsal’s two arms, SHP Legal Services and A&M Tax. The former offers technology, operational infrastructure and financing services for law firms and the latter provides tax advisory services.
“Broadfield’s ‘new playbook’ redefines traditional legal models by introducing a distinctive legal and tax advisory framework,” she said. “We recognise a structural gap in the market: most international firms in Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan either do not provide taxation services at all or only to a limited extent. This presents an opportunity for us to fill that void.”
The UK firm has recruited three investment fund specialists from Sidley Austin to bolster their services.
Vasilopoulos was previously Sidley Austin’s co-head of the investment funds practice in Asia.
Sidley Austin’s former counsel Patrick Liu established his own Hong Kong-based firm Liu, Patrick Ling & Co, which became affiliated with Broadfield. Liu and another former Sidley Austin counsel Huberta Chow are now partners at Broadfield.
Broadfield’s Hong Kong office is set to expand to 20 lawyers by the end of the summer of 2025. The firm is still mulling the location of its second overseas office but is set to expand across the APAC in the next 12 to 18 months.
