Legal News

Gibson Dunn opens Singapore office with nine Jones Day attorneys

By Jason Siegel

Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher has opened an office in Singapore with the addition of nine lawyers from Jones Day, including the former co-head of the global projects practice.

Jai Pathak, a Los Angeles partner at Gibson Dunn whose practice involves cross-border transactions, with an emphasis on India and Southeast Asia, will serve as the partner in charge of the Singapore office and will lead the firm's efforts in the Asia Pacific region.

Three Jones Day partners in Singapore, Emad Khalil, John Viverito and Saptak Santra, will join Los Angeles-based Gibson Dunn, along with six associates.

Khalil advises companies on mergers and acquisitions, private equity investments, financing, restructuring, securities and Islamic finance. He is the former co-head of the global projects practice at Jones Day. His clients include BP, Chevron Corp., Kuwait Energy Co., Marathon Oil Corp. and Singapore Petroleum Co. He also represents various biotechnology firms and is principal adviser to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan on legislation.

Before joining Jones Day, he was co-founding partner of the New York practice of Afridi & Angell, where he worked from the firm's primary offices in Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. He is fluent in Arabic.

Viverito focuses on infrastructure projects and handles real estate transactions, financings, development projects and real estate funds. He is the deputy chairman of the energy committee of the American Chamber of Commerce in Singapore. Before joining Jones Day, he worked in Thailand for Baker & McKenzie. He is fluent in Thai.

Santra practices in lending and structured finance, project finance, acquisition finance and restructurings, with an emphasis on the infrastructure, energy and real estate industries. Before Jones Day, he practiced at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in London and Singapore. He is fluent in Bengali and Hindi.

The Singapore office will practice U.S., English and Indian law and focus on cross-border mergers and acquisitions, energy and infrastructure finance, real estate, private equity, capital markets transactions and restructurings.

-- Amanda Bronstad

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on May 21, 2008 (boomark / email).