International law firm Withers has promoted seven lawyers to partner from across its Asia, Europe and US west coast offices with effect from 1st July 2021. This follows a similarly international 12 partner promotion round in January 2021.
The new partner appointees include litigators, property lawyers, an investment fund advisor and a tax and estate planning lawyer, and are located as follows:
San Francisco
- Kimberly Pallen is a litigator who advises across a wide range of commercial disputes, including employment litigation, trade secrets and fraud, as well as representing clients on fiduciary matters. Kim also focuses on contentious issues in the arts sector.
- Yin Ho is a commercial property lawyer, advising on all manner of acquisitions, financing and leasing matters, as well as tax and litigation issues.
San Diego
- Kevin Keen advises domestic and foreign clients on tax, estate and trust planning matters, including cross-border family wealth transfer planning, pre-immigration and expatriation planning and compliance. Kevin is qualified to practice in Texas and Florida, which are currently popular states for high net worth US families to relocate to.
Tokyo
- Yoshiyuki Omori works with international and Japanese domestic investment funds, advising on investment transactions and regulatory matters.
Singapore
- Ushan Premaratne is an arbitration and litigation lawyer, conducting commercial arbitrations for clients as well as advising on cross-border commercial disputes. His practice takes in sports and entertainment clients, technology and venture capital and financial institutions.
Milan
- Jacopo Ligouri heads the IP and technology team in Italy, advising on privacy, data protection and IP registration and defense issues. His clients include leading fashion, financial, food, entertainment, technology and life sciences companies.
UK
- Tom Hughes advises on commercial property matters, with a particular focus on clients in the hotel and hospitality sector. He advises on the acquisition of properties, as well as assisting with management of the operations.
Margaret Robertson, Chief Executive of Withers, comments: “This is a really exciting time to make up this talented group of lawyers and I congratulate them all on their promotions. We are expanding through these important internal appointments, which allow us to recognize the excellence in our teams and to advance their careers, as well as through a number of external appointments who have the skills we need. As our clients bounce back from the impact of the pandemic, we must build on our strengths to offer them the very best advice across the board.”
