International law firms may be thriving but across Asia it is domestic firms and local boutiques that are experiencing the most growth. That is the trend over the last three months in China, where local firms have intensified their hirings from foreign counterparts with several top Chinese firms are luring senior lawyers, particularly those with cross border corporate and capital markets experience, with the prospect of partnership. Meanwhile, in Singapore, local disputes operations continue to sprout as more and more founders feel there are downsides to being tied to international practices. These are some of the key themes from the latest round-up of Asia moves across the commercial legal industry. Singapore In Singapore, three Mayer Brown partners have broken away to set up their own shop. Suresh Nair, Jennifer Chih, and Bryan Tan have left Mayer Brown in Singapore, where it operates as Mayer Brown PK Wong & Nair after a Joint Law Venture mergerin 2023. All three lawyers were originally partners in the local practice PK Wong & Nair before its merger with Mayer Brown two years ago. Nair founded his legacy namesake firm Nair & Co before joining forces with PK Wong in 2020 to form PK Wong & Nair. Tan has been working with Nair since 2017 and was made director at the local firm in 2020. Chih had worked at PK Wong as a director since 2007 and was earlier a partner in the legacy Australian practice of Deacons. The trio’s new shop—Nair, Jen & Tan—will focus on contentious advice including on litigation, restructuring and insolvency, corporate and employment matters. Nair and Tan acts on corporate and commercial litigation, insolvency and restructuring, and employment disputes. Chih advises on corporate, immigration and employment matters, compliance frameworks, and regulatory strategy. The breakaway “marks a strategic move by the trio to create a specialist platform dedicated to contentious, advisory, and crisis-driven mandates,” the new firm partners said in a statement. “We are establishing an independent practice that allows us to deepen our work in core areas where clients increasingly require specialised, senior level advice," the firm said in its statement. “This move enables us to offer a more agile and conflict-free platform while continuing to deliver the depth and quality our clients expect." Their departures leave Mayer Brown PK Wong & Nair with 37 lawyers including 16 partners, according to their firm’s website. Of those partners, only two were part of the local set before the merger. Other senior lawyers have also recently broken away from merged set ups in Singapore to re-found their own practices. Last year, former K&L Gates Straits Law managing partner and former Straits Law managing director and founder Sreenivasan Narayanan, left the firm to set up his own disputes boutique , Sreenivasan Chambers. He was later joined by K&L Gates Straits Law directors, Muralli Rajaram and Palaniappan Sundararaj. Also in Singapore, Reed Smith has hired banking and finance partner Gregory Xu from Stephen Harwood. Xu advises on cross-border transactions across a wide range of sectors, including shipping, aviation, and logistics, trade, life sciences, energy, and technology. He acts for financial institutions, funds, export credit agencies, leasing houses, asset owners, and Fortune 500 companies on financing, restructuring, and enforcement matters. Last year, he advised Foresight Group on a $103 million bilateral senior secured term loan for a jack-up rig. He also acted for BECIS Bioenergy Pte. Ltd. on a $30 million green loan financing for the construction of bioenergy projects across Southeast Asia and India. In 2023, Xu also advised MUFG Bank and Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank as underwriters on a $1 billion syndicated social loan facility for State Bank of India. Xu led Stephenson Harwood’s general banking and project finance practice in Southeast Asia and served on the firm’s executive committee. He has worked at Stephenson Harwood for over seven years and was earlier an associate at Clifford Chance and at Norton Rose Fulbright. Reed Smith has made some notable hires in Singapore in recent months. Last year, the firm brought on new partners Tim Beech and Etelka Bogardi from A&O Shearman and Norton Rose Fulbright, respectively. Japan