DLA Piper raids Sidley for 13-lawyer capital markets team in Hong Kong

DLA Piper has pulled off a big capital markets move in Hong Kong, hiring a 13-lawyer equity capital markets team from Sidley Austin as it looks to capitalise on the financial centre’s red hot IPO market.

The team is led by Sherlyn Lau, one of Hong Kong’s best-known ECM partners, who joins as head of capital markets and corporate finance for Asia-Pacific. Lau spent nearly 20 years at Sidley, where she was a member of the firm’s executive committee and a senior figure in its China corporate and finance practice.

At DLA Piper, Lau and her team will join the firm’s Asia corporate practice and its Greater China ECM group, which includes Hong Kong-based partners George Wu and Christina Loh, and Beijing-based partners Yang Ge and Vivian Liu.

Jean-Pierre Douglas-Henry, Asia Pacific managing director at DLA, said Lau’s hire was a “real game changer for our corporate practice in Asia.” He added: “This is a major step forward in positioning DLA Piper as a leading global firm in the region’s most influential financial centres.”

Hong Kong IPO boom

Lau’s move comes with a team of 12 capital markets lawyers, significantly bolstering DLA Piper’s Hong Kong capability, where the firm currently has 22 partners in total.

Hong Kong’s IPO market roared back into life last year, topping KPMG’s global IPO rankings for 2025 after raising $34.3 billion across 100 listings.

Momentum looks set to continue. As of December, there were a record 316 active IPO applications in the market, according to KPMG. The resurgence has been driven by policy support from Beijing and a series of initiatives rolled out by the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. For global firms, it has translated into a surge in advisory mandates.

Clifford Chance has been among the most active players this year, advising on a string of high-profile listings including CNC Technology’s $618 million IPO, the $379 million IPO of Axera Semiconductor and the $900 million flotation of chipmaker Montage Technology, where Davis Polk acted for the issuer.