Skadden Appoints Sokoloff as Asian Co-Head, Joining Schiffman
March 15, 2010, 8:48 PM EDTBy Debra Mao
March 16 (Bloomberg) -- Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP appointed Tokyo office and Asia Pacific real estate finance leader Audrey Sokoloff as co-head of the U.S. law firm’s business in the region.
Sokoloff joins Hong Kong-based Alan Schiffman in overseeing Skadden’s 101 lawyers in six Asia Pacific offices. The New York- based firm has been expanding in the region, establishing an Asian disputes practice last year.
Skadden added five partners in Asia during the global financial crisis and sees its clients expanding their operations now as markets recover, Schiffman said yesterday. Its establishment of a Hong Kong law practice in 2005 has been followed by U.S. firms including Latham & Watkins LLP, Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP and Shearman & Sterling LLP as China- related work booms.
Skadden’s clients include Coca-Cola Co., whose $2.3 billion bid for a Chinese juice maker was blocked by Beijing regulators last year. The firm represented KDDI Corp. on its $4 billion acquisition of a Jupiter Telecommunications Co. stake from Liberty Global Inc. this year.
Skadden, the top mergers and acquisitions legal adviser in 2009, opened its first international office in Tokyo in 1987. Japan accounted for $26 billion of the $39 billion in Asia Pacific deals Skadden advised on last year, including Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group’s acquisition of Citigroup Inc.’s Nikko Cordial Securities Inc.
Sokoloff, 43, moved to Asia in 2008 after working in Skadden’s New York, London, San Francisco and Los Angeles offices. Her clients include Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley and Colony Capital LLC.
Schiffman, 50, has been in Hong Kong for 13 years and his clients include PT Paiton Energy Co. in its $2.6 billion financing, fuel supply and restructuring of its coal-fired power plant in Indonesia.
--Editors: Douglas Wong, Ed Johnson
To contact the reporter on this story: Debra Mao in Hong Kong at dmao5@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Douglas Wong at dwong19@bloomberg.net
