Debevoise & Plimpton announced today that Wen-Wei Lai has rejoined the firm as an international counsel in Hong Kong.

Mr. Lai joins the firm’s Corporate Department, and will be a member of the firm’s M&A and Private Equity Groups in Hong Kong.

Mr. Lai will focus on M&A and private fund transactions, including cross-border mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, strategic and financial investments, secondary and continuation fund transactions, co-investments and GP-staking transactions. He also has significant experience advising on equity and debt capital markets offerings, and insurance-related transactions including offerings of regulatory capital securities and bancassurance agreements.

Mr. Lai was formerly part of the Debevoise team in Hong Kong from 2016, before joining a major global financial institution in 2021, where he was a senior investment banker assisting corporate and financial sponsor clients with sourcing, structuring and executing M&A and capital markets transactions. He began his career at another leading global law firm in New York.

Mr. Lai rejoins the firm as it prepares to celebrate 30 years in Hong Kong in 2024.

Edwin Northover, office Managing Partner for the firm in Hong Kong, comments: “I am thrilled to be welcoming Wen-Wei back to the firm. He is a talented lawyer who has always had a keen commercial approach. His experiences over the last couple of years in investment banking will only have added further to that. He is an important addition to our senior team here in Hong Kong.”

He received his J.D. from Columbia Law School and LL.B. from National Taiwan University. Mr. Lai is fluent in Mandarin Chinese, and is admitted to practice law in New York, Hong Kong and Taiwan.