November 2, 2010
THE RECORDER
By Petra Pasternak
SAN FRANCISCO – Corporate attorney Joseph Chan has left Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, his home for the past decade, to join Sidley Austin.
Chan, who spends much of his time in China, focuses on private equity, venture capital and capital markets work. He will join Sidley in coming weeks as partner.
Chan opened the Shanghai office for Pillsbury in 2006 and served as its managing partner until 2008. He served as Pillsbury’s Shanghai office managing partner from 2006 to 2008.
He said in an e-mail from Shanghai that he found Sidley’s “clear strategic vision” for Asia and China and the firm’s commitment to the region to be compelling. Sidley has “a top-notch capital markets practice in Hong Kong “ especially Hong Kong IPOs and high-yield debt capital markets, but increasingly U.S. IPOs and equity capital markets as well “ where I see lots of opportunities going forward for my client base,” he wrote. He also pointed out Sidley’s Hong Kong fund formation practice, where he sees increasing need for legal services, especially for private equity and venture capital funds investing in high-tech companies registered with the Chinese government as Renminbi funds.
He said one priority at Sidley is to link the Palo Alto practice to China, something that Chan says he’s been working on at Pillsbury since moving to China three years ago. He co-founded and has been a member of the board of directors of the Shanghai chapter of the Asia American MultiTechnology Association in Silicon Valley and sits on the board of ChinaSF, the bilateral advisory body to the San Francisco mayor’s office. He counts The Global Environment Fund, Qiming Ventures, CMHJ Partners and HSBC Private Equity among his clients. Last week, he closed a $200 million IPO in Hong Kong for Global Dairy, a Chinese dairy product company.
The Chambers and Partners-ranked lawyer is fluent in English, Mandarin and Cantonese.