Morgan Lewis & Bockius has upped the ante on its Greater China game by hiring employment partner K. Lesli Ligorner and a four-lawyer team from Simmons & Simmons in Shanghai.

Ligorner, who has worked in China for more than a decade, specialises in employment policies and compliance concerns, U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and local anticorruption compliance, employment discrimination and harassment issues, global mobility and immigration, employment and anticorruption due diligence in M&A, protection of trade secrets, and unionisation and collective bargaining.

The addition of Ligorner and four associates comes shortly after Morgan Lewis nabbed 13 partners from Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe and announced plans for a Hong Kong office last month. 

In September last year, the firm opened a five-partner Shanghai office after poaching from Dentons' legacy branch in the city.