美国温斯顿律师事务所近日宣布知名公司与并购业务律师李占柱加盟其北京办公室任管理合伙人。此前，李占柱就职于美国凯威莱德国际律师事务所，并于今年四月被晋升为合伙人。和他一起从凯威莱德加入温斯顿律师事务所的还有公司业务律师张海航和王娜。

李占柱在纽约和中国大陆为国际律师事务所工作了10多年，于2004年到中国执业。他的工作经验包括复杂的跨境商业交易、并购、私募股权投资、风险资本投资和外国对中国直接投资。他在近期承办了许多客户的入境和出境并购律师业务。

李占柱表示：“加入温斯顿的原因是它覆盖了全球市场，它有一个开展我所从事的跨境交易业务的全球性平台，而且它对中国的法律服务市场也有着坚定的承诺。”

The game of musical chairs between partners in international firms is heating up again in China, as the country becomes an increasingly important part of the firms' strategic vision for growth.

Corporate M&A lawyer Jem Li, who was admitted to the partnership of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft in Beijing this April, has fast-tracked his career by taking on the managing partner position at Winston & Strawn's Beijing office. Two corporate associates, Helen Zhang and April Wang, have also joined the firm from Cadwalader.

After spending about 20 years in the US, Li returned to China to practice law in 2004 and since then has increasingly focused his cross-border M&A practices on Chinese outbound transactions and investments. One of the reasons for his move is because of Winston's wider global presence (14 offices in America, Asia and Europe) compared to Cadwalader (five offices).

Li's appointment follows the August departure of partner Ge Xiangyang, who joined Winston & Strawn from Baker & McKenzie in November 2009 to help launch and lead the firm's Beijing office. Ge now serves as the head of projects at Mayer Brown JSM in Beijing.

In June 2010, Cadwalader hired DLA Piper's Beijing partner Rocky Lee as its Asia managing partner. Unsurprisingly, it is seeking lateral hires to fill the vacancy in its Beijing office. ALB