Herbert Smith has launched a new private client practice in Hong Kong targeting the growing wealth management industry in the Asian region.

The practice consists of London partners Rupert Ticehurst and Robert Hunter, and Hong Kong partner Mark Johnson. The three will advise on issues faced by high net worth individuals (HNWI), trust companies, private banks and charities on tax, trust, charities and succession planning issues.

Ticehurst, who heads the firm-wide private wealth and charities practice, told the Wall Street Journal he noticed the lack of private client lawyers in Asia after touring private banks in the region. “There is a gap in the market, in particular in Hong Kong, to provide these services [on contentious trust and estate cases],” he added.

According to last year’s Merrill Lynch-Capgemini wealth management report, the population of Asia-Pacific HNWIs is growing and by 2013 it is predicted that the HNWI population of the Asia-Pacific region will overtake that of the HNWI population in North America.

The firm said it received a good response from banking executives at Credit Suisse, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs, among others, at the practice launch and seminar it held on estate-planning opportunities.

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