Global law firm Broadfield, which has operational links to part of the Alvarez & Marsal Inc portfolio of companies, has expanded its Asia-Pacific practice through partner hires in disputes resolution and restructuring from Sidley Austin and Kirkland & Ellis.
- Sidley Austin’s Gordon Davidson joins Broadfield as head of restructuring & insolvency for Asia and a member of the firm’s executive committee.
- Fergus Saurin joins from Kirkland & Ellis as head of dispute resolution & investigations for Broadfield Asia.
- Broadfield now has nine lawyers in Hong Kong, including five partners. All but Saurin joined from Sidley.
Gordon Davidson, who previously established and led Sidley Austin’s restructuring practice in the Asia-Pacific region, has joined Broadfield to become head of restructuring and insolvency for Asia and a member of the firm’s executive committee.
Davidson concluded his role at Sidley Austin in March this year. He started his legal career at Bingham McCutchen in London in 2010 before joining Kirkland & Ellis in 2014, specialising in financial restructuring, special situations and insolvency. He moved to Sidley Austin in 2018 after a two-year stint at offshore firm Walkers, making partner in 2022 when he relocated to Hong Kong from London.
Fergus Saurin, who headed dispute resolution at Kirkland & Ellis in Asia before departing in May, has moved to Broadfield to lead the boutique’s disputes resolution and investigations practice.
Saurin practices cross-border litigation and arbitration with experience in private equity, capital markets, M&A and shareholder disputes. He began his career at maritime specialist outfit HFW, where he worked for nearly ten years before joining Kirkland & Ellis in 2019. He was promoted to non-equity partnership in 2020.
During his tenure at K&E, Saurin acted for the supporting creditor and ad hoc creditor group in the China Evergrande winding-up proceedings. The property developer was ordered into liquidation by a Hong Kong court in January 2024 following unfruitful restructuring negotiations, with Alvarez & Marsal’s Edward Middleton and Tiffany Wong appointed as liquidators.
Saurin’s departure continues a pattern of partner exits from K&E’s Hong Kong office this year. Seven partner have left the U.S. firm’s only Asia outpost outside mainland China in the first half of this year, including M&A partners Stacey Shen and Min Lu, capital markets partner Ming Kong, funds partner Wang Shinong, commercial litigation partner Paul Quinn, and corporate partner Gary Li.
The appointments follow Broadfield’s establishment of Hong Kong operations in February under Effie Vasilopoulos, formerly head of the APAC investment funds group at Sidley.
“These dynamic additions reflect our sharp focus on solving complex, high-value challenges for our regional and global clients”, said Vasilopoulos, now managing partner of Broadfield in APAC, in a statement.
“Our market-leading teams are built to navigate the full lifecycle of complex private capital and commercial matters, from front-end investment fund structuring and special situations through restructuring, dispute resolution, litigation, and enforcement,” she added.
The firm now has nine lawyers in Hong Kong, including five partners. All but Saurin joined from Sidley.
NEW BANNER, OLD LINKS
The Hong Kong office operates through an association with local firm Liu, Patrick Ling & Co, founded by former Sidley counsel Patrick Liu and including Huberta Chow, also a Sidley alumnus.
Broadfield was established in the UK in July 2024 through a collaboration between SHP Legal Services (SHPLS) and UK law firm BDB Pitmans.
SHPLS was previously known as Alvarez & Marsal Legal Services (AMLS), the legal services venture of the global management consultancy. AMLS was launched in May 2024 and is run by Peter Sacripanti, former chair of McDermott Will & Emery.
With a refreshed branding, Broadfield has been widely perceived as the legal operations arm of Alvarez & Marsal. According to a July 2024 statement, AMLS indicated that it would provide Broadfield with management services, including technology and back-office services and would also “assist in procuring investment capital for growth.”
In addition, “AMLS will explore opportunities for Broadfield to partner with A&M in certain service areas where appropriate for clients,” the statement said.
AMLS envisions Broadfield to be an international, full-service law firm through rapid acquisition, especially in the UK and the U.S. markets, with the aim of extending into continental Europe. All member firms of Broadfield will retain their own governance – in accordance with their jurisdiction – and profits and loss, A&M said in the same statement.
A spokesperson for Broadfield told ALB that SHPLS operates as a subsidiary of LSS Strategic Partners, which shares the same parent company with A&M consulting, A&M Inc, but “operates entirely separate”.
“LSS was intentionally created outside of the structure of A&M consulting so that there would be no pressure for any A&M businesses to cross-sell if it’s not in their client’s best interest,” the spokesperson said in an email to ALB.
Alvarez & Marsal declined to provide comment when contacted by ALB regarding Broadfield’s latest expansion in Hong Kong.
TRICKY ENVIRONMENT
The move marks the global consultancy firm’s expansion into direct legal services provision, leveraging a model similar to that employed by Big Four accounting firms that have established legal practices alongside their traditional auditing and advisory services.
This approach could allow for integrated service delivery, combining A&M’s existing restructuring and advisory expertise with premier legal capabilities.
However, the launch may come at a time when the Big Four’s legal arms face increasing scrutiny and operational difficulties over potential conflicts of interest and regulatory challenges in various jurisdictions in Asia.
ALB previously reported the short-lived association between KPMG and Malaysia-headquartered ZICO Law network has collapsed, following the demise of KPMG’s legal ventures in Hong Kong and Australia last year.
Last year, EY also shuttered its legal arm – LC Lawyers – in Hong Kong. Amongst the remaining Big Four-affiliated practices, Chan & Jamison, which is affiliated with Deloitte Legal, continues to operate with nine lawyers including two partners. PwC-associated Tiang & Partners counts five partners in Hong Kong.
Updates: This article was updated with further clarification of the relationship between Broadfield and Alvarez & Marsal Inc in the first paragraph, and Broadfield’s comments in the 17th and 18th paragraphs