Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton has hired Cravath Swaine & Moore partner Clayton Johnson as a boost for its upcoming Beijing launch.
The securities and capital markets partner will divide his time between the New York firm’s Beijing office, which is expected to open in early 2006, and Cleary’s existing Hong Kong arm.
Johnson is set to work with Cleary’s Hong Kong-based private equity partner Filip Moerman. It is anticipated that both partners will ultimately be based in Beijing.
Among the clients Johnson has represented in Asia are Citigroup, CSFB, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch. Prior to his move to Hong Kong he spent six years as an M&A partner in Cravaths’s New York office.
