DLA Piper announced the hire of Mark Fairbairn and Ashley Bell to the firm’s Restructuring Group from O’Melveny & Myers. Fairbairn takes on the role of head of Restructuring for Asia and is based in Hong Kong. Bell will join the firm in Singapore as Of Counsel in the Restructuring practice.

Fairbairn focuses on distressed and alternative investments, financial restructurings (including “loan-to-own” transactions and rescue finance), as well as formal insolvency matters. Over the past 20 years, he has acted for major financial institutions, investment banks, hedge and private equity investors, insolvency practitioners, turnaround specialists, steering committees, and public and private corporations on cross-border transactions across Asia.

Bell has extensive experience representing multinational corporations, financial institutions and private equity investors across Asia, and will work closely together with Fairbairn in the execution of client mandates.

Gregg Galardi, partner and global co-chair of DLA Piper’s Restructuring practice, said, “Mark has an impressive skill set and is recognized as one of the leading Restructuring lawyers in Asia, particularly in Greater China. The addition of Mark and Ashley enables us to expand the scope of our activities in the restructuring space to include more work for private equity firms and to enhance our role in major contentious restructurings.”

Terry O’Malley, co-global CEO and partner at DLA Piper, added, “We are delighted to welcome Mark and Ashley to DLA Piper. Their appointments further underline the firm’s dedication to this very important region.”