CMS announced the addition of Gabriela Kennedy as a partner in its Hong Kong office. Kennedy arrives from Mayer Brown, where she served as senior consultant and co-led the firm’s global intellectual property practice.
She brings roughly three decades of experience covering litigation, commercial matters, technology transactions, telecommunications regulation, cybersecurity and data privacy. Her client base includes multinational businesses and leading brands that need help protecting, enforcing and commercialising their intellectual assets.
Kennedy has handled prominent Hong Kong copyright cases that spurred legislative reforms and has been active in industry discussions on copyright policy. She joined Mayer Brown in 2013 after a 19-year tenure at Hogan Lovells.
The move follows the September exit of Jonathan Chu, the firm’s former IP partner and Beijing managing partner, who left to lead the Clifford Chance IP practice for Asia-Pacific.
Ilan Freiman, CMS’s regional managing partner for Asia-Pacific, described the hire as “a marquee hire” and said it “takes our Greater China IP and technology offering to the next level.”
Dóra Petrányi, partner and global leader of the TMIC practice group, noted that technology, IP, data and regulation are becoming more closely connected. She added that Kennedy’s arrival “deepens our capabilities in key Asia-Pacific markets, strengthens the links between our regional and international teams, and reinforces our ambition to build a market-leading technology and IP practice across Asia-Pacific.”
With Kennedy on board, CMS now counts 18 partners in Hong Kong, including IP partners Mengyi Chen and Candy Tong. Mayer Brown retains 8 partners in the city.
Recent personnel shifts include Amita Haylock leaving for Stephenson Harwood to head its Asia technology and IP practice, and capital-markets partner Guiping Lu departing earlier this year.
In December 2024, the Chicago-based firm ended its 15-year partnership with one of Hong Kong’s largest local firms, Johnson Stokes & Master, and now operates a leaner presence in the city, with additional offices in Singapore and Tokyo.
