CMS announces team hire in Hong Kong to further boost APAC presence
CMS is pleased to announce the hire of a team of seven lawyers in Hong Kong including two partners from BCLP, Glenn Haley and Wayne Ma. An additional lawyer from the same team will also join CMS in Singapore, bringing the total team move to eight lawyers across the Hong Kong and Singapore offices. These hires will significantly bolster the firm’s construction, infrastructure and real estate offering in the Asia Pacific region.
This news follows the hire of Ilan Freiman who joined in July 2025 from BCLP, where he was Co-head of the Asia Real Estate and Infrastructure Practice.
Adrian Bell, CMS Partner and Joint Managing Director for Asia and the Middle East, said: “We’re delighted to welcome Glenn, Wayne and the rest of the team to CMS. Together with Ilan’s appointment, these hires represent strategic investment in our APAC offering. The market is experiencing a boom in infrastructure investment, and this expansion in our practice will enable us to help clients make the most of these exciting developments.”
Caryn Miller, CMS Partner and Joint Managing Director for Asia and the Middle East at CMS, added: “These three senior hires – Glenn, Wayne and Ilan – demonstrate our commitment to investing in leading talent and deepening our regional insights to support our client’s ambitions. We continue to see significant infrastructure investment across the APAC region, and we’re well-placed to support our clients through this upsurge in activity and beyond.”
Steven Wise, Managing Partner at CMS Hong Kong LLP, comments: “These hires build on the recent expansion of the Hong Kong office, constituting another significant step in CMS’s long-term commitment to this dynamic market. By continuing to invest in exceptional talent, we are strengthening our ability to support clients with both local expertise and global reach. As we look ahead, we remain focused on further growth, both in Hong Kong and across the wider region, to ensure we are always best placed to meet our clients’ evolving needs.”
Glenn Haley will join CMS’s Infrastructure, Construction & Energy Disputes (ICE) team from 1 October 2025 and will be based in Hong Kong. Glenn has over 35 years of experience advising on aspects of major projects, infrastructure and the construction and engineering sectors, in both contentious and non-contentious matters. He has also represented government and semi-government bodies in the implementation of numerous large-scale infrastructure developments, including airports, rail projects, bridges, roads, tunnels, power generation projects and commercial structures. Glenn is one of Hong Kong’s pre-eminent dispute resolution practitioners, as recognised by key legal directories, Legal 500 and Chambers & Partners, as well as Asia Law. Glenn has been included in Legal 500’s Hall of Fame - Construction, Hong Kong since 2021.
Glenn comments: “CMS’s strong reputation for construction, energy and infrastructure advice, coupled with its impressive regional and international footprint, will provide me with an excellent platform to further develop my practice. I’m also happy that I’ll be once again working with Ilan and Wayne as well as the wider team who are joining us in this move to CMS. We’re all committed to the APAC market and I’m excited to leverage the opportunities available, and to pursue new regional initiatives.”
Wayne Ma will join on 18 August 2025 and will be based in Hong Kong. Wayne is a corporate M&A and finance lawyer specialising across real estate asset classes as well as energy and infrastructure. His clients include investment banks, financial institutions and private equity funds in both inbound and outbound transactions across Asia, Europe and the United States. Wayne has been based in both Hong Kong and Singapore over the past 5 years and in Shanghai for 13 years prior and is admitted to the New York bar. He is recognised by the Legal 500, where he is Tier 1 ranked for Real Estate and Tier 2 ranked for Projects and Energy in Hong Kong.
Wayne comments: “This is an exciting move for the whole team. There’s so much opportunity in the market right now and I’ll be well-placed to make the most of it thanks to CMS’s strong platform across Asia and other key financial centres. I look forward to working with my new CMS colleagues.”
CMS Hong Kong supports clients across the full spectrum of dispute resolution, financial transactions, corporate, commercial and M&A. In November 2024 and January 2025, CMS announced the appointments of Helen Wang in the firm’s Funds practice and Steven Tran in the firm’s Corporate practice, both based in Hong Kong. The firm’s lateral hires demonstrate CMS’s ongoing commitment to strategic growth across the APAC region.
