Offshore law firm Walkers has expanded its team in Singapore by transferring senior funds attorney Laura Rogers from its Hong Kong office - a move which the firm says anticipates increased offshore legal work in the city-state, particularly with regard to distressed hedge funds, debt restructuring, and public-to-private deals.

Ms Rogers specialises in hedge funds, private equity funds, and providing general corporate advice. Prior to joining Walkers, she worked with Allen and Overy, initially in their London office and subsequently relocating to Hong Kong in 2001.

Walkers expects that investment funds clients in Asia may soon join those in Western markets in experiencing issues regarding illiquidity problems, restructuring and the potential liquidation of funds.

"Liquidity issues and extreme levels of redemption requests for funds are currently less severe in Asia than the US and Europe have encountered," said Ashley Gunning, joint managing partner of Walkers' Singapore office and head of the investment funds group.

"However, we anticipate these problems may arrive in Asia in due course if markets continue to deteriorate. It is quite possible that the impact in Asia will be less severe than it has been elsewhere because Asian funds tend to be less leveraged and generally have less complex investment strategies than funds in, for instance, the US. However, in anticipation of challenging times we wanted to be sure we had the right team in place," he said.

In addition to Singapore and Hong Kong, Walkers has offices in London, Jersey, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands and Dubai.