International law firm Kobre & Kim LLP has announced the launch of a new office in Hong Kong.

The new branch will be led by William McGovern, the former executive director at Morgan Stanley in Hong Kong and former branch chief in the US Securities and Exchange Commission's enforcement division. He will be supported by Steven Kobre, the firm's co-founder and a former federal prosecutor at the US Department of Justice.

"There is a real demand in Asia for a law firm willing to take an adverse position against larger companies," Kobre said in an interview with Bloomberg.

Kobre & Kim, which is headquartered in New York, has worked on a number of Asian cases, including representation of large Asian firms in US-based antitrust class and government actions, representation of clients in Japan, Singapore, Korea and Hong Kong who are being investigated by US authorities, and other similar types of disputes. The firm is known for specialising in international government investigations, large commercial disputes, and international asset recovery, including offshore trust litigation.