Goodwin Procter has bolstered its debt finance practice in Asia with the partner hire of debt and leveraged finance lawyer Stephen Howard, who was most recently a local partner at White & Case in Hong Kong.

The addition follows the firm’s hiring of partner Matthew Nortcliff from CMS, where he was head of the funds and indirect real assets practice in Asia, in Singapore earlier this year. It was Goodwin’s first lateral partner hire since launching in the city-state in October last year.