More than 150 Hong Kong-based in-house counsel attended the 2014 ALB Hong Kong In-House Legal Summit, held at the Conrad Hotel on Sep. 12, to hear from a range of distinguished speakers on topics and issues affecting businesses and lawyers across Asia.
The summit kicked off with welcoming remarks from the conference chair Brian Tang, managing director of the Asia Capital Markets Institute (ACMI). “The timing of this summit and its content is well planned with respect to Asian in-house counsel. This is a critical time for Hong Kong with respect to its constitution as well as the rule of law, and how it will remain as a leading financial centre,” said Tang.
“The role of the in-house counsel is ever-evolving and is more focused upon as in-house legal compliance departments are increasingly being held accountable for breaches of the company.”
The opening address was delivered by Rimsky Yuen, the Secretary for Justice of the Hong Kong government’s Department of Justice. “As an international financial and commercial centre, Hong Kong has been enjoying good rankings in terms of its competitiveness and economic freedom,” he said. In the World Economic Forum’s latest report, Hong Kong was ranked the seventh most competitive economy in the world, he added.
Yuen highlighted a number of improvements and legislative developments that have been enacted by the Hong Kong government in recent years to strengthen the city’s legal system. “Our drive to strengthen Hong Kong’s status as a centre for international legal and dispute resolution services will not be successful without the support of stakeholders. In-house counsel are certainly our important partners … not just because of the significant number of in-house lawyers in the legal profession, but more importantly because of the important function they perform,” said Yuen.
Global Law Office chaired the first workshop of the summit with a panel – comprising partners David Fu, Lin Huawei, Chen Huanzhong and Meph Jia Gui – on streamlining M&A transactions in China. Fu took the audience through the Chinese M&A trends and legislative updates over the past few years. “From a regulatory perspective, for high-profile transactions in China, the government is taking a more rigid position in terms of approving M&A transactions. On the other hand, the government is trying to continue to open up more sectors and areas for market investment,” said Fu.
“Looking ahead, A-share listed companies and non-listed public companies, as well as the reform of state-owned enterprises, will be important driving forces of M&A in China.”
Following on from Fu, Lin Huawei spoke about dispute resolution and document drafting in M&A, and Chen Huanzhong discussed developing regulatory compliance and associated criminal liabilities under China’s legal framework and law enforcement mechanisms. Meph Jia Gui concluded the panel with an update on legislative developments in China’s intellectual property sector.
The next session shifted the focus onto Southeast Asia, with a panel comprising three member firms of the World Law Group, a global law firm network. Ng Swee Kee and Yee Mei Ken of Malaysia’s Shearn Delamore & Co, Kurniawan Tanzil of Indonesian firm Makarim & Taira and Carina Laforteza of the Philippines’ SyCip Salazar Hernandez & Gatmaitan spoke about the latest commercial and legislative developments in Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, and discussed best practices for investment and changes to foreign investment laws in the region.
In the session before lunch, Alfred Wu, partner at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson discussed ways for companies to optimise their dispute resolution strategy. Wu and Fried Frank associate Anita Fong weighed up the pros and cons of both litigation and arbitration, discussed a few recent cases and touched upon some arbitration trends in the region. Wu noted that a growing trend is that many private disputes are being resolved through international arbitration rather than litigation. A common misconception is that arbitration is always faster and cheaper, which is not always the case, said Wu. People also opt for arbitration for its neutral venue and the option to pick their own arbitration tribunal. “The end result is a final, enforceable and transportable award,” said Wu.
In November last year, the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (HKIAC) revised its administered arbitration rules. Some of the key amendments include new provisions for the appointment of an emergency arbitrator, expedited procedures, the ability to consolidate multiple HKIAC arbitrations into a single arbitration and provisions for claims under multiple contracts in a single arbitration. “Hong Kong now has the most avant-garde set of rules that are available anywhere in the world,” said Wu.
Following the networking luncheon, Ahcene Lahsasna, Associate Professor at INCEIF, the global university of Islamic Finance, spoke about the techniques and principles of managing and mitigating risks of non-compliance from an Islamic finance perspective. As Islamic finance begins to expand from its traditional hubs in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, other regions are starting to warm up to the idea. Earlier this month, the Hong Kong government issued its inaugural sukuk, or Islamic bond, for $1 billion after amending the city’s tax laws to put Islamic bonds on par with traditional bonds and debt instruments. Lahsasna discussed the fundamental concepts of shariah law and sharia non-compliance risk, and explained tools and techniques to identify incongruence in sharia compliance.
Following the final refreshment and networking break of the day, Dean Ward, head of Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD) Asia Pacific Sales at Thomson Reuters, spoke about managing key due diligence challenges and how to build an optimal approach to safeguard investments. Ward discussed the rationale behind international EDD and compared domestic and international due diligence practices, taking the audience through a typical M&A due diligence exercise and highlighting unique challenges and strategies in executing due diligence in multijurisdictional M&A transactions.
The summit concluded with a panel discussion on the evolving role of in-house counsel in driving the strategic interests of businesses in Hong Kong and China. Moderated by Ranajit Dam, Managing Editor, Legal Media Group at Thomson Reuters, the panel featured Stanley Lui, General Counsel APAC at Nobel Biocare Asia, and Christopher To, Executive Director of the Construction Industry Council. The panelists discussed global innovation trends, what innovation means to in-house counsel, and how in-house lawyers are innovating to better serve their business and provide strategic advice.
