Jasmine Chiu
38, partner, Mayer Brown

Jasmine Chiu is a partner in the Real Estate Finance practice of Mayer Brown’s Hong Kong Office.

Jasmine has extensive experience advising banks, sponsors and borrowers (private equity real estate funds, private investors, developers, publicly listed companies and real estate investment trusts (REITs)) on high-value, complex structured real estate debt financings.

Her recent notable deals include advising banks on a HK$14.75 billion senior secured loan for acquisition of a portfolio of 17 Hong Kong shopping centres; and in 2021 secured syndicated financing for the HK$ 10.5 billion acquisition of Kowloon Bay Trade and Exhibition Centre, one of Hong Kong’s largest real estate transactions that year.

Jasmine was also the lenders’ Hong Kong lead counsel on a series of onshore/offshore financings relating to a PERE fund’s PRC property investment portfolio in 2021, involving cross-border lending, guarantees and securities from obligors in Hong Kong, Nevada, Singapore, and PRC, with total facilities size of around $700 million offshore and 1,567 million yuan onshore.

Jasmine has passion and commitment to support and promote diversity and inclusion, with a focus on gender equality, in the legal professional community. She leads Mayer Brown’s Women’s Network committee, actively supports the Male Allies Initiative of The Women’s Foundation, and volunteers in a mentor programme for teenagers and young female lawyers.

“Her knowledge of the law coupled with her commercial acumen has won her repeated deals from institutional investors and banking clients,” says Keith Cheung, co-leader of Mayer Brown’s Real Estate Practice.

“Jasmine is the type of lawyer who will get the deal completed, efficiently and friendly and we definitely recommend her. She can also handle difficult counterparty with poise and style,” a PERE fund client says.

Prachi Dave
37, managing partner, Dhaval Vussonji & Associates

Prachi Dave, managing partner of Dhaval Vussonji & Associates, is a qualified Advocate and Solicitor practicing in the Bombay High Court. Over her 15-year career, she has been actively involved in matters relating to banking and finance, merger and acquisition, private equity, bankruptcy and insolvency, corporate restructuring, and real estate.

Prachi has advised extensively on financial transactions, equity deals and inbound/outbound investments for more than a decade, during which she has demonstrated her ability to critically analyse feasible and tax efficient structures while maintaining the balance with the flexibility for operation of investee companies.

She also regularly assists numerous domestic and international clients in cross-border investment advisory, syndicated lending, and structured finance transactions both offshore and onshore.

In addition, Prachi has played a crucial role in paving the way for the practice of insolvency resolution within the firm. She has been deeply involved in assessing the impact of recently introduced insolvency laws in other financing transactions and evolving structures which ring fence the risk and rewards of various stakeholders.

When discussing future strategy, Prachi has planned to grow at a Pan Asia level through synergies and alliances in various jurisdictions including Singapore.

Dhaval Vussonji, founding partner of the firm, praises that, “Prachi’s legal acumen in different facets of law, be it banking or real estate, has clients constantly requesting her involvement even in ever evolving legislations such as the Insolvency Code. We are proud to say that she is an integral part of our firm and leads the way for youngsters aspiring to be leading corporate lawyers.”

Dinasti Brian Harahap
39, group general counsel and chief legal officer, PT Nirvana Wastu Pratama (NWP Property/NWP)

Dinasti Brian Harahap (Brian) is the Group General Counsel and Chief Legal Officer of PT Nirvana Wastu Pratama.

Harahap joined NWP in 2017, a joint venture between Warburg Pincus (a global private equity firm) and PT City Retail Development (NIRO – a publicly listed Indonesian company), as a Senior Legal Counsel.

Within a year he was promoted as Head of Legal, M&A, fitting in seamlessly with the company’s institutional corporate culture and matching its goal to rapidly develop, acquire, own and manage institutional quality commercial assets while contributing to the growth of the local community’s assets.

In 2021, Harahap was appointed as Group General Counsel and Chief Legal Officer of NWP Property Group. Harahap leads all the core legal teams, such as the Legal, Mergers & Acquisitions team (M&A), the Corporate Legal and Business Development team, Compliance, and the Legal Division of the Warehouse and Logistics Venture. The NWP Legal team currently consists of 15 lawyers from various backgrounds of International and Indonesian law firms, as well as those from In House Corporates, a paralegal, and a secretary.

Harahap has always been one of the key figures who oversees NWP’s land-mark transactions, such as its $200 million equity fundraise from international institutional investors (one of the largest fundraises ever for a private real estate company in Indonesia), Offshore Structured Financing from a syndicate of international banks, numerous project level financing and refinancings, and to date have completed more than 20 acquisitions of companies and assets, as well as more than 10 land/or development deals.

During the early part of 2022, Harahap spearheaded the legal aspect of NWP Property’s venture into the Logistics/Warehousing Business in various jurisdictions. Upon establishment he was appointed director on the board of various subsidiary companies of NWP Property.

Brian is an in-house counsel who works at the pace as that of an external lawyer. “I was proud to have him as a client and work with him on one of the most intense financing deals of my career,” an Associate Partner of a law firm says. Before joining NWP, Harahap spent a decade in private practice with international firm Clifford Chance, both in its Singapore office and its affiliated Jakarta Office, Linda Widyati & Partners. Prior to that, he started his legal career at ABNR Counsellors at Law.

David He
36, Partner, Gunderson Dettmer

In January this year, David He became the youngest equity partner at Gunderson Dettmer.

The first partner promotion out of Gunderson Dettmer’s Singapore office, David, a corporate and securities lawyer, has advised on more than 500 venture-backed deals and led negotiations involving parties from across the globe, including the U.S., India, China, Middle East, Africa, Australia, and Southeast Asia.

Some of David’s key clients include Khatabook, Loop Health, AyoConnect, TurtleTree, Asia Partners, Tiger Global, Lightspeed, Sequoia and Fastcargo Logistics Group, among others. In recent years, David represented Lightspeed U.S. and Lightspeed India in their investments into China, India and the U.S. He also represented Tiger Global in more than 40 transactions across the U.S., India and Southeast Asia.

Notable deals include representing Asia Partners as the lead investor in venture financings by RedDoorz, Carsome, SCI E-Commerce and Doctor Anywhere, Lightspeed as the lead investor in Udaan’s $585 million Series D financing and subsequent $280 million Series D-1 financing, and Khatabook in their Series A, Series B and Series C financings and their strategic acquisition of Biz Analyst.

Vikas Garg, Founder and CEO at abillion says “David He provided exceptional counsel since our pre-Series A days. He’s a skilled negotiator, very commercial, responsive and has a strong foundation in Silicon Valley and tech. David covers all the criteria we’d want from counsel.”

“David is one of the best venture-focused lawyers we have worked with in the China, India and Southeast Asia region. He is highly responsive and our team has greatly benefited from his extensive industry knowledge and understanding of how deals are done,” says Morgan Worth, Partner and VP of Legal at Lightspeed Venture Partners.

Samuel Hung
37, Partner, RPC

A partner at RPC, Samuel Hung, specializes in commercial disputes resolution with a focus on defending professional negligence, insurance, regulatory and disciplinary matters.

As part of the founding team of RPC’s Hong Kong office in August 2012, Hung was promoted to partner at the age of 35.

He has been a trusted adviser for several key clients of the firm for the last 10 years, including some prominent audit and professional services firms and inter-national insurance companies.

Hung regularly advises some of the largest institutions on large-scale claims (usually involving fabricated accounts, overstated sales, and misappropriation of assets) in relevant sectors.

He frequently advises audit firms and their partners in regulatory and disciplinary proceedings, including acting as an advocate in disciplinary hearings.

When talking about the future, Hung hopes to drive growth in his team given the uptick in civil claims against professionals and recent regulatory reforms.

A client says that Hung has been a trusted adviser for about 10 years who has been consistent all along and they view him as their business partner.

“Sam has a good understanding of the accountancy practices, has great attention to details and gives practical and thorough advice to our business,” another client adds.

Foo Maw Jiun
38, partner, Dentons Rodyk and Davidson

Foo Maw Jiun is a partner in Dentons Rodyk’s intellectual property and technology practice group and co-Head of the patents practice. He is also co-Head of the data privacy and protection and cybersecurity practices.

Maw Jiun’s practices encompass worldwide registration of intellectual property, infringement and counterfeiting actions, commercial litigation involving intellectual property, commercialisation of intellectual property rights (such as licensing and assignment agreements) and compliance with data protection and cybersecurity laws.

Maw Jiun is extensively involved in negotiating and drafting commercial agreements, RFPs, and tenders in relation to IT. He has acted for and advised both customers (seeking to procure IT resources) and IT service providers, for IT infrastructure projects, data centres, hardware, software licensing, software development, software escrow, managed services, and maintenance.

In recent years, Maw Jiun has successfully represented Comité Cham-pagne, the trade association mandated under the French law to represent the interests of operators on the “Champagne” geographical indication, in a trademark opposition against a local wine company.

He also acted for Nexplanar Corpo-ration in the Singapore High Court, in relation to the assessment of damages involving patent infringement of chemical mechanical planarization pads.

He acted for a tobacco manufac-turer in the Singapore High Court and Court of Appeal in relation to a dispute involving trademark invalidation; represented Ryohin Keikaku, which operates “MUJI” stores in a trade mark infringement suit against a Singapore based retailer, IUIGA, in the Singapore High Court and acted for TOWA Corporation, a leading global semi-conductor packaging company in the Singapore High Court, and Singapore Court of Appeal, in relation to a dispute involving patent infringement of semiconductor moulding technology and patent validity.

Maw Jiun regularly advises and represents a variety of institutions on intellectual property, data and technology issues, including public and private healthcare institutions, statutory bodies, fashion retailers, financial institutions and IT service providers, including Agency for Integrated Care, Integrated Health Information Systems, Spa Esprit Group, NTUC Income Cooperative, among others.

One client says, “Maw Jiun has been a key advisor and our legal counsel on most of our strategic deals. He has been instrumental in strategizing and nego-tiating key issues on partnerships, data rights, intellectual property, and risk management.”

Hangil Lee
36, Partner, Bae, Kim & Lee (BKL)

With nearly a decade of industry experience in a wide range of disputes, Hangil has successfully represented various domestic and foreign clients in court proceedings as well as arbitral proceedings, particularly in an international context. Hangil has acted as counsel at all stages of inter-national arbitrations under the major arbitration rules and also represented clients in investor-state disputes. She specializes in disputes involving financial institutions, corporate civil and criminal lawsuits, post M&A and investment disputes, financial matters, construction and energy disputes.

Regularly acting in complex commercial disputes, Hangil has acted as counsel in an ICC arbitration between a consortium led by Affinity Equity Partners and a Korean insurance executive concerning a $1.8 billion put option claim. She is also representing Actoz Soft. in both set-aside proceedings in SICC and enforcement proceedings in Korean courts, following a liability award rendered in a high-value (over $1 billion) ICC arbitration. Apart from this, she has acted in an SIAC arbitration seated in Singapore in relation to an EPC power plant project in the Philippines.

Some of her major clients include DL E&C, DB Insurance, Affinity Equity Partners, Korean Reinsurance Company, CDIB Capital, Republic of Korea (Ministry of Justice), among others.

Tony Dongwook Kang, head of international arbitration and litigations practice at BKL says, “Hangil Lee is very sharp and brilliant and is well-versed even in detailed matters in arbitration procedures. As she is a good-natured and gentle person, clients always feel comfortable with, and like her. She has a high winning rate in general and is a highly qualified lawyer in the field of arbitration.”

Gerui Lim
39, director, dispute resolution, Drew & Napier

Gerui Lim is currently a director of dispute resolution at Drew & Napier. At the young age of 35, she was made an equity director of the firm in acknowledgement of her outstanding work and promising leadership ability.

Gerui’s practices focus on corporate and commercial litigation and arbitration. She has represented high profile clients and high net worth individuals in a variety of matters including complex commercial disputes, director/shareholder conflicts, trust and inheritance disputes, regulatory actions and banking and finance disputes.

Some of the noteworthy cases that Gerui has handled include high value disputes for the Government of Laos, state-owned Russian enterprises, and the Government of India.

Gerui acted for the Government of Laos in an application to set aside a Tribunal’s jurisdictional ruling in an investor-state arbitration involving claims of more than $890 million.

She acted for a state-owned Russian company against a Yukos Group entity to resist enforcement of an ICC arbitral award of more than $80 million, involving concurrent litigation in Russia, France, and Ireland. She also acted for the Government of India in relation to Bilateral Investment Treaty disputes with the Cairn and Vedanta Groups over tax assessment orders issued by the Indian revenue department on $3.8 billion capital gains arising from a complex restructuring exercise involving Indian oil and gas assets.

Gerui acted in a major trust dispute over the ownership of assets up to $800 million, involving complex corporate trust structures based in the British Virgin Islands and Cayman Islands. She also acted for the Monetary Authority of Singapore in the first two civil penalty actions commenced in the Singapore Courts under the Securities and Futures Act, both of which resulted in landmark judgments by the Singapore Court of Appeal - one on market manipulation and the other on insider trading.

Some of Gerui’s major clients include the Government of Laos, Accenture, the National University of Singapore, and Singlife Aviva among others.

Gerui is currently serving her second term on the Young Singapore International Arbitration Center (YSIAC) Committee, whose members are chosen from a battery of promising arbitration practitioners below 40.

Alfin Frans Nainggolan
37, senior partner, Frans & Setiawan Law Office

Alfin Frans Nainggolan, previously the principal of Frans & Associates, co-founded Frans & Setiawan Law Office in 2019 with Hendra Setiawan Boen. Alfin’s practice focusses on corporate law, construction law, company’s restructuring, and international trade.

Under the leadership of the founding partners, F&S structures its practice into three departments: corporate and commercial practice, dispute resolution practice, and intellectual property practice. The firm consists of multilingual attorneys with extensive experience in counselling high-profile clients at tier 1 Indonesia law firms.

Over the years, F & S’s lawyers have assisted and maintained relationship with a wide range of clients throughout Indonesia and abroad, ranging from individuals to private and public companies, multinational corporations, state-owned enterprises to governmental agencies and institutions.

With the combined resources of the merging firms, F&S assisted a large Japanese property development company on FIDIC based contract for its premium office building project in Jakarta; assisted various foreign construction companies in relation to their subsidiaries and projects in Indonesia; and represented creditors in bankruptcy and suspension of debt payment cases.

Alfin assisted a U.S.-based inter-national law firm in an antidumping case on fish product examined by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce; assisted an EU law firm for preparing trade complaints filed with the WTO and advised a large property development company from Japan in preparing on FIDIC based contract for its premium office building project in Jakarta. Alfin was once appointed as the president director of a company within one of the largest state-owned companies to restructure the company. He managed to turned-around the company from its bad financial situation.

Reiya Nakano
38, partner, Mori Hamada & Matsumoto

Reiya Nakano is a partner at Mori Hamada & Matsumoto whose practice range from advising on M&A transactions to launching world-class joint ventures.

Nakano has played a pivotal role in several high-profile M&A transactions that led to establishing the firm’s practice in Japan and Asia. Many clients reckoned that Nakano was also instrumental in several innovative transactions.

Nakano along with his team adopted an unprecedented structure by solving complicated legal issues to full the needs of his clients.

Some of Nakano’s key work in recent years include, KKR’s acquisition of Hitachi Transportation System (transaction value exceeds $5 billion). He represented Japan’s largest tractor maker, Kubota Corporation in its acquisition of Escorts, an Indian listed company (transaction value of more than $1 billion).

A client praises him: “Mr. Nakano not only provided us with solid and valuable advice based on his extensive experience in Japanese M&A space also proactively guided us to find common ground in tough negotiation with the deep understanding of the deal context. His strong commitment to the projects and effective communication with a calm and reassuring manner earned the high trust from all stakeholders”

“His interactions with the clients are both calm and cordial. He excels at anticipating client’s needs and giving them effective advices based on his in-depth experience in M&A practice. He has distinguished himself by his outstanding and sophisticated abilities and he is definitely one of the most talented and promising young partners.” says the managing partner at Mori Hamada & Matsumoto.

Besides transactional work, Nakano also set up a Legal Tech Project Team within the firm to work with legal tech companies for developing solutions aimed at enhancing the quality and speed of regular legal work. This includes a legal research service named Legalscape which is now used by several law firms and companies based in Japan.

Tung Nguyen
35, counsel, Vilaf

Tung Nguyen, counsel at Vilaf, skilled in banking and finance, corporate law, M&A and cross-border transactions has developed a team of young lawyers with experience varying from two to seven years.

Nguyen was also on secondments with BNP Paribas and HSBC while at Vilaf.

Nguyen had advised Bank of Tokyo – Mitsubishi UFJ as lead arranger in syndicated Nexi loan facility of $510 million for financing La Son Tuy Loan Highway Project.

He also advised ANZ, BNP Paribas, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Credit Agricole, and HSBC as mandated lead arrangers in the $350 million Reserve Based Lending Facility to Ophir Energy, secured against, among others, Chim Sao Field in Vietnam.

Nguyen was also advisor to HSBC Bank (Vietnam), as the issuer, in its first ever bond offering and the first bond ever being issued by a foreign bank in Vietnam.

“I have worked with Tung for more than 10 years in Vilaf. He is highly responsible and efficient in managing complex deals with large project team members and multiple work streams. He has won the trust of executive members of several important clients and has also successfully developed a team of lawyers, which reflects his coaching and management skills. He learns fast from experiences and is a big asset of the firm,” says Duyen Ha Vo, Chairperson of Vilaf.

Connell O’Neill
39, partner, APAC head of TMT, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher

As the head of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher’s technology, media and telecommunications practice in Asia, Connell O’Neill advises clients throughout APAC and the Middle East on corporate and commercial transactions, privacy and cybersecurity, product counselling, and commercial intellectual property matters.

O’Neill has been a key advisor on several crucial matters across APAC and the Middle East, including in China, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Australia, UAE and elsewhere. He has provided strategic and commercially sensitive advice to clients on a range of complex and emerging topics.

O’Neill has continued to advise his long-standing clients PLDT, the Philippines telco and its subsidiary Smart Communications, Inc, since early 2016 on its digital transformation. He has assisted PLDT on an extension of its managed IT infrastructure arrangements for the consolidation, modernisation, and management of PLDT and Smart’s IT Infrastructure.

O’Neill also recently advised Etis-alat on its strategic data centre joint venture with G42 in the UAE to create the largest data centre platform in the region, and recently assisted Miescor International Development Corporation (a joint venture between Meralco and Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners) on its acquisition of a portfolio of telecommunications towers from Globe Telecommunications in the Philippines.

O’Neill regularly advises emerging and established businesses on major transformative transactions and digital strategies. His most prominent clients are PLDT Inc, Smart Communications Inc, Meralco, MIDC, Etisalat, e&, Nokia Corporation, Binance, PCCW, Zoom, Twitter, Meta (Facebook) / Edge Network Services, Amazon /Amazon Web Services, and Sequoia Capital India, among others.

“Connell is the advisor and partner you want on your side of the table if you are a General Counsel for a business. His sharp commercial acumen, logical and clear thinking, sound legal analysis and ability to articulate complex issues into simple language will always put you on the front foot,” a client says.

Kyle Gabriel Peters
35, partner, PDLegal

Kyle Gabriel Peters is a partner at PDLegal specializing in commercial and corporate litigation with an emphasis on insolvency and restruc turing, fraud, and investigation.

Peters regularly handles complex cross-border commercial and corporate disputes, and he has significant experience in advising, coordinating, and managing concurrent disputes and proceedings across multiple jurisdictions. He also has expertise in contentious insolvency proceedings and corporate restructuring applications.

Peters is retained by a growing client base, which includes local and international entrepreneurs, MNCs, and insolvency and restructuring professionals. Of particular note is the fact that Peters is regularly retained and instructed by local and international law firms.

Some of Peters’ key cases in recent years include being instructed as lead counsel for the Plaintiff-beneficiary in an estate of a deceased ultra-high-net-worth individual with an estimated value of the estate in excess of S$800m. He recently acted for a high-net-worth individual to successfully resist striking out proceedings brought by an international bank.

Peters is presently acting for liquidators in a variety of matters and disputes, and has just successfully acted for foreign trustees-in-bankruptcy in recognition proceedings in Singapore.

Peters has been described by notable practitioners (including senior counsel) and clients as “a commercially astute litigator”, “a smart and thoroughly prepared workhorse” with “eloquence and tenacity (in) his arsenal, driven by a deep commitment to the ethical pursuit of his client’s cause”.

Peters has been said to conduct “highly contentious litigation battles with grace and tenacity” and is “well able to see the bigger picture and advise decisively and well on the strategy to be adopted in resolving any given dispute.”

Peters has also been praised for his community and volunteer work: he is described “as an exceptional volunteer with integrity” who “conducts himself with a high standard of professionalism and dignity”.

Adam Richardson
37, Partner, HFW

Adam Richardson is a partner in the Commodities department of HFW’s Singapore office with a focus on international trade and shipping matters. He joined the firm as a trainee solicitor in 2008 and became one of the youngest lawyers promoted to the partnership at the age of 33.

In addition to his substantial experience in Singapore, Richardson’s practice has taken him to countries across Asia-Pacific, including Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, and Australia. He has extensively handled significant cross-border disputes, with a number of them exceeding $100 million in value.

Apart from commercial arbitrations and litigations, Richardson has also advised on non-contentious matters, such as physical commodities contracts, letters of credit, receivables structures and high-value trade finance structures.

As a leader in innovation in HFW’s Singapore office, Richardson is leading a smart contract initiative within the firm. He has developed multiple sets of standard terms and conditions for clients across a wide spectrum of commodities, including the first set of standard trading terms covering various products and jurisdictions for a major international soft commodities company.

Richardson has regularly assisted international trading companies, banks, and other financial institutions in respect of commodities including oil, petroleum products, coal, base metals, iron ore, grains, soybeans and rice on matters of supply contracts, distribution agreements, insolvency and recovery strategy, insurance, innovative inventory financing facilities and more.

Being among the very few young lawyers in Singapore with his calibre and experience in the field, Richardson has been widely acknowledged for his expertise on the intersection between physical commodities and banking, his pragmatic and commercial approach and well-rounded understanding of critical issues when handling disputes or negotiating deals.

One of his clients says: “As in-house counsel in a fast-paced commodities business, it is important to be able to rely on external counsel for a swift response that is both business-friendly and practical. Adam consistently meets both of these criteria. He has a strong knowledge of the commodities business and applicable law. He also brings a calm ‘can do’ manner to contentious matters.”

Pratumporn Somboonpoonpol
38, senior associate, Weerawong, Chinnavat & Partners

Pratumporn Somboonpoonpol is a senior associate in the corporate governance practice group at Weerawong C&P. She regularly advises clients across a wide range of sectors such as energy, financial services, medical, real estate, and telecommunications.

Somboonpoonpol represented Siam Commercial Bank Public Company, one of the largest banks in Thailand and SCB X Public Company in a landmark reorganization. This included restructuring the financial business group, tender offer of all SCB shares, delisting of SCB shares and listing of SCB X shares on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET).

She represented SCB Securities, a subsidiary of The Siam Commercial Bank Public Company, in the proposed acquisition of 51% interest in Bitkub Online. (Bitkub), a leading digital asset exchange in Thailand, from Bitkub Capital Group Holdings with total market capitalization of Bitkub of 35 billion baht (almost a billion dollars), marking another Thai “unicorn”.

“It is pleasant to work with Khun Pratumporn as she can explain complex things easily. She enables clients to understand the perspective of the law and business operations. She is enthu-siastic and doesn’t make her clients feel stressed even amidst limitations of time. Her help allows us to overcome hardships,” says one of her clients.

River Stone (Shi Chuan)
38, partner, Tanner De Witt

River Stone (SHI Chuan) is the youngest partner in the Corporate and Commercial Department at Tanner De Witt and heads the China Practice Group which he launched with Dispute Resolution partner Pamela Mak in 2017.

Stone has been the driving force behind the China Practice Group and responsible for several significant clients (both non-contentious and contentious matters) win from Mainland China including banks, securities companies, asset management companies and companies in various other industries through his broad networks.

Stone specializes in high value mergers and acquisitions (including cross-border M&A), fund formation (including PE fund, LPF, hedge fund and SPC fund) and regulatory matters (including SFC, fintech, blockchain, data privacy, pharmaceutical and life science). He also advises extensively on banking and finance, cryptocurrency matters, general corporate matters and trusts and family offices – related matters.

Stone’s client base stretches across many sectors with a particular focus on financial institutions, private equity firms and pharmaceutical companies, including China Shandong Group, Shenzhen Investment Holdings, Zhongtai International Group, Infinity Group, Mindray Group.

Stone has passed the Great Bay Area Legal Qualification Exam and is in the first batch of Hong Kong lawyers who will have the qualification to practice PRC law in the Great Bay Area of China. He aims to take Tanner De Witt to the No.1 independent firm in Hong Kong with the continued strong growth of China Practice Group.

One of his clients says, “During our constant discussions on some specific issues, Stone impressed me not only with a very comprehensive and in-depth understanding of proposed transaction structure, but also with his excellent ability to make his clarification on legal issues which were direct, clear and easy to understand.”

Sarocha Thongperm
38, senior associate, Weerawong, Chinnavat & Partners

Sarocha Thongperm is a senior associate in the litigation and arbitration practice group at Weerawong C&P. She specializes in domestic and international arbitra tion under Thai Arbitration Institute (TAI) and International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) rules. She also has extensive experience in advising on civil and criminal disputes including cross-border litigation.

Thongperm has acted in a leading role in advising large-scale renewable energy companies and other major companies in domestic and multi-jurisdictional litigation proceedings. Her experience covers disputes in a wide array of sectors including disputes in relation to high-value loan agreements, ownership of world-renowned properties and investments in renewable energy. Thongperm’s adaptability and expertise can be attributed to her ample experience in complex civil, criminal, commercial and bankruptcy disputes.

Thongperm represented major renewable energy companies in three arbitration proceedings under the ICC Arbitration Rules in relation to claims of over $1 billion and multi-jurisdictional litigation proceedings (including in Belize, Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand) arising out of share purchase agreements, agricultural land leases and rights to the use of agricultural land.

She represented a renewable energy investor in multi-jurisdictional litigation proceedings (in Hong Kong and Thailand), as well as a series of large-scale and complex disputes in both civil and criminal cases before Thai courts in relation to share purchase agreements and the ownership of the shares in the major renewable energy company.

Some of Thongperm’s marque clients include KPN Energy Holding, Golden Music, Pacific Alliance Group, PTT Public Company, and GMM Grammy Public Company.

“Sarocha is one of the most tenacious litigators in Thailand. She does not shy away from difficult cases and is an absolute pleasure to work with,” a client says.

Shawn Yang
36, partner, Debevoise & Plimpton

Shawn Yang joined the Debevoise & Plimpton’s New York office in 2012 as an associate and transferred to the Hong Kong office in 2013. He was promoted to international counsel in January 2021 and became an equity partner in July 2022 shortly thereafter. Shawn is part of the firm’s Investment Management Group. His practice focuses on private equity fund formation, secondaries and select investor-side representations.

Shawn has represented market-leading sponsors in some of the largest fundraising in the region including flagships and notable funds for Baring Private Equity Asia (BPEA), Sequoia Capital, Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, KKR, Morgan Stanley, Advantage Partners, VIG Partners, Navis Capital and Hony Capital.

Shawn also works on a full spectrum of secondary transactions in Asia, ranging from traditional buy-side secondaries for institutional clients, select sell-side representations and continuation funds for both sponsors and lead investors. Finally, Shawn represents select institutional investors such as Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP) and HarbourVest Partners on investor-side representations.

Recent representations include:

·       BPEA on the fundraising of BPEA Fund VIII, a $11 billion pan-Asia fund.

·       Sequoia on the fundraising of its 2022 China funds, which closed on ~ $9 billion of commitments.

·       KKR on the fundraising of its first Asia Pacific Infrastructure Fund, a$3.9 billion pan-Asia infrastructure fund.

·       Clayton, Dubilier & Rice on the fundraising of CD&R Fund XI, a $16 billion buyout fund.

·       OTPP on its $1 billion investment in The National Investment and Infrastructure Fund of India, which was named the “Private Equity Deal of the Year” at the IFLR1000 India Awards.

Kongkoch Yongsavasdikul
39, partner, head of Digital Law Practice and co-head of Startup Practice, Kudun & Partners

Kongkoch Yongsavasdikul is a partner at Kudun & Partners and heads the Digital Law Practice and co-heads the Startup Practice of the firm.

Yongsavasdikul’s expertise focuses on corporate, mergers & acquisitions, capital markets including initial public listing (IPO), corporate restructuring, and infrastructure funds.

Yongsavasdikul has spent around 15 years in practice representing both buy and sell side in a wide spectrum of public and private transactions including entire business transfers (EBT) of companies across a broad range of industries such as financial services, digital asset exchange platforms, healthcare, solar and wind energy, real estate, and TMT including tech start-ups and e-commerce. His capital markets credentials include establishing some of the award-winning and ground-breaking infrastructure funds in the country.

He has a diverse background managing a wide array of projects ranging from leading some of the largest fund-raising projects for local and international startups, advising various global tech companies on blockchain, cryptocurrencies, e-sports, fintech and NFTs on regulatory compliance to acting as legal counsel for a bidding process to acquire more than 200 branches of a major international fast-food franchise across Thailand.

Yongsavasdikul has an appetite for highly complex and challenging work, which allows him to structure innovative business-oriented solutions for his clients, along with a profound interest in digital law and a keenness to assist startups.

“K. Kongkoch is highly knowledge-able in the renewable energy sector, extremely responsive and he puts his feet in our shoes to ensure the success of our cross-border acquisition in the agreed time frame. He is extremely energetic and is willing to help,” a client comments.

ALB ASIA 40 UNDER 40 2022

LAW FIRMS

YOKO ATSUMI
38, Atsumi & Sakai

ADITY CHAUDHURY
38, Argus Partners

JASMINE CHIU
38, Mayer Brown

BYUNG MIN CHOI
38, Kim & Chang

EMMANUEL CHUA
38, Baker McKenzie Wong & Leow

PRACHI DAVE
37, Dhaval Vussonji & Associates

EDDIE PRABOWO DEWANDA
36, Hadiputranto, Hadinoto & Partners (HHP Law Firm), a member firm of Baker & McKenzie International

KWONG CHIEW EE
36, Rahmat Lim & Partners

MINO HAN
38, Peter & Kim

DAVID HE
36, Gunderson Dettmer

SAMUEL HUNG
37, RPC

PRITHA JHA
37, Pioneer Legal

LI JIANG
38, Ashurst

FOO MAW JIUN
38, Dentons Rodyk & Davidson

GUNHEE KIM
37, Yulchon

PRANAT LAOHAPAIROJ
38, Chandler MHM

HANGIL LEE
36, Bae, Kim & Lee (BKL)

GERUI LIM
39, Drew & Napier

ANAND LAKRA
38, J. Sagar Associates (JSA)

NIRUPAM LODHA
38, Khaitan & Co.

ELOISE MATSUI
36, Stephenson Harwood

KARAN MITROO
37, Luthra and Luthra Law Offices

NAYANTARA NAG
38, Trilegal

ALFIN FRANS NAINGGOLAN
37, Frans & SetiawanLaw Office

REIYA NAKANO
38, Mori Hamada & Matsumoto

THANH HAI NGUYEN
36, Baker McKenzie

TUNG NGUYEN
35, Vilaf

CHRISTOPHER LOUIE OCAMPO
37, Angara Abello Concepcion Regala & Cruz Law Offices (ACCRALAW)

CONNELL O’NEILL
39, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher

JESY OOI
39, Skrine

KYLE GABRIEL PETERS
35, PDLegal

ADAM RICHARDSON
37, HFW

KRISTIN CHARISSE SIAO
39, Villaraza & Angangco

PRATUMPORN SOMBOONPOONPOL
38, Weerawong, Chinnavat & Partners

RIVER STONE (SHI CHUAN)
38, Tanner De Witt

FAVIAN TAN
39, Rajah & Tann Singapore

JONATHAN TAN
33, Helmsman

SAROCHA THONGPERM
38, Weerawong, Chinnavat & Partners

JOCELYN TSAO
38, Withers

SHAWN YANG
36, Debevoise & Plimpton

KONGKOCH YONGSAVASDIKUL
39, Kudun and Partners

MOHAMMAD RENALDI ZULKARNAIN
39, Assegaf Hamzah & Partners

IN HOUSE

CHERYLN CHANG
38, BNP Paribas

DINASTI BRIAN HARAHAP
39, NWP Property/NWP

JAMIE HE
38, The Carlyle Group

KATY LAU
36, Tencent Plus Partners (TPP)

DANIEL LO
37, Cake DeFi