The Legal 500

The firm

Reed Smith Richards Butler has leading corporate, commercial litigation and finance practices and recognised expertise in property and intellectual property. Opened in 1980, the Hong Kong office is one of the territory’s major law firms with a total of over 126 lawyers and other fee-earners.

Areas of practice

The firm’s practice is international in scope and the Hong Kong office is now part of Reed Smith LLP, a leading international law firm with over 1,700 lawyers, 690 of whom are partners, across 23 offices worldwide.

The Hong Kong office is best known for combining the delivery of high-quality legal advice with a practical and commercial approach to solving legal issues, in accordance with clients’ commercial objectives.

Corporate: Reed Smith Richards Butler is one of the leading corporate firms in Hong Kong. The firm’s corporate department regularly acts for local and international financial institutions, as well as the region’s major public companies, on a wide range of work such as stock exchange transactions, flotations, M&A, takeovers and capital markets. The department also has expertise in private equity (including venture and growth capital, buyouts and public to private transactions), the leisure and entertainment sector (including hotels) and a wide range of other general corporate and commercial work.

In line with the importance of the PRC economy the firm has a substantial practice dealing with PRC-related transactions, including Hong Kong listings for PRC corporations, private equity investments, M&A and other corporate and capital markets work.

Litigation: the litigation department is one of the largest commercial and maritime dispute resolution practices in Hong Kong. The firm has a long-established reputation in shipping and international trade. In shipping, the firm acts predominantly for owners, charterers, freight forwarders and P&I clubs, undertaking both wet and dry work. The firm has also established a leading securities and telecoms regulatory litigation practice representing both market participants and regulators in relation to investigations and disciplinary civil and criminal proceedings.

The department undertakes a wide range of commercial litigation, arbitration and tribunal work, including CIETAC and CMAC arbitrations in Beijing. The firm also has a substantial insurance and professional indemnity practice, defending claims against solicitors, barristers, doctors, dentists, architects, engineers and other professionals.

Finance and banking: the firm has a significant finance and banking department advising on all aspects of banking and corporate debt, including asset, project and structured finance, cross-border work, aircraft and ship finance, and corporate restructuring.

Property: the property department advises on all aspects of Hong Kong property, both commercial and residential, and in relation to property transactions in the PRC.

Intellectual property: the IP department has a strong reputation locally and internationally for its IP work. It handles all aspects of trade mark, design, patent and domain name registration, licensing and distribution rights including computer contracts and IP consultancy, and infringement matters.

Languages
Cantonese
English
Hindi
Malay
Mandarin
Punjabi
Hokkien
Hokka
Korean
Japanese
Shanghainese
and many European languages

Offices
Abu Dhabi
Beijing
Century City
Chicago
Dubai
Greece
Hong Kong
London
Los Angeles
Munich
Northern Virginia
New York
Oakland
Paris
Philadelphia
Pittsburgh
Princeton
Richmond
San Francisco
Shanghai,
Silicon Valley
Washington DC
Wilmington

Number of lawyers 1,700+

at this office 90