Event information
The Legal 500 is delighted to formally announce its inaugural GC Summit Hong Kong event, taking place on 7th March 2024.
The Legal 500’s GC Summit Hong Kong 2024 invites the most esteemed in-house counsel from the region’s most prolific companies, and leading practitioners to discuss their changing roles as in-house leaders and the challenges, issues and opportunities they are set to face in 2024 and beyond.
This includes understanding and overcoming data privacy challenges, managing international disputes, navigating internal investigations, adapting to a changing M&A landscape, the rise of legal tech, the growing importance of ESG, and overcoming labour and employment issues.
Between comprehensive panel discussions, presentations and the opportunity to meet and engage with fellow in-house counsel, GC Summit Hong Kong promises to be a practical, forward-looking event bringing together the region’s top legal minds.
Agenda
8.15am–8.50am Arrival & Registration
8.50am–9.00am Welcome & Opening Remarks
- Joe Boswell, global editor: GC Powerlist Series, The Legal 500
- Vanessa Cheung, group general counsel and company secretary, PCCW
9.00am–9.50am Navigating internal investigations: effective strategies to mitigate risk and protect your reputation and developing an effective whistleblowing system
This discussion will see a hugely distinguished panel take an elevated look at the current best practice for internal investigations. Alongside crucial insights on handling internal investigations with finesse, an in-depth discussion on risk mitigation and the safeguarding of company reputation will give takeaways to audience members who are theorising their next investigation or currently engaged in managing one. Looking forward, the panel will also analyse the best strategy for fostering a culture of integrity within organisations so that latent issues do not develop into present dangers.
- Maria Sit, managing partner, Dechert
- Ning (Andrew) An, head of legal and compliance, Greater Bay Area Homeland Investments Limited
- Henry Chambers, managing director, Alvarez & Marsal
- Raymond Yip, head of APAC litigation enforcement and investigations, BNY Mellon
9.50am–10.40am The challenges of getting DEIB policy and practice right, and the cost of getting it wrong.
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) is an issue that transcends day-to-day legal business, and getting it right is a moral imperative which can, in an ideal scenario, allow people from all walks of life and backgrounds to live more fulfilling and rewarding professional lives in which they flourish and achieve their true potential. This panel sees a group of business and legal leaders from a range of backgrounds come together to discuss the best way forward when promoting an effective DEIB policy in organisations, as well as how to avoid poor decisions in the DEIB space that can rebound on a company’s reputation.
- Kathryn Weaver, partner, Seyfarth Shaw
- Shogo Osaka, managing director of legal, North Pacific, FedEx Express
- Eddie Chan, legal director, Hong Kong Tourism Board
- Amin Kassam, deputy general counsel, Bloomberg
- Winnie Ma, director, general counsel and company secretary, Hang Lung Properties
10.40am–10.55am Coffee Break
10.55am–11.45am Expanding your options: Third Party Funding Possibilities
The burgeoning possibilities for third-party funding represent a nascent revolution in corporate legal affairs, allowing in-house legal teams far greater scope in what matters they can pursue and opening the door for new and innovative legal strategies in support of their businesses. This panel will give insights into its benefits, risks, and ethical considerations, analysing when third-party funding opportunities can work for an organisation. Using case studies and real-world examples, our expert panel led by Quentin Pak
and Emily Tillett of Burford Capital will outline just how expansive third party funding possibilities can be in 2024.
- Quentin Pak, director, Burford Capital
- Emily Tillett, vice President, Burford Capital
- Do Do Chan, senior legal counsel, Emperor Group
-
Paul Quinn, partner, Kirkland & Ellis
- Ben Bury, general counsel, Gammon Construction Limited
11.45am–12.35pm Navigating the cybercrime landscape for GCs
Cybercrime is on the rise and will increasingly become a critical risk for all Hong Kong and international businesses. GCs are expected to play a critical role in responding to cyber incidents, including addressing the loss of key data, legal and regulatory disclosures and penalties, and reputation management.
During this session, our panellists will discuss: cybercrime trends; ransomware; cryptocurrency and tracing; security of critical infrastructure; and the role of GCs in preparing for and responding to cyberattacks.
- Wilfred Ng, Partner, Bird & Bird
- Danny Leung, Partner, Bird & Bird
- Adrian See, head of data privacy – APAC, Chanel
- Daniel Shih, vice president corporate affairs and general counsel, PepsiCo
12.35pm–12.40pm Closing remarks
- Kay McArdle, founder & director, Equal Justice
12.40pm-1.40pm Networking lunch
Speakers
Maria Sit, managing partner, Hong Kong, Dechert LLP
The Managing Partner of Dechert’s Hong Kong office, Maria Sit is responsible for the firm’s dispute resolution and regulatory enforcement practices in Greater China. She is a former in-house counsel at the Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong.
Ms. Sit has expertise in handling joint investigations by a range of regulatory bodies, both in Asia and elsewhere. These include the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, the U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security, U.S. Department of Justice, China Securities Regulatory Commission, Securities & Futures Commission of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the Commercial Crime Bureau of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Independent Commission Against Corruption, Monetary Authority of Singapore and Financial Supervisory Commission (Taiwan).
Ms. Sit has built her career as a litigator with two decades of experience focusing on complex commercial litigation and has a notable track record representing clients in a broad variety of high-profile cases in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and other jurisdictions around the world including the United Kingdom, the Cayman Islands, the British Virgin Islands and Bermuda.
Kathryn Weaver, partner, Seyfarth Shaw LLP
Kathryn believes smart legal strategy, paired with a practical approach, is key to successfully managing a global workforce. She works with international firms to implement partnership programmes, coordinate global employee handbook reviews, and draft template employment documents. She also coordinates multicountry data privacy projects and cross-border restructuring, carries out disciplinary and grievance investigations, and advises on senior expat relocation packages.
When dealing with labour law issues, Kathryn’s versatility is evident in her varied clientele, which includes Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 companies, household-name brands, gig economy platforms, and startups. Kathryn’s clients value her collaborative, courteous, and timely approach when it to comes to addressing their most pressing legal challenges.
Ning (Andrew) An, head of legal and compliance, Greater Bay Area Homeland Investments Limited
Andrew is Head of Legal and Compliance of Greater Bay Area Homeland Investments Limited since its inception in 2018.
He has extensive experience in both private practice and in-house for over 30 years. Prior to joining Greater Bay Area Homeland Investment Limited, Andrew worked in China, Hong Kong and overseas as a solicitor with international firms and as an in-house general counsel in the areas of corporate, corporate finance, foreign direct investment, regulatory and fund formation. Andrew received his law degrees from reputable universities in China and overseas.
Joe Boswell, global editor - Powerlist Series, The Legal 500
Joe Boswell has been a part of The Legal 500’s editorial team, specialising on the in-house legal community, for more than seven years. He now heads The Powerlist team, acting as chief editor for the over 40 separate editions of the GC Powerlist series which serve as The Legal 500’s flagship title celebrating the world’s top in-house counsel, as well as Global Editor for The Legal 500’s Private Practice Powerlist Series.
During the course of researching for the GC Powerlist series, Boswell has interviewed a vast number of world-renowned general counsel, chief legal officers, and legal directors about overcoming the challenges they face, their legal innovations, and how they see the general counsel role progressing in coming years. As well as this, he is a regular speaker at Legal 500 summits, roundtables, award ceremonies and other events, and often writes in-depth reports on business and legal issues.
Boswell is an alumnus of both the University of Sussex in The United Kingdom and the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen in The Netherlands.
Henry Chambers, managing director, Alvarez & Marsal
Henry Chambers is a Managing Director with Alvarez & Marsal’s Disputes and Investigations practice in Hong Kong. He brings more than twelve years of experience in forensic accounting and investigation assignments focusing on bribery and corruption matters (FCPA/UKBA), cryptocurrency, accounting fraud, asset tracing, regulatory and other investigations as well as supporting general commercial litigation.
Shogo Osaka, managing director of legal, North Pacific, FedEx
Shogo Osaka is Managing Director, Legal of FedEx Express, covering the North Pacific (NPAC) region consisted of Hong Kong, Macau, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Guam.
From the regional headquarters in Hong Kong, Shogo is heading the team of diverse legal professionals in Hong Kong, Tokyo, Osaka, Seoul and Taipei who support the business and organization in the NPAC region. He is passionate about optimizing corporate inhouse legal services and processes by adopting Agile methodologies and new technologies. As a strong supporter of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) values, he is also co-leading FedEx Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa DEI council’s Generations & Culture pillar. Shogo was recognized as In-House Lawyer of the Year at Asian Legal Business Hong Kong Law Awards 2022 and his team won various awards such as Outstanding Legal Innovator Award 2023 from Asia-Pacific Legal Innovation & Technology Association.
Prior to joining FedEx, Shogo worked for Freshfields in the Shanghai and Tokyo offices including secondment to Japan Bank for International Cooperation, a governmental financial institution.
Shogo is admitted to practice law in Japan and a graduate of the University of Tokyo with the Bachelor of Laws and Master in Laws degrees. Shogo also obtained the Executive Master of Business Administration degree from Quantic School of Business and Technology.
Eddie Chan, legal director, Hong Kong Tourism Board
As legal director of the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB), Eddie Chan oversees the legal department and provides strategic legal advice across the head office in Hong Kong and 15 worldwide offices. Chan’s primary responsibilities include advising on all legal and compliance aspects of HKTB’s daily operations, such as content development, marketing, staging of mega events, trade development, and digital transformation advising on corporate governance matters internal policies and administrative procedures; and advising on Board Secretariat matters. Eddie also serves as the HKTB’s Data Protection Officer to provide guidance on internal control and compliance with personal data privacy laws.
Prior to HKTB, Eddie worked as a Senior Legal Counsel at the Equal Opportunities Commission of Hong Kong, leading the development of the statutory Code of Practice and advising discrimination / harassment complainants with their claims under the anti-discrimination ordinances.
Vanessa Cheung, group general counsel and company secretary, PCCW
Vanessa Cheung has extensive experience in both the private practice and in-house legal worlds, making her well-qualified to comment on both sides of corporate legal matters. On the private practice side, she spent twelve years with Slaughter and May and was a partner at Fangda in Hong Kong, building a strong reputation in equity capital markets transactions, mergers and acquisitions, private equity transactions and TMT transactions. In-house, Cheung was head of legal for the private equity arm of asset management firm Fidelity Growth Partners, and moved to PCCW/HKT in 2021 as group general counsel and company secretary. In her current role, she takes on overall legal responsibilities for the information and communications conglomerate and aligns the company’s long-term legal strategy. She is qualified as a solicitor in both Hong Kong and England and Wales.
Amin Kassam, deputy general counsel, Bloomberg
At Bloomberg, where he was recently made Deputy General Counsel, Amin Kassam oversees legal teams responsible for litigation, employment, news, media, marketing, and intellectual property matters for the global leader in financial information, news, and analysis. As well as his formidable legal skills, Kassam has built a reputation as a DEI champion during his time with the company, both at its headquarters in New York and in Hong Kong. He has served a member of Bloomberg’s Diversity & Inclusion Council, and as executive sponsor for Bloomberg’s Women’s Community and LGBTQ+ & Ally Community in APAC.
Raymond Yip, head of APAC litigation enforcement and investigations, BNY Mellon
Raymond Yip is a seasoned legal professional with a rich background in litigation, regulatory enforcement, and investigations. Since 2021, he has held the position of Head of APAC Litigation Enforcement and Investigations at BNY Mellon. Prior to that, he was Senior Consultant at Herbert Smith Freehills, where he offered strategic legal counsel. His career has seen a strong focus on the financial sector; on the in-house legal side he has previously worked as a Litigation and Investigations specialist at Credit Suisse, while in terms of private practice he built an extremely robust legal foundation at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Allen & Overy, having made senior associate at both firms earlier on in his career.
Winnie Ma, director, general counsel and company secretary, Hang Lung Properties
Winnie Ma has been practising laws in Hong Kong and Mainland China with renowned international law firms and Fortune 500 companies for over 24 years. An M&A lawyer by background, with strong skills in running, negotiating, and closing deals, coupled with her experience of working in different cultures, strong commercial acumen and focus on excellent corporate governance, Winnie has proven to be a trusted advisor in finding practical legal solutions in the in-house positions she held. Winnie started her in-house career with leading the efforts that established AXA’s life insurance business in Malaysia and that expanded its business in Hong Kong with acquisitions. In her early 30s, she was appointed as the General Counsel of Hutchison Telecommunications, and she has been in leadership positions since then. Prior to joining Hang Lung, she was the Senior Vice President, General Counsel of PCCW, and the Vice President, Head of Corporate of Walmart China, and the Regional Legal Counsel of Walmart before then. Under her leadership, Hang Lung was awarded the “Awards of Excellence in Corporate Governance” from The Chamber of Hong Kong Listed Companies in 2021. Winnie is committed to empowering women and a firm believer of “We Can Have It All”. She was on the steering committee of “Women in Leadership” program of Walmart, and a mentor of “Strive and Rise Program” organized by HK Government, and “Hang Lung Future Women Leaders Program” that empowers university students in HK and Mainland China.
Quentin Pak, director, Burford Capital
Quentin Pak is a Director with responsibility for leading Burford’s office in Singapore and for expanding Burford’s resources to support Asia-based clients in both Asian-based legal proceedings as well as those seated elsewhere.
Wilfred Ng, partner, Bird & Bird
Wilfred Ng is a partner in Bird & Bird’s Commercial Department based in Hong Kong. As a technology, media, telecoms and data protection lawyer, Wilfred is experienced in advising on all aspects of commercial, transactional and regulatory matters in the TMT space.
He is a bilingual (Chinese and English) technology, media, telecoms and data protection lawyer based in Hong Kong and has over 10 years of experience in all areas of commercial, transactional, regulatory and advisory work in the technology, media and telecoms sectors, including data protection and privacy.
Prior to re-joining the firm, Wilfred was a Senior Legal Counsel with a PRC-based technology conglomerate. He assisted in co-founding the International Privacy and Data Protection Department and advised on all aspects of international data protection and privacy issues. Before his in-house role, Wilfred was part of Bird & Bird’s Commercial team in Hong Kong, having spent time on secondment at the firm’s London office.
Emily Tillett, vice President, Burford Capital
Emily Tillett is a Vice President at Burford with responsibility for leading its investment activity and operations in Hong Kong, and is a Hong Kong, Australian and New Zealand qualified lawyer.
Danny Leung, Partner, Bird & Bird
Danny Leung is a partner in Bird & Bird’s Hong Kong office specialising in complex commercial litigation, arbitration, regulatory investigations and anti-money laundering laws.
His commercial disputes practice spans financial services disputes, shareholders’ disputes, fraud and asset recovery, employment, product liability, judicial review and contentious insolvency. In his regulatory investigations practice, Danny advises clients on a variety of regulatory issues, ranging from internal investigations and securities laws related investigations and disciplinary proceedings commenced by the authorities, to representing clients in settlement negotiations with the authorities.
He has advised clients in high-profile commercial disputes as well as investigations by the Securities and Futures Commission and other law enforcement agencies and has acted for a major international bank in the first investigation by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority after the Hong Kong anti-money laundering law came into force.
Adrian See, head of data privacy - APAC, Chanel
Do Do Chan, senior legal counsel, Emperor Group
Do Do Chan is a seasoned Senior Legal Counsel with over 16 years of experience as a Chartered Engineer in both the United Kingdom and Hong Kong. She began her career as an Associate Consultant at the Hong Kong SAR Government. Later, she pursued further qualifications as a barrister-in-law in Australia and a solicitor in Hong Kong. Currently, she supervises the legal team at Emperor Group (EIHL), where she oversees a wide range of contentious and non-contentious matters, focusing on mergers and acquisitions, construction, sales and redevelopment of property, and litigations. In recognition of her contributions, she was named as ‘Senior Legal Counsel of the Year’ by a globally recognized legal awards organization for two consecutive years, in 2022 and 2023.
Kay McArdle, founder & director, Equal Justice
Kay is an award-winning lawyer who has been working in Hong Kong’s equality and justice spaces for over 20 years. In 2013, she transferred from private legal practice into the community impact space full-time, to help disadvantaged people find solutions to legal and other problems.
In 2019, she founded Equal Justice to bridge Hong Kong’s access to justice poverty gaps. In 2022, Equal Justice won the ALITA Outstanding Legal Innovation/Legal Tech Award for its free, trilingual, public legal information platform: Pregnant@Work. In 2023, Kay won a Tatler Asia Front & Female Award, and Equal Justice was a finalist in the 2023 ALITA awards for its community-lawyer digital matching platform, CLIX.
Equal Justice is proud to be a referring agency under The Duty Lawyer: Free Legal Advice Scheme and also holds a Hong Kong Bar Association exemption so it can instruct barristers directly for advice.
Kay is a lawyer and mediator by background and a published author on access to justice (Routledge 2016). She and her husband have three adult children, and a Dachshund.
Paul Quinn, partner, Kirkland & Ellis
Paul Quinn is a partner in the Dispute Resolution Team in the Hong Kong office of Kirkland & Ellis, focusing on complex, high-stakes, bet-the-company disputes. Clients come to Paul for his ability to navigate intricate and multifaceted situations. He is an excellent technician and has been specifically recognized for his drafting skills in Legal 500 Asia Pacific 2024. Paul has advised clients on a wide range of domestic and international commercial disputes, both in court and arbitration. He has particular experience dealing with professional negligence, company law, director’s duties, shareholder disputes, insolvency, fraud, urgent asset preservation, litigation funding, privilege and conflict of law issues.
Daniel Shih, vice president corporate affairs and general counsel, PepsiCo
Ben Bury, general counsel, Gammon Construction Limited
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