Event Report

The Legal 500’s first-ever fully-fledged GC Summit event in Hong Kong brought together 150 of the top in-house counsel in the East Asian economic powerhouse’s legal scene. An uncompromised success, the agenda featured discussions which ran the full gamut of issues facing corporate counsel both here and further afield, recognising the international mindset of those in attendance.

Vanessa Cheung of PCCW kicked off the agenda with a rousing speech on the responsibilities and opportunities of a modern general counsel, setting the tone for the sessions which followed.

Maria Sit of Dechert, Andrew Ning of Greater Bay Area Homeland Investments, Henry Chambers of Alvarez & Marsal and Raymond Yip of BNY Mellon then took centre stage for their talk on internal investigations. This discussion saw a hugely distinguished panel take an elevated look at the then current best practice for internal investigations, providing crucial insights throughout.

Kathryn Weaver of Seyfarth Shaw then expertly helmed a panel discussion on DEIB matters, leading from the front with her unique, knowledgeable and engaging style. Shogo Osaka, of  FedEx Express, Eddie Chan of the Hong Kong Tourism Board, Amin Kassam of Bloomberg and Winnie Ma of Lung Properties joined Kathryn on stage and each brought their own unique perspective as DEIB advocates in their organisations.

Quentin Pak and Emily Tillett of Burford Capital were then joined by Do Do Chan of Emperor Group, Paul Quinn of Kirkland & Ellis and Ben Bury of Gammon Construction to interrogate the new possibilities given to in-house legal teams by exploring third-party funding options. As well as revenue generation possibilities, methods for relaxing workloads on in-house legal teams were looked into, provoking many audience members to catch up with them in the coffee break afterwards.

We then moved on to the cybercrime arena, unfortunately an increasing worry for corporate counsel around the world. An expert panel was on hand to help ease the fears of those in the audience. Wilfred Ng and Danny Leung of Bird & Bird sat with Adrian See of Chanel and Daniel Shih of Pepsico to look into case studies, horror stories and mitigation efforts, as well as what new threats may be on the horizon.

Closing out the conference was Kay McArdle of Equal Justice, our official charity partner for the event. An organisation whose goal is to ensure legal representation for all in Hong Kong, not just the ‘haves’, McArdle expertly advocated for the goals of the organisation and the great work that they do. It was a poignant and fitting way to end the event.

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