Howse Williams

The firm: Howse Williams is an independent Hong Kong law firm with 32 partners and a total headcount of approximately 200. As an independent Hong Kong firm, the partners are able to minimise legal and commercial conflicts of interest and act for clients in every industry sector. The partners have spent the majority of their careers in Hong Kong and have a detailed understanding of international business and business in Asia.

Areas of practice
Dispute resolution: HW handles complex multi-jurisdictional commercial cases involving sale of goods; trade finance; media law; fraud; shareholder, joint venture, intellectual property, employment, property, trust and franchise disputes; injunction proceedings; jurisdictional challenges; public inquiries; and judicial reviews.

China practice: The Howse Williams China practice team consists of Chinese-qualified and Mandarin-speaking practitioners. On the corporate side, our team has extensive experience in assisting PRC and Hong Kong companies and foreign investors. We assist with capital markets transactions for PRC companies and companies in Hong Kong with PRC connections.

We also assist with restructuring, mergers & acquisitions, formation of joint ventures, private equity and venture capital, project financing and China attestation. We regularly advise Hong Kong and foreign companies on their direct investment into China by working in collaboration with some of the most reputable PRC law firms. We also have experience in assisting China state-owned enterprises and privately-owned enterprises with their China outbound investments and business activities in Hong Kong and overseas through Hong Kong.

On the dispute resolution side, we have experience in handling cross-border disputes especially those that have arisen due to the increasing volume of outbound investment from China. In addition to providing litigation support in law suits in the Chinese courts, our experienced dispute resolution practice also represents Chinese and foreign parties in international arbitrations at CIETAC, and advises China-based entities in international arbitrations conducted at major arbitration institutions such as the SIAC, HKIAC, AAA, LCIA and ICC.

Our practice is co-headed by Brian Ho and Christopher Yu who are also China-Appointed Attesting Officers. Our familiarity with Chinese culture and the needs of both international and Chinese clientele allow us to handle some of the most sophisticated, complicated and high profile transactions in the market.

In addition, in 2024 we became the exclusive Member Law Firm for Hong Kong for Sino-International Professional Advisory Council (SIPAC).  SIPAC is a forum for Chinese In-House Legal Professionals from major private companies and State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) as well as China-based cross-border lawyers in major Chinese law firms to find domestic top tier cross-border lawyers and professionals.  SIPAC Member Firms comprise top domestic cross-border law firms in 50+ countries around the world to execute transactions on behalf of Chinese emerging multi-national companies to go ‘out-bound’.

Corporate and corporate finance: HW’s team advises clients on a diverse spectrum of practice areas in all Asian jurisdictions, including mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, direct investment, capital markets and securities, private equity and venture capital, shareholder/joint venture agreements, corporate restructuring/reorganisation, corporate governance and general commercial matters including operational contracts and intellectual property commercialisation.

Clinical negligence and healthcare: HW advises doctors, dentists and their indemnity providers and other healthcare professionals. It also advises private hospitals, medical group practices, corporate healthcare providers and pharmaceutical companies on issues relating to the import and distribution of drugs and pharmaceutical products, drug liability claims and regulatory matters. Three members of the team (including two partners) are dual-qualified as lawyers and medical practitioners.

Shipping: HW has considerable experience in all types of wet and dry shipping litigation. The team (which includes solicitors with seagoing experience) deals with collision, salvage, wreck removal and pollution cases as well as charterparty, bill of lading and other contract of affreightment disputes. The firm advises ship-owners, P&I clubs, hull and machinery insurers, salvors, charterers and freight forwarders.

Insurance/professional indemnity: HW advises on general insurance, professional indemnity, D&O and specialised insurance lines acting for underwriters, brokers, mutual and fixed premium insurers of ships, a wide range of insurers for freight forwarders, warehouse operators, transport intermediaries, cargo owners and trade insurers. The firm also represents insurers who provide professional indemnity insurance for various professional bodies in Hong Kong.

Employment: HW provides contentious and non-contentious employment and immigration advice to both employers and employees in Hong Kong.

Family and matrimonial: HW’s cases often involve families with assets in multiple jurisidictions. The firm handles all manner of children’s issues including custody, care and control and other parenting disputes, such as access, child maintenance, paternity and schooling applications both in respect of married and unmarried couples and cohabitants.  The firm has experience in handling private adoptions; cases involving child abduction and family finances including property transfers, prenuptial agreements and separation deeds.

Fraud: HW regularly acts for victims of all types of fraud to recover misappropriated assets.  The firm act swiftly and efficiently to help trace and recover assets.  We also provide advice on investigations and court proceedings.

Property and building management: HW’s clients include some of the largest international real estate agencies, listed property developers, international and local building management companies, quasi government bodies, property investment funds, incorporated owners of of commercial/residential buildings, and commercial and individual landlords and tenants in Hong Kong.

Regulatory and compliance: HW’s regulatory team advises financial institutions and corporates on a wide variety of contentious and non-contentious regulatory and compliance issues.

Banking and finance: HW’s banking team has experience in a broad range of banking and finance matters, including bilateral and syndicated lending, international trade finance, project finance, acquisition finance, ship finance, general cash management and liquidity products, asset and debt recovery, security enforcement actions, banking regulation and compliance, sanctions, AML, KYC and various regulatory project and remediation work.  The team also specialise in a diverse range of trade finance matters.

Trusts, assets and wealth management: We advise ultra high-net-worth individuals and their families; entrepreneurs and family businesses both in Hong Kong and the PRC.  We are trusted legal advisers providing advice and support to our clients on the management of their wealth and assets, and on a wide range of inheritance and succession matters.  We have experience in establishing trusts, in particular family trusts, educational trusts and charitable trusts.  Our team includes solicitors who are full members of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP).

Wills, probate and estate management: We handle wills, probate, estate management and general civil litigation matters.

Notarisations and China Attestation: We offer Notary and China Attestation services to our clients.  We have an in-house Notary Public who is a member of the Hong Kong Society of Notaries.

We also have two partners, Brian Ho and Chris Yu who are China-Appointed Attesting Officers.

Distressed debt: HW's restructuring, insolvency and special situations practice provides clients including investors, boards and shareholders of distressed corporate debtors, insolvency office holders, financial institutions, hedge funds, private equity funds and official and ad hoc committees, financial restructuring legal solutions.  We are a cross-departmental practice that draws on the expertise of our corporate / M&A, dispute resolution, insolvency and banking practices to provide seamless service to our clients covering the Hong Kong aspects of cross border restructuring situations.