Firm Profile > Latham & Watkins LLP > Beijing, China
Latham & Watkins LLP Offices
UNIT 2318, CHINA WORLD TRADE OFFICE 2
1 JIAN GUO MEN WAI AVENUE
BEIJING 100004
China
Latham & Watkins LLP > The Legal 500 Rankings
Projects and energy: foreign firms Tier 3
Latham & Watkins LLP's integrated model allows the team to draw on expertise and resources across different practice areas, offices and regions, including acquisition and leveraged finance, project development and finance, and environment, land and resources. The practice is actively involved in matters that are driven by China’s One Belt, One Road initiative. Hong Kong-based global co-chair of the firm’s oil and gas industry group, David Blumental, advises Asia-based and international clients on cross-border energy and natural resource transactions.
Key clients
Bharat PetroResources
CNOOC
Energy Transfer LP
Guohua Energy Investment Co
Harbin Electric International Co
Indian Oil Corporation
Jindi Union Holding Group Co
NICE Solar Energy
Oil India
Riverstone Holding
Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries Co
Tianqi Lithium Corporation
TMT: foreign firms Tier 3
Latham & Watkins LLP advises clients in the e-commerce, fintech, AI and entertainment sectors. The practice handles matters including M&A transactions; commercial contracts; private equity; IP and software licensing; data protection; outsourcing and telecoms technology. Frank Sun and Lex Kuo head the team. Highlights include acting as Primavera Capital Limited's lead counsel in its investment in Bytedance Ltd., a Chinese Internet technology company operating several machine learning-enabled content platforms.
Key clients
Tencent Holdings Limited
NetEase
Vipshop Holdings Limited
HKBN Ltd.
ORIX Corporation
Trax Technology Solutions Pte Ltd
Qihoo 360
MakeMyTrip
Banking and finance: foreign firms Tier 4
Latham & Watkins LLP acts for both lenders and borrowers in major banking and finance deals, including syndicated lending, complex acquisition financings, leveraged lending and leveraged recapitalisation transactions, as well as structured note and private placement deals. In Hong Kong, Gary Hamp is a former co-chair of the firm's global banking practice and Howard Lam chairs the Hong Kong finance department; Manas Chandrashekar was recently elected partner.
Key clients
Tianqi Lithium Australia Investments 1 Pty
JPMorgan Chase Bank
Lodgis Hospitality Holdings Pte
Vailog Hong Kong DC17
Warburg Pincus
E Sun Commercial Bank
BNP Paribas
HSBC
Citibank
TPG
Goldman Sachs
Carlyle Asia
Barings Private Equity
Private equity: foreign firms Tier 4
The Asian private equity team at Latham & Watkins LLP is led out of Hong Kong by Simon Cooke who recently advised the Carlyle group on the disposal of its Korean portfolio company, ADT Caps, to a consortium led by SK Telecom of Korea and Macquarie’s Korean Opportunities Fund. Frank Sun recently led the advice on some high-profile buyouts and growth investments. Also notable are Amy Beckingham who specialises in public and private M&A, acting for private equity firms across different industries around the region, and has substantial experience in securities transactions.
Testimonials
‘The team’s professional skills are impeccable‘.
‘It gives a variety of risk analysis to help clients make correct business decision‘.
‘The team not only provides excellent legal advice, but also helps with project management and sorting out the main points in the business negotiation‘.
Key clients
Vinhomes Joint Stock Company
The Carlyle Group
TPG Capital (S) Pte Ltd
CITIC Capital Partners Limited
Tencent Holdings Ltd.
Warburg Pincus Asia LLC
Baring Private Equity Asia
Partners Group
MBK Partners
Nexus Point
CDH Investments
Platinum Equity
ICG
Boyu
Primavera
Orix Asia
Gojek
Nord Anglia
Regulatory/compliance: foreign firms Tier 4
Latham & Watkins LLP fields a team of lawyers in Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai who handle complex, global corporate investigations, compliance and risk assessment matters. Hui Xu is the key mainland China adviser; Hong Kong-based Catherine McBride is a former Deutsche Bank head of litigation and regulatory enforcement for North Asia Pacific; and Catherine Palmer works in both the Hong Kong and New York offices.
Key clients
Sinovac Biotech
Nutanix Hong Kong
China Orient Asset Management (International) Holding
United Microelectronics Corporation
Corporate and M&A: foreign firms Tier 5
Latham & Watkins LLP's Shanghai managing partner Rowland Cheng is experienced in advising overseas financial institutions, strategic investors and Chinese corporations on private equity and venture investments, M&A deals and joint ventures; former Beijing managing partner Yilong Du is now GC at Warburg Pincus Asia.
Dispute resolution: foreign firms Tier 5
Latham & Watkins LLP focuses on disputes involving antitrust and competition; bankruptcy and insolvency litigation; anti-corruption and anti-bribery issues, investigations; investment, commercial and trade disputes; and securities, shareholder and joint venture litigation. The team recently represented China Life Insurance (Overseas) Company in a substantial investment-related commercial dispute. Hui Xu is the key contact in Beijing.
Testimonials
‘The team has comprehensive expertise in dispute resolution and provides timely feedback.’
Key clients
China Life Insurance (Overseas) Company
PricewaterhouseCoopers
Sinovac Biotech
Sonangol
eCloudvalley Technology (HK)
Nutanix Hong Kong
China Orient Asset Management (International) Holding
Latham & Watkins LLP > Firm Profile
The firm: Latham & Watkins is a leading international law firm serving multinational companies, start-ups, investment banks, private equity funds, venture capital firms, sovereign wealth funds, governments and other organisations. The firm’s globally integrated platform spans Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the US, and consists of internationally recognised practices across a wide spectrum of transactional, litigation, corporate and regulatory areas. Latham attorneys offer unrivalled legal resources and strategic commercial thinking to provide clients with innovative solutions to complex commercial matters.
Asia practice: Businesses and investors seeking innovative solutions to their most complex corporate, financial, regulatory and litigation challenges turn to Latham in Asia for strategic thinking and experienced counsel. Latham has extensive experience advising on the international aspects of a broad range of corporate and finance transactions for clients across the region, notably Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. With more than 150 lawyers operating from six offices in Asia, Latham provides clients in the region and clients looking to do business in Asia with expert advice under US, English, Hong Kong, Japanese and Singapore law. Latham’s deep roots in the financial and economic markets in the region are further strengthened by the firm’s local language capabilities.
Latham continues to receive awards and acclaim from a number of leading financial and legal publications for landmark and precedent-setting deals.
Areas of practice: As part of the Greater China practice, lawyers in the Beijing office handle a range of transactions, including international capital markets, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, private equity, restructurings and project financings. The firm’s clients regularly take advantage of the Greater China practice’s intimate knowledge of the marketplace and are supported by the full resources of Latham & Watkins’ global network of offices.
Members of the team draw on more than 25 years of experience advising clients doing business in China. As counsel to issuers or underwriters, the firm’s lawyers have been involved in many international equity, debt and equity-linked offerings by issuers in China and across Asia. The firm also represents some of the world’s largest private equity funds and multinational corporations in their acquisitions or investments in the PRC, across Asia and globally. In addition, the firm regularly acts as lead counsel for the sponsors or lenders on the region’s landmark power, petrochemical, and oil and gas projects. The team also advises US, European, Middle Eastern and Asian companies conducting business in China and throughout the Asia-Pacific region.
Beijing-based lawyers regularly work with the major Chinese law firms on PRC projects, and are experienced in co-ordinating the work of local counsel to provide seamless legal services to clients.
The team includes lawyers who are fluent in Chinese languages and dialects including Mandarin, Cantonese, Shanghainese, Hakka and Taiwanese and have received US, English and PRC legal education and training.
Main Contacts
| Department | Name | Telephone | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Antitrust and competition | |||
| Banking and finance | |||
| Capital markets | |||
| Corporate governance | |||
| Data privacy and cyber security | |||
| Energy | |||
| Entertainment, sports and media | |||
| Foreign direct investment | |||
| High yield | |||
| International arbitration | |||
| Mergers and acquisitions | |||
| Private equity | |||
| Project development and finance | |||
| Public company representation | |||
| Restructuring, insolvency and workouts | |||
| White-collar defence and investigations |