Simon Hawkins > Latham & Watkins LLP > Beijing, China > Lawyer Profile
Latham & Watkins LLP Offices
UNIT 2318, CHINA WORLD TRADE OFFICE 2
1 JIAN GUO MEN WAI AVENUE
BEIJING 100004
China
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Simon Hawkins
Position
Simon Hawkins, an experienced and trusted advisor to financial institutions and fintech companies, advises on a range of regulatory matters and transactions. He leads the financial regulatory practice in Asia and co-chairs the firm’s Digital Assets & Web3 Practice.
Mr. Hawkins advises a full range of financial industry and fintech clients — from traditional commercial and investment banks, private equity firms, broker/dealers, and insurers to innovative fintech companies, including payments companies, crypto exchanges and custodians, token issuers, and Metaverse and decentralized finance (DeFi) projects.
He provides confident and seasoned regulatory advice and transactional support to clients doing inbound and outbound business in Hong Kong. As an early mover in the fintech industry in Asia, he provides insight and skilled judgment on the dynamic fintech industry and rapidly evolving crypto regulatory landscape.
Resident in Hong Kong since 2009, Mr. Hawkins has developed strong working relationships with regulators at the Securities and Futures Commission and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. He serves as an active member of ASIFMA and the Fintech Association of Hong Kong. Mr. Hawkins regularly steers clients safely through situations of high risk and uncertainty, coordinating a global team of Latham colleagues, and local counsel.
Mr. Hawkins has worked in London, Shanghai, and Hong Kong, and served as a secondee at HSBC in Hong Kong, where he assisted with the launch of HSBC’s Prime Finance business in Asia.
Lawyer Rankings
Hong Kong > Regulatory
(Next Generation Partners)Latham & Watkins LLP handles a wide range of regulatory, risk management, compliance and contentious matters for a heavyweight roster of global and regional banks and private equity firms. Leveraging strong ties with financial regulators, team head Simon Hawkins advises banking and asset management clients on a wide array of regulatory issues associated with bringing new products to market, establishing new platforms/businesses and on ongoing compliance issues. Hawkins is also active in the fintech sector, particularly in the crypto regulatory landscape. The arrival in August 2022 of litigator Dominic Geiser from Herbert Smith Freehills also represented a step change in the office’s ability to work on domestic and multi-jurisdictional litigation in the financial services sector.
China > Fintech: foreign firms
Emerging fintech companies, traditional financial institutions, venture capitalists and web3 ecosystem participants trust Latham & Watkins LLP to handle mandates ranging from NFT platform launches, to payments service agreements, to global cybersecurity compliance programmes. Simon Hawkins, who leads both the firm’s Asia and global fintech industry groups, frequently advises on regulatory implications of blockchain and distributed ledger technology. Farhana Sharmeen, who operates from the firm’s Singapore office, is another key contact. Kieran Donovan has since left the practice.