Senior Deputy Group General Counsel | China Resources Holdings
Asia Pacific and Greater China general counsel | Ernst & Young
Managing counsel, Asia Pacific | McKinsey & Company
Senior Vice President, General Counsel Asia Pacific | Colgate-Palmolive
Global Head of Legal & General Counsel Asia Pacific | Allianz Global Investors
Legal and company secretarial manager | Henderson Land Development
HEAD OF LEGAL AND COMPANY SECRETARY | The Hong Kong and China Gas Company
General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer | IEIT SYSTEMS Co., Ltd
Group general counsel, head of compliance | CK Hutchison Holdings
Vice President and Group General Counsel - APAC | Allegis Group
Chief Compliance Officer, General Manager & Head of Legal & Compliance Department | Shanghai Pudong Development Bank
Executive Director Legal and Compliance, General Counsel | The Hong Kong Jockey Club
Regional General Counsel, Asia & Middle East | G4S
Chief Compliance Officer and Head of Legal and Compliance | China International Capital Corporation
Chief legal and compliance officer and strategic investment director | China Wantian Holdings
Head of Legal for Great Eagle Company Group | Great Eagle
General Counsel, Board Secretary, Chief Compliance Officer | COSCO SHIPPING Ports
Group General Counsel and Group Chief Sustainability Officer | Hong Kong Exchange (HKEX)
Executive director and general counsel, APAC and EMEA | Lenovo
Rembert commenced his legal career with leading law firms in New Zealand and Australia, before arriving in Hong Kong in 1997 and working as a solicitor with Hong Kong law...
Senior Managing Director & General Counsel Asia Pacific | The Blackstone Group
Global Tax and Legal Services Director, Risk & Quality | PwC
Head of Global Markets Legal Asia Pacific | Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank
General Counsel and Company Secretary | Melco International Development Limited
Director-General Counsel and Company Secretary | Hang Lung Properties
Principal Legal Advisor - Mainland China & International Business | MTR Corporation
On behalf of The Legal 500, I am delighted to introduce the GC Powerlist: Hong Kong 2025.
This edition celebrates general counsel and in-house legal teams who are shaping Hong Kong’s fast-moving legal and business landscape. Through our research, we discussed with professionals who are not only advising on legal matters but also making strategic decisions for the business.
Today’s general counsel are stepping well beyond traditional roles. In Hong Kong, they play a vital part in business planning, managing complex regulations, supporting digital transformation, and guiding organisations with their commercial awareness. The GC Powerlist: Hong Kong 2025 recognises those who combine legal expertise and leadership.
Winnie Ma, Director, General Counsel, and Company Secretary at Hang Lung Properties, shares her perspective:
‘As in-house advisors, we have a unique perspective when our own business is in crisis and can provide insights which even expert external counsel may not have.’
Her perspective reflects a broader shift across the region. As Lily Chan, Group General Counsel at Daniel Wellington, explains:
‘Due to the rapid changes in geopolitics, economic landscape and business operation environment, it is inevitable that we have to deal with unforeseen crises and instability on a regular basis. As the Group General Counsel, it is of paramount importance to play a leadership role in building and maintaining a robust compliance programme and risk management strategies.’
We are proud to present the GC Powerlist: Hong Kong 2025, a celebration of legal professionals who drive the future of corporate law, and whose work connects local insight with global impact.
Jones Day is proud to support the 2025 edition of the GC Powerlist Hong Kong and to celebrate the exceptional General Counsels recognized this year. Congratulations to each and every awardee for your impressive achievements and contributions to the corporate and legal ecosystems in Hong Kong.
It has been a privilege to work alongside many of you, and we are delighted to see your dedication recognized. In particular, we extend a special welcome to those of you who are first time nominees to the GC Powerlist Hong Kong. To the familiar faces who were in the previous editions, welcome back.
As Asia’s leading commercial hub, Hong Kong is a thriving international gateway into the Asian markets and home to the regional headquarters of the world’s premier business organisations. In this dynamic and globalized legal environment, General Counsels are pivotal leaders, guiding their organisations through constant change, both locally and internationally. As General Counsels, you are trusted advisors providing guidance beyond traditional legal consultation; you navigate intricate legal systems across multiple jurisdictions, and offer your unique perspectives and strategic solutions that lead your organisations through uncertainty. Your ability to adapt to the relentless pressures of ever evolving global issues not only enhances the resilience of your organisations but also positions them for sustainable growth.
At Jones Day, we understand the challenges you face. As one of the first US law firms to expand into Asia, we have witnessed firsthand the various economic and political cycles since the opening of our Hong Kong office in 1986. This long standing experience has equipped us to not only anticipate uncertainty but also partner with you to develop proactive strategies to thrive in any environment.
As one of the world’s largest and most geographically comprehensive law firms, Jones Day is synonymous with responsive and dedicated client service. Spread over five continents, Jones Day has 2,500 lawyers in 40 offices based in key cities and financial centres, working together as “One Firm Worldwide”, and providing our clients with seamless access to a full spectrum of practice areas. When client matters have an interdisciplinary dimension, we are proud to offer our unique blend of talent and service across specialties and jurisdictions.
Jones Day’s partners hold a core set of common values, with a unity of purpose in providing unparalleled service and quality to our clients, reflecting Jones Day’s deep-rooted set of shared professional values, which can be traced to our beginnings in 1893.
Our dedication to client service has not gone unnoticed. Jones Day is the only firm in the history of the BTI Consulting Group’s Client Service 30 to remain in the top 5 for all 23 years since BTI began publishing its results, which are based on unprompted responses from in-depth interviews with in-house legal counsel from Fortune 500 organisations. We are proud to offer an unparalleled level of commitment to our clients and look forward to continuing to cooperate with many of you.
We are honoured to celebrate the recognition of the General Counsels on their well-deserved inclusion in this 2025 edition of the GC Powerlist: Hong Kong. As we celebrate your recognition, let us also look ahead to the exciting possibilities that await us. Together, we as legal practitioners can make a meaningful difference in the communities we serve. We look forward to many more years of close partnership with each of you.
The Legal 500 was proud to host the third edition of the GC Powerlist: Japan 2025 at the Capitol Hotel Tokyu, honouring the top General Counsel, Chief Legal Officers, Legal Directors, and senior in-house legal professionals operating at the highest level of Japan’s corporate legal landscape. Held in Tokyo, this year’s reception welcomed around 100 of the most respected and senior corporate counsel from across Japan. It was an unrivalled success, and cements Legal 500’s status as the leading force in legal media supporting the achievements of in-house counsel in Japan. The GC Powerlist: Japan 2025 marks the continuation of our commitment to recognising excellence in-house, and this year’s edition represents the most competitive and selective list to date.
Joe Boswell, lead editor of the GC powerlist publication at The Legal 500, opened the evening with an introduction that reflected on the growing prestige of the Japan list. He emphasised how the Powerlist has grown stronger each year, both in scope and quality, making the task of selection more difficult. This year’s honourees emerged from a deeply competitive field, making their recognition even more meaningful.
Boswell extended heartfelt congratulations to all honourees and acknowledged the critical support of key partners and sponsors who made the evening possible. Special thanks were given to Anderson Mori & Tomotsune, Morrison Foerster, iManage, JustLegal, and SS&C Intralinks for their generous sponsorship and ongoing collaboration.
In a moment of reflection, Joe paid tribute to Tim Mackey, chief legal officer at SoftBank, who sadly passed away unexpectedly earlier this year. Tim had contributed to the Powerlist in each of its three editions and was known not only for his exceptional legal acumen but also for his warmth and generosity.
The evening featured insightful remarks from distinguished speakers representing our partners and the broader legal community: Mischa Mulligan, Japan Director at SS&C Intralinks; Hiroki Kodate, Partner and Management Committee Member at Anderson Mori & Tomotsune; Jeremy White, Global Co-Chair of M&A for Morrison Foerster; and, representing those awarded in the Powerlist, Naoki Hamada, General Counsel for Japan at HSBC.
Each speaker provided reflections on legal innovation, leadership, and the evolving role of in-house counsel in Japan’s corporate landscape. Their remarks added valuable context to the achievements celebrated throughout the evening.
The formal awards segment celebrated this year’s GC Powerlist honourees. With assistance from long-time collaborator Isaac Uchiyama who read out awardees’ names, recipients were invited to collect their certificates, pose for photographs, and be formally recognised by their peers.
Certificates were presented on stage by Hiroki Kodate or Anderson Mori & Tomotsune and Jeremy White of Morrison Foerster, whose participation further underlined the deep support of the Japanese and international legal communities.
The GC Powerlist: Japan 2025 reception reaffirmed Legal 500’s commitment to spotlighting the very best of in-house legal talent. With record levels of interest and unmatched quality among candidates, the Japan edition continues to solidify its place as one of the most respected publications in the global GC Powerlist series.
We extend our sincere congratulations to all honourees and thank our partners, sponsors, and speakers for making the evening a success.
We look forward to returning to Tokyo again next year. As a parting gift, you can view Naoki Hamada’s excellent keynote address below, where he touches on a lot of issues and themes that many other GC, whatever country they operate in, will recognise:
‘Good evening, everyone. I am Naoki Hamada of HSBC. I am very pleased to be here speaking to you today. It is a great pleasure and honor, and at the same time, I feel a bit overwhelmed being surrounded by the busiest and most expensive lawyers in the industry—even if I know that nobody will be charging us for their time. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Legal 500 for organizing such a great event, and Anderson Mori & Tomotsune, Morrison Foerster, iManage, SS&C Intralinks, and Just Legal for sponsoring and supporting it. And, huge congratulations on the recognition each of you is receiving, which is truly a great accomplishment and the result of your hard work and the accumulated trust the entire industry has placed in you.
It must be emphasized that this award is given only to general counsels. Being a general counsel means a lot more than just being a subject matter expert. You are a most reliable strategic partner for the business, and I am sure that you have distinguished yourself from the crowd by your ability to identify underlying risks, devise legal solutions, ensure the right processes and governance for corporate decisions, influence others, and educate the next generation of lawyers. This is what you are being recognized for.
Looking back on my career, I have been hugely helped by lawyers in other companies through various industry communities. When I joined the in-house world 12 years ago from a Japanese law firm, large international banks were all struggling with a huge wave of regulatory reform. Back then, I was relatively new to that particular area of finance, and my hiring was somewhat potential-based. Nonetheless, I was assigned to lead the regulatory reform efforts locally. My predecessor had left the bank before I joined, there was no sufficient handover, and I was completely lost as to what to do. What helped me most were the industry peer group discussions, where in-house counsels from major banks would get together to discuss common issues. I learned so much from what was discussed there and absorbed as much as I could. Without that network, I am sure that I wouldn’t have survived that time.
However, our situation today is far more difficult. The changes in the landscape we face today are unprecedented. Technological developments and the corresponding shifts in geopolitical and industrial landscapes are completely unpredictable, and the speed at which they happen is far faster than before. We might face a time that requires us to pivot, forcing us to redefine how we add value and rebuild the way we work. That is somewhat intimidating. But, I am confident that a way forward will be found through the collective wisdom and effort of the people in this room. I would like to be a part of that, and this network of people is enormously valuable and truly priceless.
Finally, let’s have a drink and celebrate our achievements for now – before your CEO calls asking you to join a call! Thank you so much.’