Over the next six months, the most significant opportunity for the firm lies in securing notable exits. Several of Gobi Partners’ vintage funds are approaching later stages of their lifecycle, with portfolio companies gearing up for major exits, including IPOs and strategic trade sales. This presents a meaningful opportunity to crystallise returns and demonstrate strong fund performance. From a legal perspective, this requires close coordination with the portfolio management team to structure exits efficiently, manage shareholder dynamics, negotiate sale documentation, and ensure smooth fund-level distributions and wind-down processes.

At the same time, Gobi continues to actively deploy capital and fundraise across multiple strategies. A number of Gobi’s existing funds remain in their investment periods, creating a robust pipeline of new deals. From a legal perspective, this requires careful structuring of investment terms, downside protection mechanisms, governance rights and exit pathways. In parallel, ongoing fundraising efforts involve negotiation of fund documentation and limited partnership terms, as well as timely closings. The legal function is deeply embedded in these processes, working alongside deal and fundraising teams to balance commercial objectives with long-term risk management.

The principal risk across all these activities is execution risk, i.e. ensuring rigorous due diligence, sound deal structuring, enforceable exit mechanics and appropriate risk allocation in increasingly complex cross-border environments. Regulatory divergence across ASEAN jurisdictions, evolving foreign investment frameworks, currency and capital mobility considerations, and continued market volatility add layers of complexity to cross-border transactions and fund operations in the region.

However, these dynamics also underscore the value of an embedded, commercially attuned legal function. By anticipating downside scenarios while preserving upside optionality, legal plays a central role in positioning the firm and its funds for successful exits, disciplined deployment and sustained investor confidence.

What I find most rewarding about being in-house is the opportunity to move beyond private practice, advising on discrete and isolated transactions with different clients and instead participate in the full lifecycle of an investment and funds. In private practice, lawyers are usually engaged at critical inflection points to handle transaction documentation after commercial points have been negotiated, providing legal advice on disputes and memorandum of opinions. In-house, legal often sits alongside investment and portfolio management teams in negotiating commercial deal structures, restructuring and exits, and that proximity fundamentally changes the nature of the role of a legal counsel.

At Gobi Partners, this means being involved not only in structuring and negotiating investment deal structures, but also fund formation, regulatory matters across multiple ASEAN jurisdictions, portfolio governance, and exit strategy planning and execution. The work is intellectually challenging, but it is particularly rewarding seeing how legal input directly influences commercial outcomes, whether it is calibrating downside protection in an investment, navigating cross-border regulatory constraints, or structuring exits in a way that preserves investor confidence and commercial interests.

With the legal function being embedded within the business itself, the role also requires clarity and pragmatism. The most satisfying aspect of the role is translating complex legal risks into clear, practical recommendations that allow the business to make informed decisions and proceed with certainty. Being able to support disciplined capital deployment across Southeast Asia is a privilege, and that reinforces legal’s role to facilitate sound decision-making and execution responsibly and effectively, and not merely to identify obstacles or doing as told.

My five years in private practice as a Corporate M&A practitioner, most recently as a Senior Associate at a boutique corporate and commercial law firm in Kuala Lumpur most profoundly shaped my current approach. Working on a broad spectrum of private M&A, venture capital, private equity and commercial transactions, I developed strong technical grounding in structuring, negotiations, due diligence and risk allocation. In a lean boutique environment, I was also given early responsibility to run deals, manage counterparties and interface directly with clients, which sharpened both my commercial awareness and decision-making discipline.

That training instilled two principles that continue to guide me in-house. First, precision matters. Clear drafting, thoughtful structuring and disciplined risk assessment remain foundational. Second, legal advice must always be contextualised within commercial objectives. In private practice, the most valued advisors were those who understood the client’s strategic priorities and calibrated legal protections accordingly.

At Gobi, those principles have translated into becoming a key business partner. Rather than simply identifying risk, I focus on aligning legal strategy with investment thesis, fund mandates and regional regulatory realities. The technical rigour from my Corporate M&A background allows me to engage confidently on complex transactions, while the commercial exposure ensures that my advice remains practical and solution oriented. Together, these experiences have shaped a mindset centred on partnership, foresight and value creation, which, to me, defines an effective in-house counsel.