We provide legal solutions to clients, not simply compliance. Our core team members have decades of experience in handling cases in the following areas of the law:
Financial Services Regulatory
We have extensive day-to-day experience in providing advice on:
(i) SFC licensing obligations/conditions/exemptions, applications for various types of SFC/HKMA licences and registrations (e.g. securities, futures, FX, advisory, ATS, corporate finance and fund management licences), change of control or key officers in licensed corporations and banks;
(ii) Legal, regulatory and ongoing compliance obligations which may arise from clients’ operations from time to time, complaint-handling process and internal investigations; and
(iii) Enquiries and investigation notices from various authorities (including the SFC, HKMA and AFRC), on-site inspections, interviews with regulators and enforcement actions.
Civil & Criminal Litigation
We represent clients in civil and commercial litigations including shareholders disputes, employment disputes, contractual disputes, breach of director’s duties, misrepresentation, and “mis-selling”/negligent advice claims.
We also have solid experience in defending listed companies directors (on insider dealing and other market misconduct offences), securities brokerage firms (on alleged wrongdoing brought by clients or regulators), CPA firms, online brokers, virtual assets trading platforms, warrant market makers, securities analysts, auditors, investment banks and retail banks.
These include a wide range of criminal investigations (e.g. market manipulation and Anti-money laundering), court and/or disciplinary proceedings brought by the SFC, HKMA, HKEx (Stock Exchange of Hong Kong), AFRC, HKICPA, the Police and the ICAC.
Commercial & Corporate
We have expertise in commercial law, corporate finance, mergers & acquisitions, private equity, funds and other investment services. These include legal advice on:-
(i) Primary and secondary market fund raisings as well as compliance with the Listing Rules for listing applicants, listed companies and leading underwriters;
(ii) Legal, compliance and corporate governance aspects of leading commercial and investment banks and the establishment business platforms and compliance systems both in Hong Kong and overseas; and
(iii) Setting up investment funds, corporate restructuring, due diligence, mergers and acquisitions, and drafting commercial agreements (e.g. sale and purchase of companies/assets, JV agreements, shareholders agreements, client agreements and account opening packages etc.).