Simmons & Simmons

David is a highly skilled practitioner specializing in cross-border mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures, joint ventures, private equity investments, project development, and finance. With over 20 years of experience in China and the Asia-Pacific region, along with virtual native fluency in Mandarin, he adeptly bridges cultural and language gaps between Chinese and international parties. In the energy, natural resources, and infrastructure sector, David excels as a seasoned advisor, guiding Asia-based and international clients through diverse cross-border transactions. His expertise includes upstream oil and gas, LNG project development, long-term offtake agreements, FPSO/FSO charters and operating agreements, and other energy transactions and M&A deals. Joining Simmons in 2023, David has received well-deserved recognition for his exceptional skills, earning a prestigious Band 1 ranking by Chambers as a top practitioner in the energy and natural resources field.

Fiona Loughrey

Fiona is widely recognised as one of the most experienced labour law specialists in the region, having been one of the first solicitors in Hong Kong to specialise in this legal area. With her more than 35 years of experience, there are few types of employment law problem or scenario which she has not encountered. Fiona founded the firm’s Employment practice in Asia, and advises on all aspects of the employment relationship. She deals with the cross-border labour needs of many clients and, in addition to handling Hong Kong cases and matters, is closely involved in the Singapore and mainland China arms of the practice. She works on regional projects and investigations, and on both contentious and advisory matters. Fiona has received multiple individual recognitions since the late 1990s to date. She has been, for many years, recognised as a Band 1 lawyer and Leading Individual for Employment Law in Hong Kong by Chambers Asia-Pacific, and is ranked in the Hall of Fame of legal practitioners for Labour and Employment in Hong Kong by Legal 500 Asia-Pacific. Her Hong Kong team has also been consistently ranked as a Tier 1 practice by Legal 500 Asia-Pacific since 2001, and Band 1 by Chambers Asia-Pacific since 2008, following the launch of the directory in the region. Fiona has chaired, for two two-year terms, and continues to sit on, the Employment Law Committee of the Hong Kong Law Society. Fiona headed the firm’s Hong Kong office during 2013-2021, and was a member of the firm’s board from 2013 until February 2022. She is a trustee of the firm’s Charitable Foundation, an active member of its Pro Bono committee and The Number One Club (TNOC), the firm’s women’s network. Fiona is a hands on practitioner and extremely interested in mentoring more junior lawyers; many in-house lawyers based in Hong Kong have worked with Fiona over the past three decades. Fiona was admitted as a solicitor in England in 1985, in Hong Kong in 1987 and in Australia (ACT) in 1990, and has been registered in Singapore as a foreign lawyer since 2020.

Ian Wood

Ian is a partner in the corporate & commercial group in Hong Kong. He specialises in public and private mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, equity investments and fund raisings. He has a particular focus in the financial institutions and asset management sectors and advises funds on transactions, governance and regulatory matters.

Ivy Yam

Ivy joined the firm in 2012 and is a funds lawyer focusing on the asset management and investment funds sector. She has extensive experience in a variety of products, from listed and unlisted retail funds to private funds. She also advises on regulatory issues of asset managers. Clients include international institutional managers and other Hong Kong-licensed asset managers, with a focus on managers with a mainland Chinese background.

Jane Chan

Jane is a supervising associate in the Asia employment group. She is involved in both contentious and non-contentious employment matters in Hong Kong. Jane has experience on multiple areas of employment law, including drafting employment documentation such as employment contracts and handbooks, advising on internal investigations, advising on Labour Tribunal claims, as well as advising on bonus schemes, separation, discrimination, harassment, immigration and data privacy issues. Jane has also been involved in employment litigation matters and has worked on a number of multi-jurisdictional employment projects.

Jenny Liu

Jenny is a Managing Associate in our Greater China TMT team. She is a PRC-qualified lawyer and a practising solicitor in England and Wales. She works extensively for leading international and domestic TMT sector companies, strategic and financial investors and financial institutions in both advisory and transactional matters. Her primary focus has been advising clients on Chinese and global data compliance issues. Her expertise also covers VC/PE investments, regulatory compliance, intellectual property, as well as cross-border M&A transactions and general corporate matters. She has worked in Beijing, Hong Kong and London and is now based in our Shenzhen office. Jenny is a regular contributor to Simmons & Simmons website, the official Simmons & Simmons WeChat account and for the China chapters of Lexology Getting the Deal Through for FinTech and Telecoms and Media. She is ranked as a Rising Star by Legal 500 Asia Pacific.

Jingyuan Shi

Jingyuan is our head of Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT) practice group in Greater China. She is a PRC-qualified lawyer and a practising solicitor in England and Wales. Jingyuan is specialised in data and technology laws. She has supported a large number of TMT companies, life science companies, strategic and financial investors, asset managers, financial institutions and fintech companies on an impressive selection of mandates, including without limitation data compliance, PE/VC and M&A transactions, regulatory and intellectual property. She has been based in Shanghai, Beijing, London, Hong Kong and Shenzhen for her practice. Jingyuan is regularly invited to speak at industrial events. She is also a regular contributor to the Simmons & Simmons website and WeChat account, and for the China chapters of Lexology Getting The Deal Through – Fintech (2017–2024) and Lexology Panoramic Next (formerly known as Market Intelligence) – Privacy and Cybersecurity (2021-2024). Ranked and quoted by Legal 500 Asia and Chambers Asia from 2017 throughout 2023 clients have quoted Jingyuan as being “very strong executive ability, sense of responsibility and great experience”, “super smart, very knowledgeable and proactive”. Jingyuan has lead team to be awarded as the “International TMT Firm of the year” (China Law and Practice Awards 2021). Jingyuan is shortlisted as the Data Privacy Lawyer of the year (Asia Legal Awards 2023); and as leading the M&A Deal of the Year (ALB Hong Kong Law Awards 2024). Jingyuan holds an LLB from Fudan University and an LLM (IP and IT law) from the London School of Economics and Political Science (Distinction). Jingyuan is a member of the firm's Accelerate Digital group, focused on guiding clients through digital transformation.

John Slater

John has over 30 years’ experience practising Intellectual Property law in Hong Kong and China. His expertise lies in intellectual property litigation, particularly in respect of trademarks and copyright; implementation of enforcement and anti-piracy programmes; trade mark prosecution and brand strategy and management; IP transactional work including licensing of all types of IP rights, collaboration agreements, R&D agreements and due diligence; and acquisition of IP rights. John is a member of the Asian Patent Attorneys Association and the Hong Kong Institute of Trade Mark Practitioners.

Jolyon Ellwood-Russell

Jolyon is a banking and finance lawyer with extensive experience in Asia and Europe. Jolyon specialises in debt finance (including banking, acquisition finance and project finance) with a particular focus and reputation in structured trade and commodity finance. He also has experience in financing infrastructure and renewable energy projects.

Jonathan Hammond

Jonathan is our Asia Regional Head based in our Hong Kong office. Jonathan is a partner in our Financial Markets group specialising in structured products and derivatives. He has advised sell and buy side clients on a variety of asset backed structures and synthetic transactions. In 2018 Jonathan completed a secondment to a major investment bank and in 2019 he worked in our Frankfurt office. Jonathan is a qualified solicitor in England and Wales and Hong Kong.

Paul Li

Paul is an Of Counsel with Simmons & Simmons. Prior to that role Paul was a partner of Simmons & Simmons from 1998 to 2019, having joined the firm in London as a trainee in 1989. During that period he has held several senior management positions, including Head of Asia from 2011 onwards. In that role Paul was responsible for the firm’s business in Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Singapore and Tokyo. In addition to his management responsibilities Paul also maintained a fee earning role. His area of specialty is financial markets regulation where he was active in relation to transactional work, advising on regulatory enforcement issues and defending FIs in connection with mis-selling disputes. Most recently his focus has been to advise clients on the migration of their bricks and mortar businesses on to digital platforms. His work has given Paul the practical experience of managing teams across practice disciplines and jurisdictions. He first became interested in financial markets regulation, when he started as a trainee solicitor just five months after the Financial Services Act came into force in the UK. At the time it was regarded as a new area of law. Realising, at an early stage, the importance of regulation as a specialism, he played an key role in establishing Simmons’ specialist contentious regulatory team in London in 1995 (after a period on secondment to the predecessor of the FCA) and their HK funds and regulatory practice when he transferred to Hong Kong in 2000 He has been involved in a led teams in connection with a number of notable transactions / investigations. Examples of which, involving interaction with the SFC, include the authorisation of the first private sector ETF, the authorisation first synthetic ETF and the Market Misconduct Tribunal in connection with CITIC Pacific.

Sarah Berkeley

Sarah is a partner in the firm’s Asia employment practice, based in London. She is admitted as a solicitor in both Hong Kong and England & Wales. Sarah operates the “Asia Desk” for the firm’s international employment practice, from London, supporting clients on their Hong Kong and Asia employment law needs. Sarah specialises in advising clients on their most sensitive employment law matters, with particular focus on the financial institution and asset management sectors. She advises on all aspects of the employment relationship, including drafting employment contracts and staff handbooks, bonus and remuneration arrangements, negotiated terminations, the employment aspects of internal and regulatory investigations, employment data privacy, strategic issues associated with reorganisations and restructuring, discrimination and harassment, and employment disputes. Sarah is ranked as a “Leading Individual” for Employment Law by Asia-Pacific Legal 500. She is recognised as “always very calm and provides very pragmatic advice” (Chambers Asia 2022). She is held in high esteem for her “very sensible, prompt and commercial” approach to employment law mandates (Chambers Asia 2021). She is described as a “stand out performer” (Legal 500 Asia 2021). Clients consider her advice “concise, pragmatic and easy to understand,” and describe her responsiveness as “extremely impressive, even within tight deadlines” (Chambers Asia 2019). Sarah is described as “a very seasoned employment lawyer” and provides “commercial and practical advice” to clients (Legal 500 Asia 2019). She is a trusted advisor when significant judgement calls are required or where a bespoke solution is needed. racts and staff handbooks, bonus and remuneration arrangements, negotiated terminations, the employment aspects of internal and regulatory investigations, employment data privacy, strategic issues associated with reorganisations and restructuring, discrimination and harassment, and employment disputes. Sarah is ranked as a “Leading Individual” for Employment Law by Asia-Pacific Legal 500. She is recognised as “always very calm and provides very pragmatic advice” (Chambers Asia 2022). She is held in high esteem for her “very sensible, prompt and commercial” approach to employment law mandates (Chambers Asia 2021). She is described as a “stand out performer” (Legal 500 Asia 2021). Clients consider her advice “concise, pragmatic and easy to understand,” and describe her responsiveness as “extremely impressive, even within tight deadlines” (Chambers Asia 2019). Sarah is described as “a very seasoned employment lawyer” and provides “commercial and practical advice” to clients (Legal 500 Asia 2019). She is a trusted advisor when significant judgement calls are required or where a bespoke solution is needed.

Tom Fyfe

Tom has a focus in commercial fraud, regulatory investigations & enforcement and audit negligence, having acted in several cases arising out of high-profile corporate collapses. He also has experience in a range of commercial and financial disputes, including those arising from the sale of financial products and services, M&A transactions and joint ventures. He has advised numerous individuals and commercial organisations in responding to investigations and enforcement actions, principally those led by the Hong Kong SFC, Police, FRC and Institute of CPAs. Tom is a recognised individual in Chambers and Legal 500. "Tom is exceptionally bright, identifies the crux of issues quickly, and is equally adept at identifying technical legal arguments and commercial solutions to the most complex cross-border commercial disputes." Tom is a contributing editor of Hong Kong Civil Procedure (‘the White Book’).

Wendy Wong

Wendy is a partner, and the Head of our Asia Employment group. She is an experienced Hong Kong qualified employment lawyer who advises on both contentious and non-contentious matters. Wendy has extensive experience in all areas of employment law, including drafting and reviewing employment contracts, policies and employee handbooks, advising on employment arrangements, including bonus and employee incentive schemes, advising on termination strategies and preparing separation documentation as well as advising on Labour Tribunal claims and investigations conducted by the Equal Opportunities Commission, employment investigations, restrictive covenants, data privacy and discrimination and harassment. Wendy regularly provides training and writes on employment related topics. Wendy has been seconded to our Beijing, Shanghai and London offices. She has also completed client secondments with two major investment banks. Wendy is trilingual and is fluent in English, Cantonese and Mandarin.

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