Jeff Leong, Poon & Wong

Corporate Finance & Securities Law, Corporate M&A, Takeovers, Joint Ventures

Jeff Leong is a senior partner of Messrs Jeff Leong, Poon & Wong (JLPW) in Malaysia.  He also actively serves as Chair of the Corporate, Securities & Investment Law and Co-Chair of the Belt and Road Initiative Standing Committees of the Law Association For Asia And The Pacific (LAWASIA), the peak body for national bar associations and law societies in more than 40 jurisdictions in the Asia Pacific region.

In JLPW, Jeff leads a Special Projects team and structures and runs complex M&A deals, resolves critical problems faced by clients such as crisis management, regulatory investigations, shareholder fights and board tussles and advises founders, business owners and senior management on business transactions.  With numerous IPOs and M&A deals over 30 years, he is often consulted by clients in Shipping and Logistics, Technology and Digital Economy, Oil & Gas and other heavily regulated industries on complex, urgent and critical matters. 

Jeff founded JLPW in 1999 with 2 other founders and was deep into corporate rescues and mergers of banks, insurance companies and stockbrokers to resuscitate the bleeding Malaysian economy, working on some of the major corporate rescues of the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis.  Affiliations with Deacons Graham & James (2001 – 2012) and Dacheng (2012 - 2016), now Dentons China, quickly followed.  In 2012, Jeff and his senior partners founded JLPW CROSSBORDER ASIA, a regional law firm network. 

In JLPW, he developed the current due diligence system adopted and used by industry participants in capital markets transactions in 1999. He also assisted the review of the 2020 Due Diligence Guide for Malaysia with investment bankers, accountants, capital market lawyers and other industry participants. 

Presently, with his Japanese speaking team, Jeff leads JLPW’s Japan Services Group who assist Japanese companies venturing into Malaysia and South East Asia with market entry strategies, M&As and post-merger integration advisory.  He also leads the Firm’s China Services Group and the regional JLPW Belt and Road Services Group who together serve Chinese companies investing and undertaking Belt and Road projects in Malaysia and other ASEAN countries.  As leader, strategist, chief talent scout, builder and problem solver, Jeff has initiated and developed various other practice groups in JLPW and is now spearheading the Firm’s Legal Tech initiatives to better support its clients in the new Digital Economy. 

He is also an avid blogger covering law, business and economics and issues of interest to the business community on JLPW NEEDLAWYER BLOG:  https://jlpwneedlawyer.wordpress.com/

Jeff is trained as an advocated and solicitor in Singapore and called to the Bar in Malaysia in 1991. His other appointments include: External Lecturer, Nanyang Technological Institute (now Nanyang Technological University), Singapore on Company Law (1987) and Company Law/Contract Law (1988); Malaysia Representative, United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Symposium on International Trade Law 1995; ASEAN Editor and Singapore Correspondent, ASIAN LAW JOURNAL, Hong Kong (1993-1995); Chairman, ASEAN SCHOLARS DIVISION, ASEAN BUSINESS FORUM, Jakarta, Indonesia (1994-1996); Fulbright-Hays Visiting Scholar to the United States (1997); International Copyright Fellow, Japan Council (2000/2001).

English, Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese

Member, Malaysian Bar; Member, Law Society of Singapore; Member, Academy of Law, Singapore; Member, Law Association for Asia and the Pacific (LAWASIA); Member, the Law Society, England and Wales; Chairman, LAWASIA Corporate, Securities and Investment Law Standing Committee (1998-current); Member, Technopreneurs Association of Malaysia (2002); Chairman, LAWASIA Business Law Section, Darwin, Australia (1994-1997); Member, International Legal Organisations Committee, Law Society of Singapore (1996); Member, Cross Border Practice Committee, Law Society of Singapore (1995-1996); Vice-President, Entrepreneurship Forum, Singapore (1994-1996); Steering Committee Member, 1995 ASIA YOUNG LEADERS FORUM, Asia-Australia Institute, University of NSW, Australia (1995).

Hwa Chong Junior College, Singapore National University of Singapore (LLB Hons)