Howse Williams

The firm: Howse Williams is an independent Hong Kong law firm with 34 partners and a total headcount of approximately 200. As an independent Hong Kong firm, the partners are able to minimise legal and commercial conflicts of interest and act for clients in every industry sector. The partners have spent the majority of their careers in Hong Kong and have a detailed understanding of international business and business in Asia.

Areas of practice
Dispute resolution: HW handles complex multi-jurisdictional commercial cases involving sale of goods; trade finance; media law; fraud; shareholder, joint venture, intellectual property, employment, property, trust and franchise disputes; injunction proceedings; jurisdictional challenges; public inquiries; and judicial reviews.

China practice: Howse Williams has entered into a formal Association with Shu Jin Law Firm (Hong Kong) to further enhance and expand our China practice and services on PRC legal matters.

Shu Jin was established in Shenzhen in 1993 and is a leading and highly regarded full-service law firm in the PRC and in particular the Greater Bay Area.  The firm currently has 60 partners and approximately 400 employees in total.  Headquartered in Shenzhen, the firm has offices in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Xi'an and Guangzhou.

Corporate and corporate finance: HW’s team advises clients on a diverse spectrum of practice areas in all Asian jurisdictions, including mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, direct investment, capital markets and securities, private equity and venture capital, shareholder/joint venture agreements, corporate restructuring/reorganisation, corporate governance and general commercial matters including operational contracts and intellectual property commercialisation.

Clinical negligence and healthcare: HW advises doctors, dentists and their indemnity providers and other healthcare professionals. It also advises private hospitals, medical group practices, corporate healthcare providers and pharmaceutical companies on issues relating to the import and distribution of drugs and pharmaceutical products, drug liability claims and regulatory matters. Three members of the team (including two partners) are dual-qualified as lawyers and medical practitioners.

Shipping: HW has considerable experience in all types of wet and dry shipping litigation. The team (which includes solicitors with seagoing experience) deals with collision, salvage, wreck removal and pollution cases as well as charterparty, bill of lading and other contract of affreightment disputes. The firm advises ship-owners, P&I clubs, hull and machinery insurers, salvors, charterers and freight forwarders.

Insurance/professional indemnity: HW advises on general insurance, professional indemnity, D&O and specialised insurance lines acting for underwriters, brokers, mutual and fixed premium insurers of ships, a wide range of insurers for freight forwarders, warehouse operators, transport intermediaries, cargo owners and trade insurers. The firm also represents insurers who provide professional indemnity insurance for various professional bodies in Hong Kong.

Employment: HW provides contentious and non-contentious employment and immigration advice to both employers and employees in Hong Kong.

Family and matrimonial: HW’s cases often involve families with assets in multiple jurisidictions. The firm handles all manner of children’s issues including custody, care and control and other parenting disputes, such as access, child maintenance, paternity and schooling applications both in respect of married and unmarried couples and cohabitants.  The firm has experience in handling private adoptions; cases involving child abduction and family finances including property transfers, prenuptial agreements and separation deeds.

Fraud: HW regularly acts for victims of all types of fraud to recover misappropriated assets.  The firm act swiftly and efficiently to help trace and recover assets.  We also provide advice on investigations and court proceedings.

Property and building management: HW’s clients include some of the largest international real estate agencies, listed property developers, international and local building management companies, quasi government bodies, property investment funds, incorporated owners of of commercial/residential buildings, and commercial and individual landlords and tenants in Hong Kong.

Regulatory and compliance: HW’s regulatory team advises financial institutions and corporates on a wide variety of contentious and non-contentious regulatory and compliance issues.

Banking and finance: HW’s banking team has experience in a broad range of banking and finance matters, including bilateral and syndicated lending, international trade finance, project finance, acquisition finance, ship finance, general cash management and liquidity products, asset and debt recovery, security enforcement actions, banking regulation and compliance, sanctions, AML, KYC and various regulatory project and remediation work.  The team also specialise in a diverse range of trade finance matters.

Trusts, assets and wealth management: We advise ultra high-net-worth individuals and their families; entrepreneurs and family businesses both in Hong Kong and the PRC.  We are trusted legal advisers providing advice and support to our clients on the management of their wealth and assets, and on a wide range of inheritance and succession matters.  We have experience in establishing trusts, in particular family trusts, educational trusts and charitable trusts.  Our team includes solicitors who are full members of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP).

Wills, probate and estate management: We handle wills, probate, estate management and general civil litigation matters.

Notarisations and China Attestation: We offer Notary and China Attestation services to our clients.  We have an in-house Notary Public who is a member of the Hong Kong Society of Notaries.

We also have two partners, Brian Ho and Chris Yu who are China Appointed Attesting Officers and members of the Association of China Appointed Attesting Officers Limited.  China-Appointed Attesting Officers ("Attesting Officers") are qualified Hong Kong lawyers who have been appointed by the Ministry of Justice of the People's Republic of China after passing the prescribed qualifying examinations. Their scope of business includes attesting and certifying acts, matters and documents of legal significance occurring in or emanating from Hong Kong and such attested documents are for use in Mainland China. The namelist of all China-Appointed Attesting Officers are available at the Office and Website of the "Association of China-Appointed Attesting Officers".  To be legally valid and protected by the laws of the PRC, attested documents issued by Attesting Officers for use in Mainland China must be sent to the "China Legal Services (H.K.) Limited" for "Sealing and Transfer Delivery".

Distressed debt: HW's restructuring, insolvency and special situations practice provides clients including investors, boards and shareholders of distressed corporate debtors, insolvency office holders, financial institutions, hedge funds, private equity funds and official and ad hoc committees, financial restructuring legal solutions.  We are a cross-departmental practice that draws on the expertise of our corporate / M&A, dispute resolution, insolvency and banking practices to provide seamless service to our clients covering the Hong Kong aspects of cross border restructuring situations.  Our formal association with Shu Jin Law Firm (Hong Kong) allows us to provide enhanced and expanded services on PRC legal matters.