Latham & Watkins LLP

The firm: Latham & Watkins is a leading international law firm serving multinational companies, start-ups, investment banks, private equity funds, venture capital firms, sovereign wealth funds, governments and other organisations. The firm’s globally integrated platform spans Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the US, and consists of internationally recognised practices across a wide spectrum of transactional, litigation, corporate and regulatory areas. Latham attorneys offer unrivalled legal resources and strategic commercial thinking to provide clients with innovative solutions to complex commercial matters.

Asia practice: Businesses and investors seeking innovative solutions to their most complex corporate, financial, regulatory and litigation challenges turn to Latham in Asia for strategic thinking and experienced counsel. Latham has extensive experience advising on the international aspects of a broad range of corporate and finance transactions for clients across the region, notably Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. With more than 150 lawyers operating from six offices in Asia, Latham provides clients in the region and clients looking to do business in Asia with expert advice under US, English, Hong Kong, Japanese and Singapore law. Latham’s deep roots in the financial and economic markets in the region are further strengthened by the firm’s local language capabilities.

Latham continues to receive awards and acclaim from a number of leading financial and legal publications for landmark and precedent-setting deals.

Areas of practice: As part of the Greater China practice, lawyers in the Beijing office handle a range of transactions, including international capital markets, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, private equity, restructurings and project financings. The firm’s clients regularly take advantage of the Greater China practice’s intimate knowledge of the marketplace and are supported by the full resources of Latham & Watkins’ global network of offices.

Members of the team draw on more than 25 years of experience advising clients doing business in China. As counsel to issuers or underwriters, the firm’s lawyers have been involved in many international equity, debt and equity-linked offerings by issuers in China and across Asia. The firm also represents some of the world’s largest private equity funds and multinational corporations in their acquisitions or investments in the PRC, across Asia and globally. In addition, the firm regularly acts as lead counsel for the sponsors or lenders on the region’s landmark power, petrochemical, and oil and gas projects. The team also advises US, European, Middle Eastern and Asian companies conducting business in China and throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

Beijing-based lawyers regularly work with the major Chinese law firms on PRC projects, and are experienced in co-ordinating the work of local counsel to provide seamless legal services to clients.

The team includes lawyers who are fluent in Chinese languages and dialects including Mandarin, Cantonese, Shanghainese, Hakka and Taiwanese and have received US, English and PRC legal education and training.