About

Founded in 2014, Klook is a world leading travel activities and services booking platform, having grown ‘from a small Sheung Wan office to a global presence in over 20 locations’ and is ‘the world’s most funded travel start-up’, says a nominator. Headed by general counsel Vincent Ng, the legal team of Klook is continuously growing and currently has nine members. The legal team members are located in Hong Kong, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur and all report to Ng. The team is structured to have the following three pillars: firstly, geographical coverage, where senior counsel Jake Chan and Ryan Chung lead on global and Southeast Asia coverage respectively; secondly specialist coverage, where senior consultant Julia Ma leads compliance and company secretarial matters with support from compliance officer Katie Lam, and counsel Ann Liu leads all privacy, technology and IP related issues; and thirdly the efficiency team, where counsel Cheri Yap is part of the contract review team, with the goal of reducing contract turnover time, and legal and compliance manager Elsa Ho is responsible for all legal operations initiatives. ‘Each internal project would be led by a team member from one of the pillars above, with support from members of other pillars. Hence, legal coverage is provided more in the form of matrix instead of linear coverage’, Ng explains. During the last year, the legal team has built critical legal and compliance infrastructure and policies for the company and empowered the company to expand globally. In addition, the team led a company-wide data privacy compliance exercise, with particular focus on GDPR but also taking into account the legal requirements of key markets in the region, working with all internal business teams and with senior sponsorship from the chief technology officer. The legal operations team also embarked on a revamp of the company’s contract approval and review system with the business contract review now partially automated with a combination of different matter management systems. ‘Further review is being conducted to streamline the approval process, with improved efficiency and transparency to internal clients, so that they know exactly where and what stage their contract is in the approval process. Legal operations team also tracks crucial internal data such as team productivity, budgeting and law firm expenses’, Ng explains. Recently the legal team has been involved in some major transactions, including Klook’s innovative partnership with Shangri-La Hotels in 2018 that combines hospitality and in-destination travel services; the US$200m Series D financing in 2018, which saw the company achieve unicorn status, as well as the US$225m Series D+ financing in 2019 which is led by Softbank Vision Fund. Summing up the team culture, Ng had a detailed explanation for the team’s success: ‘We care for the personal growth, fulfilment and well-being of each team member so they can achieve their best. This is achieved by bi-weekly one-to-one meetings between the general counsel and each team member to understand their needs, job satisfaction level and challenges; monthly review of responsibilities and projects led by each team member; and a quarterly review of legal and company priorities versus personal goals and achievements of each member. We maintain an open communication policy – everyone is encouraged to contribute and takes true ownership of their tasks’.