About

Serving as executive director, Marco Chung heads both the private equity legal team and investment banking M&A legal team at Morgan Stanley Hong Kong, the global investment banking giant. Kevin Ip is the second most senior member, working as vice president. The private equity legal team consists of three lawyers working on deals and three lawyers working on transaction management, whereas the investment banking M&A legal team includes one lawyer. In the words of a nominator, ‘Chung heads a regional team with a technically adept yet business savvy mind-set, focusing on diverse areas of international finance including fund formation, acquisitions, financing and joint ventures across a range of jurisdictions ranging from Australia to China’. During the last 12 months, the legal teams assisted the business to buy controlling stakes in asset management companies in China before integrating the acquisitions with the rest of Morgan Stanley. ‘My team has been able to utilise the deal knowledge and private equity experience to assist the business’, says Chung. In the next 12 months, the legal team will continue to have significant initiatives in mainland China such as buying additional stakes in asset management companies, which requires Chinese language skills and understanding of China’s landscape as well as being able to navigate the international Morgan Stanley system. According to Chung, his recruitment of team members reflects such requirements. Additionally, the legal teams attracts talent through the Morgan Stanley brand name and the wide range of work that private equity offers. Commenting on the recent developments in legal technology, Chung states: ‘We start to see external law firms using artificial intelligence in due diligence and will expect the trend to continue’.