Team size: 17

What are the most significant cases or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

I am the Senior Legal Manager of LONGi, and am based in Sarawak, Malaysia. I am the principal counsel for 26 photovoltaic manufacturing plants (solar ingots, wafers, cells, and modules) in Vietnam and Malaysia. These photovoltaic manufacturing plants produce solar panels and export them to the USA markets.

I am also the lead counsel in responding to the USA Customs and Border Protection (CBP)’s Hoshino WRO (which takes effect from June 2021), and the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA, which takes effect from June 2022). These legislations restrict any importation of silica-based products with the use of forced labour. Once the products were detained, the importer or the manufacturer needs to prove its manufacturing and supply chain of the imported products is free from forced labour by providing traceability reports.

I am also part of the legal team in responding to the anti-dumping or countervailing duty investigation by the USA Department of Commerce (DOC) in September 2021 (complaint lodged by American Solar Manufacturers Against Chinese Circumvention) and February 2022 (complaint lodged by Auxin Solar). These complaints targeted photovoltaic manufacturers collectively in Southeast Asia, and China.

In general, what would you like to see change about the external law firms you use?

Most of the business leaders of multinational corporations try to understand the foreign legal environment through the legal lens of the home country or the headquarters. Therefore, if those legal firms can explain the domestic law in the legal language and lens of the home country or the headquarters of the clients, it will help the client’s leaders and in-house legal teams to make the decision quicker and to implement the legal remedies or solution more effective.

As we enter the next decade, what skills will a corporate legal team need to succeed in the modern in-house industry?

The corporate legal team or the in-house team need to look beyond its legal role. To a considerable extent, the in-house lawyers are the business advisors with competent legal knowledge, rather than wearing the legal cap only. The corporate legal team needs to have both cross-discipline competence (legal and business) and in-depth expertise.