About

Most recently director and associate general counsel for New York and Hong Kong-listed luxury brand Coach Inc., Jasmine Karimi’s varied in-house career has spanned multiple jurisdictions in diverse industries including retail, manufacturing and media. ‘They’ve all been different and yet they’ve all had similarities,’ she says of her various employers. ‘What makes any company and role interesting is getting to know the product, services and the business truly well in order to bring real value-add’. UK, Singapore, Canada and Hong Kong-qualified, Karimi is a sought after speaker at industry conferences in Asia and has been featured in various legal publications. Elected as President of Hong Kong’s Corporate Counsel Association (HKCCA) almost five years ago, she has seen the organisation grow from approximately 300 to 900 members. ‘We are trying to give the in-house community a bigger voice and a seat at the table,’ she says on HKCCA’s goals. ‘We are really working to push forward soft skills workshops which go beyond hard law and show in-house counsel how to really engage as a true business partner, empowering them to act as agents of change.’ Alongside resources, bringing management round to legal’s value-added, Karimi says, is one of the most consistent challenges faced by in-house counsel. ‘Some still see you as a backhouse function, which can be frustrating.’ Karimi first started practising as a litigator in Singapore. She then moved to Toronto, Canada, initially at magic circle firm Blakes, before accepting her first in-house role as a media lawyer at CHUM (since bought out by Rogers Media), and thereafter Corus Entertainment. Here she headed legal support for the company’s 52 radio stations nationwide and provided specialist advice on IP, IT and defamation law across its 17 TV channels. Often required to provide accurate advice on the spot where the stakes were high, such as whether or not to run a major news story, Karimi says ‘I always found those scenarios made me a better lawyer.’ In 2006 Karimi returned to Asia and joined Hong Kong-listed power tools manufacturer Techtronic Industries, heading the APAC legal team supporting various business units across Asia and EMEA on expansion, restructuring and operational issues. From here Karimi moved into retail manufacturing at Braiform, then a division of Aus/NZ-listed Spotless Group, setting up the global legal function, travelling across Europe, the United States, and Asia. She also completed a wide-scale strategic review of the company’s patent portfolio, involving a major cull which significantly cut costs. At the beginning of 2012 she was headhunted by Coach to set up their Asia Pacific legal function. ‘Coach was doing a lot of very interesting deals, and there was a much work to be done on the Asia business function. The challenge of setting up the function is always exciting’. Starting off as the region’s sole in-house lawyer, she grew the team and also helped when the company take its brand back from distributors in Korea and other jurisdictions. Korea, Karimi agrees, is a ‘challenging market’. ‘As someone who thrives on challenges, it resonated well with me.’ When asked what law firms could do better, Karimi points to ‘proactivity’ and greater focus on the client’s business.