About

Hong Kong is the regional hub in Asia for Christie’s, the famous British auction house, and the in-house legal team there looks after a wide range of legal matters on the continent including the day-to-day consignment contracts needed by the business team for complex financial deals involving the consignment of artworks worth hundreds of millions of Hong Kong dollars. Led by head of legal for Asia and senior vice president Audrey Shum, the team of three qualified lawyers, two paralegals and one compliance manager also advise on and handle HR matters, disputes and litigations, corporate transactions, corporate governance and compliance matters whilst acting as the trusted advisers of the organisation’s senior management in Asia. In addition, the team cover a wide geographical area having recently added Australia and India to their remit which already included China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand. Shum describes what this extensive role requires of the team: ‘As we are a relatively small team, when we have to take on a substantial project, we will have to continue to carry out our normal duties which are demanding on their own while taking on the additional project. Multi-tasking and time management are key to our success and everyone is required to sharpen their multitasking and time management skills to perfection in order to handle all of these at the same time’. Amongst some of their recent achievements, the team helped conclude the consignment of some of the most significant and important Chinese artworks in November 2018 and also helped with the management of all transactional matters relating to this important consignment after it had been sold. They are also commended for successfully completing the sale of Christie’s bonded warehouse business, CFASS, in Singapore under an aggressive timetable. A few years ago the team successfully set up the first foreign owned auction house in mainland China. ‘We are still the only international auction house which operates regular auctions in mainland China through a wholly owned subsidiary’, explains Shum. Exploring what this key deal entailed, she shares the following: ‘When we set up the China auction house, the legal team, which was two-thirds of its size now, worked day, night and weekends to set up the wholly foreign-owned enterprise in mainland China and as soon as [it] was set up, we also had to advise on all the regulatory concerns in mainland China ranging from the PRC Auction Law to the import and export regulations in mainland China, and flying to China every week to meet the regulatory bodies to work out feasible solutions for our business as we were the first international auction house going into the mainland China market’. Commenting on the team’s ethos, Shum says, ‘Our team culture is developed by always delivering our work products to the business on time, seizing opportunities to understand the company’s business and knowing the business colleagues, having the leader lead by example and rewarding staff when they do a good job and giving them honest feedback when something needs improvement and joining the company’s spirit at our company’s events’.