About

Listed on NASDAQ since 2006, Melco Resorts & Entertainment (Melco) is a developer, owner and operator of casino gaming and entertainment casino resort facilities in Asia. Led by executive vice president and chief legal officer Stephanie Cheung, the legal team consists of six lawyers and nine support staff, with five lawyers of vice president level. ‘The Melco legal team has vast experience dealing with major transactions regularly. [Team member] Tim Sung has led multiple financing transactions in the form of bond deals and an IPO in an efficient and expert manner’, says Cheung. In the past 12 months, the team has handled significant legal and regulatory affairs, such as the IPO on NYSE of Melco’s subsidiary Studio City International Holdings. Talking about the biggest challenges in the next 12 months, Cheung states, ‘we do not see any major difficulties in the next 12 months, but there are lots of opportunities to improve the already robust governance and to add bandwidth to the scope of our main business, all of which the legal team has a lot of experience and expertise in handling’. According to Cheung, the team seeks to recruit lawyers with experience from top tier law firms and prefers individuals with demonstrated experience working in an in-house environment. The team also likes to involve counsels in managerial issues and recruitment so as to develop their sense of ownership and belonging. ‘We also endeavour to care for their well-being. We allow flexibility to deal with family or health issues, opportunities for professional training and courses at reputable educational institutions [such as] Cornell University)’, she explains. The team embraces legal technology as a means to achieve efficiency, and it has, or is in the process of deploying, various legal technologies including a document management system, board meeting portal, virtual data room and contract management system.