Mayer Brown

Duncan Abate is a partner of Mayer Brown. He is the Chair of the firm's Asia Board and also serves on the global Management Committee.He advises on all aspects of employment and employee benefits law and regulation, including discrimination, labour relations, termination of employment, data privacy and the structure of employment relationships. He also advises on the establishment, maintenance and restructuring of occupational retirement schemes and mandatory provident fund schemes, as well as related documentation and services.Duncan has been described as "the expert in employment law in Hong Kong" by Chambers Asia Pacific 2016. He has been "identified among the Top 25 Labour & Employment experts in the world" (The Expert Guide to the World's Leading Lawyers 2007) and amongst "the world's top practitioners in labour and employment" (Euromoney Expert Guides 2017). He is consistently ranked as a Leading Employment Lawyer in Legal 500 Asia Pacific, The International Who's Who of Business Lawyers and Chambers Asia Pacific.Duncan serves on a number of community and business organisations, including the Employers' Federation of Hong Kong, the British Chamber of Commerce, the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, the Hong Kong Retirement Schemes Association and he has recently been re-elected to the Election Committee to select the next Chief Executive for Hong Kong.

Hong Tran is a partner of Mayer Brown and is a Co-Firm Practice Leader of the global Employment and Benefits Group. He advises employers on compliance with employment, discrimination and privacy legislation. He also advises on strategic labour force issues including the structure of employment relationships; risk management in the employment and discrimination context; the introduction of changes to employment arrangements; the handling of union relations; and recruitment, disciplinary and termination issues. He is experienced in handling employment disputes, discrimination and privacy complaints/issues. He represents employers engaged in legal proceedings at the various court levels from the Labour Tribunal through to the Court of Final Appeal. He also advises employers in responding to investigations by the Labour Department, Equal Opportunities Commission and the Office of the Commissioner for Personal Data Privacy. Hong speaks English, Cantonese and Chiu Chow dialect.He has been ranked as Band 1 lawyer in employment Hong Kong Law by Chambers Asia Pacific (2017 and 2018) and a "Leading individual" in employment law by Legal 500 Asia Pacific (2015-2018). He has been recognised by Who's Who Legal (2015) as being among the world's leading lawyers for employment and labour practice in Hong Kong. He was named as one of the "pre-eminent practitioners in the world" and "one of the world's leading lawyers" by Guide to the World's Leading Labour & Employment Lawyers (2011). He was also named a Leading Asia Law Labour & Employment Lawyer by the Asia Law & Practice Survey (2008).Hong has contributed to leading employment and discrimination law textbooks "Chitty on Contracts, Hong Kong Specific Contracts" Chapter 7, "Employment Law and Practice in Hong Kong" Chapters 3 & 5 and "Discrimination Law and Practice in Hong Kong" Chapters 4 and 7 (and Co-General Editor).