Asia Law In House Counsel Awards

Who are the best in-house counsel in Asia? Extensive market polls and independent market research were used o determine who would win he inaugural Asialaw In-house Counsel Awards. Sam Baillie reports on the in-house Counsel selected by law firms as the best in the region.

How the fortunes of Asia's in-house counsel has changed. Yesterday they were a forgotten minority stuck in the back-office. Today, at the pinnacle of their profession, in-house counsel are guiding the world's largest companies through the minefield that is legal compliance in the modern economy.

Such an elevation in status has not come about just because of the mounting regulatory weight on the shoulders of the region's companies. In-house counsel are now recognized as much for their legal prowess as for their business acumen. In fact, more often than not, they can be found today not in the back office trawling through the latest Shareholder Corporate Governance Guide, but in the boardroom as members of the senior management team making critical day-to-day decisions.

With in-house counsel now at the centre of the evolution of Asia’s business landscape, Asialaw believes it high time that they receive a little kudos for their efforts. After extensive market polls and independent market research, in April, Asialaw released a shortlist of the top three in-house counsel in 13 jurisdictions in the Asia-Pacific and the top five in the region as a whole (See boxes: In-house Counsel Awards Shortlist). Following several months of further research, Asialaw is pleased to disclose the winners of the Asialaw In-house Counsel Awards.

Drum-roll please . . .
A quick look at the table of winners and it is clear that Asia’s leading in-house counsel have penetrated most sectors of the economy. From the oil industry to the semiconductor industry and from banking and finance to food and beverage, today’s leading in-house counsel represent a cross-section of talent that one would be hard-pressed to find in most leading law firms. This is especially so considering the frontline experience many have gained in running businesses - something that one would expect to be the domain of senior partners at large law firms.

But it is in an industry that is almost synonymous with the word ’compliance’ where there have been the most nominations. Indeed, in-house counsel at various banks throughout the region managed to capture 38 of the 224 nominations in total. This predilection is also evident on the winners’ list, where three of the 14 awards went to those in banking. They include the standout performer of Asialaw's In-house Counsel Awards, Jonathan Ross of Bank of China (Hong Kong) (BOC), who takes the trophy for both the Asia - Pacific and Hong Kong.

As the only non-Chinese employee of the bank, Ross commands an enviable level of respect from his peers in private practice. Ross was foremost in organizing the institution’s US$2.8 billion listing on the Hong Kong stock exchange in July 2002. More recently, he played a central role in developing BOC's renminbi business. ”Ross is a sharp and experienced in-house lawyer that possesses a combined strength of superb legal expertise and a practical commercial sense,” says Shearman & Sterling partner Leiming Chen. He commends Ross for his ability to ”identify critical legal issues” and ”analyze their impact on commercial aspects,,” as well as ”proposing practical solutions to manage legal risks” . In these matters, Chen feels Ross is ”second to none”.

Ross’ success has depended largely on his Mandarin language skills and his ability to delegate and manage BOC's hefty legal workload with outside counsel. ”Blending his legal skills with language ability, Ross is playing a significant role in the development of the legal and compliance functions of BOC,” says David Kidd, a partner at Allen & Overy.

His capacity to ”speak Putonghua and read Chinese is definitely a plus in completing assignments in a cost and time-effective manner,” agrees DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary partner Fung King Tak. He adds that this efficiency is furthered by Ross’ ”excellent control over the costs and quality of work produced by external counsel for the bank”.

In addition to his good name among many private practices in Hong Kong, Ross is well regarded among fellow colleagues within the in-house niche. This has come about not only through his good work, but also through his core role in establishing the Hong Kong Corporate Counsel Association (HKCCA). ”Ross’ important role in establishing an organization for foreign in-house lawyers in Hong Kong to meet and share views and meet outside speakers has been effective in his internal and external representation of the bank.” notes Freshfields partner Thomas Jones.

Says Ross on receiving the Asialaw In-house Counsel Award for Hong Kong and the Lovells Award for the Asia - Pacific: ”It is my pleasure and privilege to receive these awards. I hope that this is an appreciation of the work I have done over the last two years for the Hong Kong Corporate Counsel Association and on behalf of corporate counsel in Hong Kong in general. Seeing the HKCCA take off and become a viable and effective association has been reward enough in itself, but this award is further confirmation of the value of the HKCCA. Thank you Asialaw for sponsoring the awards and for contributing to the increased stature of the in-house legal community in Asia.”

Success through adversity
Whilst in-house counsel are crucial in formulating the growth of companies, their core role of course concerns the resolution of problems that arise when conducting business. None of the companies on the winners’ list are unique in their ability to avoid legal disputes. In many respects, this is as much of a reflection of their size and success as it is the growing litigious and regulative nature of most jurisdictions in the region.

Similarly, those that rise to the top in the legal in-house counsel world do so through a kind of oxymoron: they cannot be successful unless they work for a company that is regularly legally challenged, something that if it goes badly is considered mildly unsuccessful at best. As they say: you are remembered for your wins and not your losses.

Consider Australia’s number one voted in-house counsel David Krasnostein of National Australia Bank (NAB). As Australia’s largest bank, one cannot doubt NAB's credentials as a top-notch lender. But at the same time, it has been beset with one of Australia's largest institutional crises of late - and that is saying something.

When in January 2004 it was revealed that four of NAB’s foreign exchange traders had squandered A$360 million (approximately US$274 .6 million) in unauthorized trades speculating on the market, you can bet Krasnostein was one of the first to know. The scandal has served as a significant impetus in the overhaul of NAB's internal compliance, risk management and governance systems - a process in which Krasnostein has been centrally involved in.

Commenting on Krasnostein’s work under pressure, Mallesons Stephen Jaques partner Nuncio D’Angelo makes known his reputation for ”commercially focused advice to the top level of the bank,” something that came to the fore he says in 2003 when ”the bank and its board faced extreme circumstances“.. Having worked under him and on secondment, D’Angelo has witnessed Krasnostein's ”outstanding management of the in-house team and strong but fair management of external providers”.

Pressure pushes peak performers
The NAB case portrays well the kind of high-growth and high-risk environment in which top in-house counsel excel. Asia is almost synonymous with such an environment and serves as a virtual breeding-ground for some of the world’s finest in-house counsel.
A majority of the in-house counsel on the winners' list work in the high-technology manufacturing sector. Manufacturers operating at the upper end of the value chain face a host of legal challenges - especially in Asia. Not least is this because of the high incidence of patent infringements they face on their valuable technologies.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) recently resolved a near 18-month long dispute with the Shanghai-based Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), which it accused of multiple patent infringements and misappropriated trade secrets. The latter recently agreed to pay TSMC US$175 million to settle lawsuits filed in California and Taiwan and a complaint filed with the International Trade Commission.

The deputy director of TSMC's corporate legal division and its board secretary, Sylvia Fang, has been acclaimed for her legal work with the company and takes the 2005 Deep & Far Award for Taiwan In-house Counsel. Having worked with TSMC for 10 years, Fang has built an impressive portfolio of work that covers various disciplines, including IP. With six years experience in an IP firm prior to joining, she is especially adept in handling IP cross-licensing negotiations. Perhaps her greatest claim to fame, however, came in 2001 when she led a number of Taiwanese semiconductor companies in fighting a US anti-dumping petition. After four years of work, the Taiwan industry group eventually won the case and retrieved considerable cash deposits by importers that were being held by the US Customs Service.

As one of TSMC's most active outside counsel, Sherry Lin from Lee & Li is full of praise for Fang, noting her "great command" in her field and ability to "correspond efficiently with outside counsel when seeking independent opinions". Likewise, Lin's colleague, Alex Jui-Lin Liu, comments that Fang is not only "articulate in her requests for legal services," but "allows reasonably sufficient time for outside counsels to respond". She also illustrates "efficient communication and the effective use of outside counsels, [achieving] a win-win benefit for both the company and outside counsel”.

Still a niche area
Though in-house counsel have grown in prominence in Asia, especially since the 1997-98 financial crisis, they remain very much a minority. Indeed there are several jurisdictions in which they are almost unheard of In Vietnam, for example, several of the lawyers that we spoke to struggled to name a single in-house counsel in the country - even at the big multinationals. In spite of this, more and more lawyers are choosing to become in-house counsel in Vietnam, with those currently practicing in the area held in very high regard.

Le Dinh Buu Tri is one such individual and, having worked as Manulife Vietnam's in-house legal counsel since 2001, is considered almost a veteran of the industry. As corporate secretary, Tri is responsible for a wide range of compliance and legal matters. He also manages Manulife Vietnam's external legal relationships. Tri provides legal advice directly to the company's senior management, including on corporate strategy and the drafting/reviewing of all standard forms, contracts and letters.

Similar to Vietnam, in-house counsel are somewhat of a rare breed in Japan and South Korea. In Japan, for example, it is still unusual for Japanese companies to have qualified lawyers on their internal staff. ”Those few who are qualified lawyers,” says one lawyer, ”are not particularly well regarded”. Hence, it is mostly the foreign companies that are active in Japan which tend to have full-time legal staff on their payrolls. As the winner of the 2005 Anderson Mori & Tomotsune
Award for Japan In-house Counsel, Laurence Bates of General Electric (Japan) is regarded as "the pre-eminent foreign in-house lawyer in Japan,” according to one partner at a prominent US firm. ”He is widely respected not only for his own lawyering skills, but also for his creation of legal functions for numerous GE businesses, which in many cases include a carefully integrated team of foreign lawyers, Japanese lawyers and legal specialists”. Until recently, Bates co -chaired the American Chamber's Corporate Counsel subcommittee, in the capacity of which he ”tirelessly supported structural reform in many segments
of the Japanese economy.”

Like its neighbour Japan, one needs to look no further than the multinationals or large domestic conglomerates to find an in-house counsel in South Korea.