Asian In-House Handbook

The Asian In-House Handbook is published by Pacific Business Press and provides a comprehensive guide to the leading law firms in Asia.

Tanner De Witt is recommended in the Asian In-House Handbook for the following practice areas:

Banking and finance

Tanner De Witt advises small and medium-size enterprises when making loan arrangements that relate to their businesses and the giving and taking of security in connection with such loan arrangements.

Corporate and M&A

Tanner De Witt acts for multinationals and listed companies to small and medium-sized enterprises. Their work encompasses all aspects of corporate and commercial work, from establishing new companies and businesses, to joint ventures and the acquisition and disposal of companies and assets.

Employment

The unit's work covers a wide range of contentious and non-contentious issues including termination, contract and benefits issues, litigation, confidentiality and post termination as well as discrimination and sexual harassment issues. Recent undertakings include acting and advising former employees of BCG Securities regarding attempts to enforce non-compete provisions against them. The firm also acted for Fimat Hong Kong Limited, the brokering division of Société Générale Group in a substantial injunction application to enforce post-termination covenants against brokers leaving to join a major competitor. This resulted in an interlocutory order enforcing until trail 12-month restrictions against competing in Hong Kong, dealing with and soliciting clients.

Intellectual property

Tanner De Witt has organised its intellectual property practice into a unit, headed by consultant Kenneth Choy, that advises creative services providers and other holders of IP rights on protection of intellectual property rights, acquisition of intangible assets, licensing, intellectual asset management and registration of IP rights. With the support of the firm's litigators, it also acts for clients on contentious matters involving infringement, passing off, breach of licences and other IP related issues.

Litigation and dispute resolution

Based in Hong Kong, Tanner De Witt is on home turf in commercial litigation matters and acts for a wide variety of clients. The firm prides itself on the time and effort spent in mediation and related alternative dispute resolution. The dispute resolution team's caseload has enabled the firm to make valuable contacts with forensic, accounting, and professional expert witnesses and has enabled the firm to service or to obtain favourable results for the firm's clients. An increasing portion of the firm's work is in advising Hong Kong clients on requests from foreign courts for the provision of deposition and other evidence for use in foreign courts.

Restructuring and insolvency

Tanner De Witt advises on a wide variety of insolvency matters, from appointment of provisional liquidators to advising within administrations. Deals include acting for the liquidators of incorporated owners of substantial real estate in connection with liabilities incurred to third parties arising from the partial collapse of buildings. This is the first such appointment of this nature in Hong Kong; completing the Hong Kong element of Asia's largest debt restructuring by a scheme of arrangement in the face of a winding-up petition, including contested applications in the Court of Appeal; advising on disputes involving Moulin International Holdings, one of the highest-profile corporate collapses in 2005 in Hong Kong. This assignment included advising on Hong Kong insolvency law and also concerned litigation in the USA.