Asialaw Profiles
The Guide to the legal markets of the Asia-Pacific

Paul Weiss is known in the market for its deep technical know-how when it comes to supporting clients on TMT related mergers and acquisitions and private equity investments in the sector. Leading light Jeanette Chan has over 20 years of experience working with clients in IT, Telco & Media, which is underscored by the firm’s impressive client list.

One particularly strong example of the firm’s prowess was last year’s completion of a joint venture agreement between The Walt Disney Company and state-owned Shanghai Shengdi Group for the development of Shanghai Disneyland. The new theme park will be the first of its kind in China, and the joint venture took 10 years to negotiate.

In 2010, Paul Weiss also advised Motorola as it sold its Hong Kong and PRC networks business to Nokia Siemens Networks.

There are few firms in Hong Kong that can boast of having a dedicated IT, Telco & Media team. Simmons & Simmons is one such firm. Leading partner Damien Bailey brings 16 years of experience to the practice, and regularly advises clients such as PCCW, Hitachi Data Systems, China Telecom and China Mobile on multijurisdictional TMT issues.

This past year, Davis Wang joined the greater China team in Shanghai from leading domestic firm King & Wood. Wang’s practice focuses on TMT related M&A and private equity fund investments, and he previously worked in executive and in-house positions at Microsoft and eBay/PayPal in greater China.

Simmons continues to advise Hitachi Data Systems on the roll-out of its new cloud storage solution for customers. A firm team advised HDS in preparing and implementing the contract documents needed to launch the cloud product.

Freshfields’ intellectual property and information technology group in Asia is headed by lead partner Connie Carnabuci. The practice at Freshfields covers an array of matters, from IT and telecommunication agreements to telecommunications and media related intellectual property issues.

The Freshfields practice also supports the firm’s other practice areas, notably in sector specific IPOs, M&As, joint ventures and other business agreements.

With a client list that includes leading international financial institutions, multinational corporations and government bodies, Mayer Brown JSM certainly has a robust IT, Telco & Media practice. Leading partner Geof Master has deep experience when it comes to outsourcing and technology transactions.

Partner Kenny Wong, who also has a leading IP practice, enjoys close relationships with media and celebrities in Hong Kong, and often helps to coordinate contracts for the Hong Kong portions of major international film shoots. Partner David Ellis is also a leading lawyer in the practice.

All three partners are jointly advising Hong Kong Hospital Authority on the creation and implementation of an e-Health Record system for patients. The centralised system for holding patient health records could be used by public and private providers.