On March 28, 2024, after collecting a wide range of market feedback, China Business Law Journal announced the China practice edition of The A-List 2023-24: Rising Stars, which includes 100 lawyers aged 40 or below who are practising Chinese law, as well as 20 lawyers from foreign law firms or working overseas. These lawyers are constantly on the lookout for breakthroughs, committed to paving the way for the development of enterprises in the ever-changing business landscape. Han Kun partners Xiaoming Deng, Stephen Dong, Jing Liu, Shuting Qi, Nick Shu, Angus Xie, and Leigh Yang were selected for their excellence and contributions.
Mr. Xiaomeng Deng specialises in business dispute resolution, representing mainly securities firms, commercial banks and listed companies. With more than 10 years of experience in securities, asset management and fund business, he has represented many clients in securities misrepresentation, liability of trustees and custodians, shareholding disputes, etc., saving them billions of renminbi in losses. He also provides perennial legal advice for listed companies and financial institutions. Mr. Deng received his LL.B. and LL.M. degrees from Renmin University of China (RUC). He completed his J.D. degree at the University of Hong Kong and his LL.M. at University of Pennsylvania. He is admitted to practice law in China and New York state. He serves as an external tutor for master's candidates at RUC and is a specially appointed research fellow at the university's Rule of Law Research Centre for Business Environment.
Mr. Stephen Dong has extensive practical experience in a number of practice areas, including real estate-related acquisition, real estate project finance, M&A, and offshore securities offerings. He advises major international and domestic real estate funds, investment banks, real estate enterprises, warehousing and logistics enterprises, multinational enterprises, listed companies and insurance companies on their various equity acquisitions, asset acquisitions, real estate developments, real estate project financing, leasing operations and property management in China. His services include deal structuring, legal due diligence, drafting transaction documents, and business negotiations. Mr. Dong has accumulated rich experience in practising PRC law and in handling complicated cross-border and onshore transactions. Mr. Dong graduated from East China University of Political Science and Law and the National University of Singapore Faculty of Law.
Ms. Jing Liu mainly practices in the field of commercial dispute resolution and has rich experience in investment and financing disputes and disputes over corporate control. In the areas of investment and financing disputes, Ms. Liu has represented parties in various equity repurchase disputes, fund control disputes and withdrawal disputes of fund investors/partners and achieved satisfactory results. Based on her rich experience in dispute resolution, Ms. Liu excels at assisting institutional clients to establish and improve their equity investment risk management systems so as to better manage and prevent investment risks from a dispute resolution perspective. In the area of control disputes, Ms. Liu has handled a series of corporate control disputes which have had a major impact in the market. She provides efficient and practical legal services to her clients by comprehensively considering all perspectives from litigation/arbitration, administrative, and criminal matters.
Ms. Liu has acted for clients in numerous litigation cases before various courts, including the Supreme People's Court and other courts. She has also acted for clients in several major and complicated arbitration cases before the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission, the Beijing Arbitration Commission, and the Shenzhen Court of International Arbitration. Based on her extensive experience, Ms. Liu is adept at developing highly feasible litigation/arbitration strategies based on her clients' actual circumstances, and is able to properly apply litigation skills in handling cases so as to achieve the goal of maximizing her clients' interests in all respects.
Ms. Shuting Qi has practiced law for more than 15 years. She has extensive experience in representing private equity and strategic clients in a wide array of business transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, buyouts, growth equity investments, divestitures, joint ventures, foreign direct investment and general corporate matters. Shuting has also represented Chinese companies in their outbound investments and other financing transactions outside China. Shuting represents clients across diverse industries, including TMT, healthcare, education, finance, industrial manufacturing, retail, consumables, real estate, and logistics. Before joining Han Kun, Shuting Qi was a partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP. She obtained an LL.B. degree from Nanjing University School of Law in 2005 and LL.M. degrees from Fudan University School of Law and Harvard University School of Law in 2008 and 2012, respectively.
Nick Shu's legal practice covers cross-border M&A, PE and VC investment, capital markets, foreign direct investment, and other general corporate matters associated with public companies and private institutions in and outside of the PRC. He has extensive experience handling legal as well as commercial issues relating to a wide variety of business activities. Mr. Shu joined Han Kun Law Offices in July 2021, after serving as the director of corporate development at a leading US-listed e-commerce group from 2018 to 2021. Before that, Mr. Shu practised law for many years with White & Case, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, and another major PRC law firm in Beijing and Shanghai. Earlier in his career, he worked as a tax consultant at a Big Four accounting firm.
Mr. Shu has represented PE firms, VC funds, strategic investors, portfolio companies, and multinational companies in connection with their investment, acquisition and financing projects. Mr. Shu's practice extends across all industries, with a particular emphasis on technology, media and telecommunications.
Mr. Angus Xie has extensive compliance experience and has assisted a number of leading international and Chinese companies in data security, merger filing, national security review, government investigations and the establishment and improvement of their overarching compliance systems.
Mr. Xie has rich expertise in assisting clients with complex and comprehensive cross-border compliance matters, leveraging his compliance experience across different sectors and different jurisdictions. He has represented many well-known multinational companies in handling highly complicated and challenging compliance issues in China, as well as assisted a number of leading Chinese enterprises in compliance matters in other major jurisdictions around the world, including the EU, the US, Australia, Germany, Israel, Argentina and Brazil. Before joining Han Kun, Xie worked for several top-tier domestic and international law firms in China.
Mr. Xie also serves as a guest lecturer at the Advanced Program on International Legal Services at Peking University Law School, an off-campus Master of Law supervisor at the University of International Business and Economics, and a steering group member of the International Corporate Counsel Committee of the American Bar Association.
Ms. Leigh (Li) Yang's practice area primarily revolves around investment fund formation, asset management and cross-border investments, with a specific focus on private equity and venture capital (PE/VC). Ms. Yang possesses extensive expertise in both renminbi and US dollar fund formation, along with remarkable experience in cross-border fund formation and investment matters such as QFLP, QDLP/QDIE, QFII, and QDII. Based in Shanghai, she frequently travels to the Greater Bay Area and Singapore to manage and cultivate client relationships in those regions. Ms. Yang is dedicated to bridging China and the global landscape through her legal services, facilitating seamless cross-border transactions. She diligently keeps track of China's foreign exchange administration policies and actively engages in industry initiatives to advocate for regulatory enhancements, thus fostering the growth of China's PE/VC industry. Ms. Yang graduated from Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU) with an LL.B. degree in 2008, and she also holds an LL.M. (with honours) from Columbia Law School, and a Master of Commercial Laws degree from Seoul National University. Currently, she is enrolled in the part-time Global Executive MBA programme at INSEAD, set to graduate in the Class of 2025.
China Business Law Journal's The A-List 2023-24: Rising Stars acknowledges the most highly recommended lawyers in the market who often expand their expertise and skillsets through in-depth research and practice, developing into experts in specific practice areas. They have become loyal companions and committed supporters of corporate development, and in turn have received widespread praise from in-house counsel and executives. The final list is the aggregate result of market nominations, candidates' own submitted supportive information, and independent research conducted by the editorial team.
