MCI (P) 031/02/2018 ISSN 0219 – 6875 S 1867/10/2015(025606) KDN PP M&A RANKINGS 20I8 ASIA’S BEST FIRMS FOR M&A WORK ICO AGE COIN OFFERINGS TAKE REGION BY STORM ONE FOR ALL NETWORKS TALK GROWTH STRATEGIES DPRK DILEMMA WOULD YOU INVEST IN NORTH KOREA? CONTENTS An Aramco employee walks near an oil tank at Saudi Aramco’s Ras Tanura oil refinery and oil terminal in Saudi Arabia May 21, 2018. REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah important than ever opportunities in one COVER STORY FEATURES when it comes to of the world’s most BRIEFS facilitating cross- isolated countries. 14 26 border deals and But companies need 3 M&A Rankings ICO age assisting companies to be careful if they The Briefing ALB’s annual Asia has today in breaking into new don’t want to get rankings of the become a hotspot for markets. Leaders of burnt. 5 best law firms for initial coin offerings. five legal networks Deals M&A work lists This has led not just – four global and 42 the top deal firms to a growth in legal one regional – talk A resolve for 6 in each country. work, but also to about how they are insolvency Appointments These include Lubis a demand for law currently helping Singapore has made Ganie Surowidjojo firms with specialised member law firms, plans to become in Indonesia, skills. and their strategies an insolvency and Weerawong, for the future. restructuring hub in Chinnavat & 30 the region, and to Partners in Thailand, Networks: The view 40 that end, it passed Talwar, Thakore from the top Northern exposure game-changing & Associates With the massive Recent signs of laws last year. in India and growth in cross- North Korea opening Lawyers analyse the Romulo Mabanta border trade, itself up have given impact that the new Buenaventura Sayoc international legal rise to speculation framework has had & de los Angeles in networks have that there could be so far, and what the the Philippines. become more serious investment future holds. WWW.LEGALBUSINESSONLINE.COM ASIAN LEGAL BUSINESS – SEPTEMBER 2018 1 Whatever happened to Myanmar? On Sept. 3, two Reuters journalists were convicted under Myanmar’s colonial-era Official Secrets Act and sentenced to seven years of hard labour. The charges appear to have been HEAD OF LEGAL MEDIA BUSINESS, trumped up, and Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were report- ASEAN AND NORTH ASIA edly entrapped by local police – apparent retribution Amantha Chia for the fact that they were investigating a massacre of [email protected] Rohingya people. The whole thing comes across as a subversion of the rule of law; few had expected a fair MANAGING EDITOR trial, and indeed, that was pretty much how it played Ranajit Dam [email protected] out. I do not raise this issue because the two reporters are colleagues of mine within the broader Thomson JOURNALIST Reuters family; indeed, any right-thinking person Elizabeth Beattie should be disturbed at the government’s [email protected] attempts to crack down on journalists EDITORIAL ASSISTANT trying to unearth the truth about one of Aparna Sai the region’s most important stories this [email protected] decade. But press freedom is not the only issue at hand. In terms of democracy and COPY & WEB EDITOR human rights, Myanmar appears to have Rowena Muniz lost its way. [email protected] Make no mistake: Across Asia, and SENIOR DESIGNER within Southeast Asia in particular, there John Agra are few governments that can claim to be [email protected] fair, enlightened and truly democratic. But Myanmar is in a league of its own TRAFFIC / CIRCULATION MANAGER due to its barely concealed attacks on Rozidah Jambari its Rohingya minority. Some 700,000 [email protected] of them have fled since the military SALES MANAGERS offensive in the northern Rakhine Amy Sim province in August 2017, described by the Senior Sales Manager United Nations as a “textbook example (65) 6870 3348 of ethnic cleansing.” Within the inter- [email protected] national community, there is of course Henry Cheng RANAJIT DAM shock and outrage, but behind that is a gnawing feeling Sales Manager [email protected] Managing Editor, of disappointment. After all the fanfare of so-called free Asian Legal Business elections and the surface appearance of democracy, Jeremy Lim Thomson Reuters there is the realisation that Myanmar hasn’t really Sales Executive (65) 6870 3789 changed that much. As the country begins to assess [email protected] the economic and reputational damage of the Rohingya Jonathan Bell crisis, there is of course, the possibility that the govern- Sales Manager ment might seek to change for the better. But the stain (852) 2843 6471 of the genocide is not going away any time soon. [email protected] Sardor Yangibayev Senior Sales Executive (65) 6870 3190 [email protected] SENIOR EVENTS MANAGER Julian Chiew [email protected] Asian Legal Business is available by subscription. Please visit www.legalbusinessonline.com for details. Asian Legal Business has an audited average circulation of 11,402 as of 30 September 2016.Copyright is reserved throughout. No part of this publication can be SENIOR AWARDS AND reproduced in whole or part without the express permission of the editor. Contributions are invited, but copies of work should be kept, as Asian Legal Business OPERATIONS MANAGER can accept no responsibility for loss. MCI (P) 031/02/2018 Tracy Li ISSN 0219 – 6875 [email protected] KDN PPS 1867/10/2015(025606) Thomson Reuters 18 Science Park Drive Singapore 118229 / T (65) 6775 5088 / F (65) 6333 0900 10/F, Cityplaza 3, Taikoo Shing, Hong Kong / T (852) 3762 3269 www.thomsonreuters.com 2 ASIAN LEGAL BUSINESS – SEPTEMBER 2018 WWW.LEGALBUSINESSONLINE.COM THEBRIEFS BRIEFING: YOUR MONTHLY NEED-TO-KNOW “DUE TO THE MALAYSIAN IN THE NEWS GOVERNMENT’S MAJOR LAW FIRMS PRECIPITOUS, GET ON BOARD ILL-CONCEIVED AND Allen & Overy is implementing a WITH DIVERSITY cloud-based eDiscovery system MISGUIDED ACTIONS, to boost the capabilities of its Some 65 law firms and in-house legal Advanced Delivery offering. THE YACHT IS RUNNING departments have signed up to the Adopting RelativityOne will enable the firm to run eDiscovery from 24 HOURS A DAY, Mansfield 2.0 Rule, an extended set of guidelines to boost diversity in leader- a global platform with clients 7 DAYS A WEEK ON ship. Named after Arabella Mansfield, accessing insights sooner. the first woman admitted to the practice GENERATOR POWER, WHICH of law in the United States, the rule measures whether law firms have affirm- IS UNSUSTAINABLE atively considered women, LGBTQ+, and AND HARMFUL TO minority lawyers for promotions, senior- level hiring, and significant leadership THE VESSEL.” roles in the firm. These individuals should make up at least 30 percent of Part of a statement from fugitive the candidate pool. Law firms taking businessman Jho Low protesting the part include Baker McKenzie, Eversheds Kuala Lumpur Admiralty court’s hearing of an application by Sutherland, Norton Rose Fulbright, The chances of a decline in the likelihood of Malaysia’s 1MDB to expedite the sale of Hogan Lovells, DLA Piper, Dentons and a settlement if mediation is delayed by the Equanimitysuperyacht as part of the Reed Smith. one month, according to a Singapore investigation into stolen 1MDB funds. Management University study. Opting for mediation at the closing of pleadings, not during later stages, also increased UK LEGAL SECTOR LIKELY the chance of a successful outcome. TO SEE BREXIT PAIN According to the Law Society of England IN THE NEWS & Wales and Thomson Reuters, the UK’s legal sector could lose 3 billion pounds ($5.27 billion) in turnover by 2025. These forecasts are based on alternative Brexit scenarios. While revenues have held up Fieldfisher has become the second Second-year trainee pay offered by in 2017-18 due to Brexit-related work, international law firm, after Baker Davis Polk & Wardwell for its 2021 intake demand from businesses in the United McKenzie, to choose the Northern in London, the new record for the city. Kingdom, and international clients Ireland capital of Belfast as a centre It pays newly qualified (NQ) lawyers taking advantage of the weaker British for a new legal solutions hub. 120,000 pounds ($154,000), behind Milbank, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and pound, Brexit is likely to have a signifi- The office will provide document Kirkland & Ellis, which all pay 143,000 cant negative effect on the legal sector negotiation and legal support for its pounds to NQ lawyers. in the medium and long-term. offices globally. WWW.LEGALBUSINESSONLINE.COM ASIAN LEGAL BUSINESS – SEPTEMBER 2018 3 BRIEFS “As the bitcoin price decreases, so does the profitability of mining itself, which decreases demand for mining chips and miners,” said Wang Leilei, a consultant at financial services consul- tancy Kapronssia. It is not just the price of bitcoin that is causing worries. People close to the IPOs said regulatory scrutiny and a patchy performance by Hong Kong offerings this year were additional concerns. Julian Hosp, president of TenX, a Singapore-based blockchain firm, has also warned that if coins switch mining algorithms, then the machines designed to mine them would become useless. “I would be quite wary of investing in these miners,” Hosp said, referring to the equipment makers. “They are not A cryptocurrency mining computer equipped with four cooling fans is seen on display at long-term businesses and I think they’ve a computer mall in Hong Kong, China January 29, 2018. REUTERS/Bobby Yip had their uptrend for now.” Canaan and Ebang filed plans in May and June respectively for floats in Hong Kong, while Bitmain is expected to file its plans next month for an IPO in CHINESE BITCOIN MINING RIG MAKERS AIM TO which it aims to raise at least $3 billion, sources close to the deal said.