23 February, 2016
Eight Partners from the Baker & McKenzie's Asia Pacific network and also its member firms in Indonesia, Philippines and Singapore have been voted by in-house counsels as winners of the 2016 Client Choice Awards in recognition for their excellent client service.
According to Lexology, "the criteria for the awards focus on the ability to add real value to clients’ business above and beyond other players in the market. Uniquely, these awards survey senior corporate counsel only, with this year’s winners chosen from a pool of more than 2,000 individual client assessments." Only one winner for each practice group is selected in each country.
The following lawyers have been recognized:
• Anthony Foley is the exclusive winner for IT & Internet in Australia. Mr. Foley has worked extensively with global market leaders in the technology sector. He has advised on some of the largest outsourcing and IT procurement projects undertaken in Australia. More broadly, he also advises clients on intellectual property and competition law issues.
• James Halliday is the exclusive winner for M&A in Australia. Mr. Halliday's practice focuses on acting for Australian and multinational corporations on public and private mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and other corporate and commercial transactions.
• Brendan Kelly is the exclusive winner for Corporate Tax in China. Mr. Kelly has extensive experience in advising cross-border clients on the tax and legal implications of investing and doing deals in China, as well as key tax issues associated with deal structuring and post-acquisition integration. He is also highly experienced in working with multinationals on the rapidly expanding area of tax controversy and audit defense in what has become a much more complex and aggressive tax environment in China.
• Dr. Isabella Liu is the exclusive winner for Intellectual Property (Trademark) in Hong Kong. Dr. Liu’s practice focuses on the pharmaceutical, life sciences and healthcare sectors and she frequently advises on regulatory matters relating to market entry and post-market activities such as R&D, clinical trials, product registration, advertising and labelling, product liability and recalls in China and Hong Kong. Dr. Liu also has significant experience in IP portfolio management, IP audits, brand acquisitions, patent/trademark prosecution, copyright and design registration, domain name and Internet related matters, enforcement and IP litigation.
• Sri Indrastuti Hadiputranto of Hadiputranto, Hadinoto & Partners is the exclusive winner for M&A in Indonesia. Ms. Hadiputranto was the first lawyer to be registered with Bapepam to carry out capital market work in Indonesia. She has since been heavily involved in mergers and acquisitions and debt and corporate restructuring work for telecommunications and other major Indonesian companies.
• Lourdes C. Echavez-de Leon of Quisumbing Torres is the exclusive winner for General Corporate in the Philippines. Ms. de Leon’s practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions, energy-related projects, public-private and privatization projects. She has extensive experience in handling deal structures and preparing and negotiating transaction documents for various types of projects. She advises clients on investment and governance structuring, joint ventures, land acquisition and leasing, construction and environmental laws, and national and local licensing and regulatory issues.
• Andy Leck of Baker & McKenzie.Wong & Leow is the exclusive winner for Intellectual Property (Trademark) in Singapore. Mr. Leck has over 20 years of experience in contentious and non-contentious IP matters, litigation and arbitration. He advises clients on their IP matters across the full range of sectors, particularly in the franchise, pharmaceuticals, media, sports and luxury industries. He also assists clients in the commercial exploitation of IP rights. Andy is an appointed member of the Singapore Copyright Tribunal and is a mediator with the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center.
• Punwadee Ratisoontorn is the exclusive winner for M&A in Thailand. Ms. Ratisoontorn has extensive experience in mergers & acquisitions (both for private limited and public limited companies), corporate restructuring, negotiating and drafting contracts, corporate compliance, general commercial, takeover, and environmental law.
