Star Anise Legal sponsors Corporate Counsel Forum, Hong Kong 2016

by Press Team in News & Press

DatePosted on June 27, 2016 at 03:45 PM
Share share

For the fifth year running, Hong Kong-based legal recruitment firm, Star Anise Legal, was the proud sponsor of the Corporate Counsel Forum Hong Kong, organised by Legal Week.  This year proved to be its biggest and best event to date, with over 300 General Counsels, Heads of Legal and senior in-house counsel from Hong Kong and Asia attending a highly entertaining and informative full day’s legal training conference. 

This year’s guest Master of Ceremonies was Stephen Man, Associate General Counsel of Uber who expertly and entertainingly opened and closed the day and provided the key link to each of the panel discussions, in addition to speaking on two of the panels himself.  

Catching the audience by surprise, was a panel discussion on pro bono and community service – a guide to in-house lawyers, sponsored by Star Anise Legal and moderated by Star Anise Legal’s Managing Director, Annie Tang.   The panel speakers comprised of Ms. Vanina de Verneuil, global General Counsel of Reliance Communications Enterprise & Global Cloud Xchange, recounting some of her experiences of her volunteer work in Rwanda, and Consultant GC and former senior counsel at Ralph Lauren, Astor Chan, discussing her involvement in activities with her Christian community.   

Ms Tse-wei Ng, deputy director for Asia, PILnet, highlighted to the audience how in-house lawyers can be connected with organisations needing lawyers’ expertise on a pro bono basis.  And completing the quartet of speakers, Douglas Silin of the Mekong Club (anti-slavery organisation) and senior in-house lawyer with Western Union, added that pro bono doesn’t have to be about joining a major charity or not-for-profit organisation. Rather, it could be a grass roots cause. Mr Silin recalled one of his early experiences of being involved in legal work on a purely voluntary basis, when he  assisted abused individuals.  He was also able to assist co-residents in a dispute with their buildings management company. 

After Star Anise Legal’s panel discussion, Stephen Man remarked to the audience that in all his years of attending legal conferences over the years, this was the first time that he had heard a panel discussion on the issue of pro bono law which made a “refreshing change”.

Speaking after the event, Ms Tang said, “Although pro bono and community service are areas that are usually more heavily ingrained in the culture of law firms,  Star Anise Legal is also been keen to promote this culture amongst our own team and the community at large.”   

She added, “Furthermore, it’s an area that we know in-house lawyers are really passionate about and, unless they have a very understanding and supportive employer, it can be difficult to juggle their time to support their volunteer activities. Moreover, many lawyers don’t know where to turn to when offering their time and legal knowledge to NGOs or people in need, and we wanted to elevate the subject of pro bono to where it is needed the most, namely, amongst a group of keen volunteers. Legal Week’s Corporate Counsel Forum was a great platform for us to highlight this important topic and to help the legal community know how to overcome any perceived challenges!” 

If you are an-house counsel interested in finding more about how you can participate in pro bono or community service projects, or you are part of a not-for-profit organisation which would like to be connected with lawyers wishing to provide pro bono legal work, you can enquire with either the speakers or the Managing Directors of Star Anise Legal, Chris Tang and Annie Tang via this link

The Competition law panel discussion in full flow

The Star Anise stand at Corporate Counsel Forum with team members Christy Ho (L) and Michael Kwan (R)

For email press enquiries, click here

Contact: Chris Tang or Annie Tang 

Telephone: +852 3460 3531

— ends — 

About the Author

Press Team

Company news and press releases from the PR team at Star Anise.  

Read more Articles by this author