Sonia Abraham is a partner with Azman, Davidson & Co. and an advocate and solicitor of the High Court of Malaya. She graduated from the University of Kent in Canterbury in 1994. She has practiced at Azman, Davidson & Co. as a litigation lawyer since being called to the Malaysian Bar in 1997. She was made a partner of the firm in 2005. Her main area of practice is in general litigation, with a particular involvement in industrial relations and employment law. Ms. Abraham has handled a variety of complex employment law disputes on reorganization, retrenchment, and serious misconduct. She has appeared in all levels of the courts in Malaysia, including conducting trials in the Industrial Court, judicial review applications in the High Court, and appeals in the Court of Appeal. Ms. Abraham is a member of the industrial court practice committee of the Bar Council and a member of the human resources and home affairs committee of the Malaysian International Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Nafis Adwani joined Ali Budiardjo, Nugroho, Reksodiputro in 1993 and has been a partner since July 1998. He graduated from the Faculty of Law at the University of Indonesia in 1984, majoring in civil law. In 1997, he was seconded to an international law firm in Singapore and gained experience in working on international transactions. His major areas of specialization are corporate, labor, and agrarian laws. In labor matters, he has assisted business corporations in major employment termination cases. He has also been involved in power and mining projects, focusing particularly on the land issues, as a leading partner of the Ali Budiardjo, Nugroho, Reksodiputro team working on behalf of the investors. He is licensed by the Capital Market Supervisory Board to provide legal opinions to companies offering securities in the Indonesian Capital Market. He is also a licensed advocate.
John Budge is a partner and head of the litigation and dispute resolution group at Wilkinson & Grist in Hong Kong. A former member of the Equal Opportunities Commission, he represents employers and employees in cases involving rights on dismissal, protection of confidential information, enforcement of restrictive covenants, and sexual harassment and disability discrimination. He is also involved in all aspects of commercial arbitration and mediation, and was mentioned as an expert in commercial arbitration in the Euromoney Legal Group Guide to the World’s Leading Experts in Commercial Arbitration. He is also a member of the council of the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre. Additionally, he has represented clients in connection with trust claims, probate litigation, proceedings under the Mental Health Ordinance, disaster litigation, personal injury claims, and a variety of other administrative, corporate, and regulatory matters. Mr. Budge is admitted to practice in England and Wales, Hong Kong, and Victoria, Australia. Among his professional affiliations, he is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and the Hong Kong Institute of Arbitrators, an accredited mediator of the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre, and a member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (Hong Kong branch), the Association of Contentious Trust and Probate Practitioners, and the insolvency interest group of the Hong Kong Society of Accountants. He also has a long history of public service. Mr. Budge attended the College of Law, Guildford and London, was appointed a member of the Order of the British Empire in 1994, and is a recipient of the Ira Dan Kaye Community Service Award (2003) and the Silver Bauhinia Star (2004).
Nicholas "Nick" Hiu Fung Chan is a partner with Squire, Sanders & Dempsey LLP. He is an experienced private equity/venture capital, merger and acquisition, commercial and compliance, employment, competition, and regulatory lawyer. Mr. Chan has a computer science background and a regional practice covering 22 countries, focusing on telecommunications, broadcasting, information technology, emerging technologies, healthcare, aviation, energy, real estate, entertainment, advertising, logistics, global sourcing, petroleum, and related industries. His expertise has been recognized in AsiaLaw Leading Lawyers since 2004. He was also recognized in The International Who's Who of Regulatory Communications Lawyers in 2011.
Mr. Chan's recent works have been published in prestigious publications and he is a much sought-after speaker and trainer. He serves as the honorary legal advisor to the Hong Kong Aviation Industry Association, the Hong Kong Association of Interactive Marketing, the Hong Kong Internet Service Providers Association, the Modernized Chinese Medicine International Association, and the Hong Kong Medical and Healthcare Industries Association. He is an ambassador for the Hong Kong Tourism Board. He served as vice chair of the Federation of Australian Alumni Association. He serves the Hong Kong Government Central Policy Unit as representative of the Law Society of Hong Kong, and he serves on the Competition Law Committee to guide the Law Society and its members on the formulation and introduction of competition laws in Hong Kong. He earned his BS and LLB from the University of Melbourne and earned a graduate diploma with merit from the Australian National University.
T. C. Chiang, a partner of Lee and Li, has worked for the firm for more than twenty years. At the beginning, he mainly handled civil and criminal litigations. He now focuses on the disputes related to intellectual property, labor issues, and medical and pharmaceutical matters, including patent, trademark, and copyright infringement; trade secret protection; drafting of employment contracts/work rules; termination of employment contracts (including resignation, dismissal, layoff, mass redundancy, and transfer of employment); union issues; ethical rules of pharmaceutical companies; clinical trials; reimbursement price issues; and medical disputes. He provides consultancy services to advertisement agencies on the Copyright Act, the Fair Trade Act, and the Personal Data Protection Act on a long-term basis. Mr. Chiang frequently speaks at seminars and writes articles to share his legal knowledge and experience. He earned his L.L.B. from National Taiwan University and his L.L.M. from Soochow University School of Law.
Chun-Wook Hyun, an attorney of Kim & Chang, is chair of the labor and employment law practice group. Since 1981, he has focused his practice on labor and employment law. He has also been a legal counsel for the Ministry of Labor since 1993, and as a public member of the Special Committee for Labor Law Reform from 1992 to 1997, he contributed his knowledge and experience to Korea’s labor law reforms. He actively participates in the American Chamber of Commerce as co-chairman of the Human Resources Committee. Mr. Hyun is a frequent author on his areas of expertise. He earned his L.L.B. from the College of Law at Seoul National University, studied at the Judicial Research and Training Institute of the Supreme Court of Korea, and earned his L.L.M. from Harvard Law School.
Siva Kumar Kanagasabai is a graduate of the University of Adelaide and holds a degree in commerce and law. He was admitted to the Malaysian Bar in 1995. He has been with Skrine since his pupilage, and he became a partner in January 2002. Mr. Kanagasabai has been engaged in a variety of practice areas within Skrine’s Dispute Resolution Division. However, a significant part of his practice involves employment law, shipping and maritime, contract, administrative law, and commercial matters. He has advised and acted for clients in both contentious and non-contentious matters. He has also represented them in the Federal Court, the Court of Appeal, the High Court, the Industrial Court, and before the director general of labor.
Hideki Thurgood Kano is an equity partner of Anderson Mori & Tomotsune, which is one of the largest and most diversified full-service law firms in Japan. He has been exclusively practicing in the area of labor and employment since 1995, assisting employers and companies (as opposed to employees and workers), and he leads the practice area of the firm. He acts on behalf of both non-Japanese multinational companies and Japanese companies, advising them on all aspects of labor and employment. Examples of his work in this area include handling collective bargaining sessions with labor unions and concerted activities by labor unions, negotiations with the Regional Labor Bureaus and other offices, labor insurance, social insurance, reductions in remuneration of employees, unilateral termination and persuasion of employees to voluntarily resign, commendations and disciplinary actions, payment of overtime work allowances and failure to do so, control of working hours, and much more.
K. Lesli Ligorner is a partner with Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP and chairs the firm’s employment law practice in mainland China, specializing in strategic employment counseling and litigation for multinational companies. Her areas of focus include employment hiring and termination; establishment and enforcement of company policies, including the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act; discrimination and harassment; leaves of absence; corporate downsizing; wage and hour laws; unionization issues; global mobility and immigration issues; employment-related and anti-corruption due diligence; and employee transition issues in merger and acquisition transactions. Her experience cuts through many industries, including technology, retail, airlines, manufacturing, and financial services. Ms. Ligorner has trained employees on workplace anti-harassment and diversity policies, as well as on Foreign Corrupt Practices Act compliance and best practices for human resources professionals. She also regularly speaks on related topics at conferences on behalf of her firm. She is a frequent contributor to a number of legal and employment-related publications regarding Chinese employment law. She is admitted to the bars of New York and New Jersey, and she is a member of the American Bar Association and the Association International des Jeunes Avocats. She received a B.A. in East Asian studies with first class honors from McGill University. She studied at the Kansai University of Foreign Studies in Osaka, Japan, and received her J.D., cum laude, from American University, Washington College of Law.
Ernst G. Tehuteru became a partner soon after joining Ali Budiardjo, Nugroho, Reksodiputro in 1994. He graduated from the Faculty of Law at the University of Indonesia in 1963. In 1978, he earned an M.C.L. degree from Southern Methodist University. He worked for the Ministry of Justice from 1958 through 1966, then joined PT Caltex Pacific Indonesia’s legal department, where he served as chief counsel for its Sumatera operations from 1974 through 1986. He then became the general counsel for PT Caltex Pacific Indonesia, a position he held until 1994. His work with Ali Budiardjo, Nugroho, Reksodiputro involves mining law, oil and gas law, electricity law, foreign investment, labor law, environment concerns, project finance, corporate law, and business transactions.
Hong Tran is a partner with JSM. He is experienced in advising employers on compliance with employment, discrimination, and privacy legislation, and in handling employment disputes, discrimination, and privacy complaints/issues. He regularly advises on strategic labor force issues, including the structure of employment relationships, risk management in the employment and discrimination context, the introduction of changes to employment arrangements, and recruitment, disciplinary, and termination issues. Mr. Tran is admitted to practice in Hong Kong and Australia. He earned his L.L.B., his bachelor’s of business in accountancy, and his L.L.M. from the Queensland University of Technology. He is a frequent author and speaker, and he is a member of the Global Forum for Cross-Border Human Resource Experts, the Hong Kong Institute of Human Resource Management, and the Employers Federation of Hong Kong. He has been named one of the “preeminent practitioners in the world” by the Guide to the World’s Leading Labour and Employment Lawyers (2009) and a leading AsiaLaw labor and employment lawyer by the “Asia Law and Practice Survey” (2008).
