PATTIE WALSH is a partner and co-head of Bird & Bird's Asia Pacific International Employment Practice. She is a dedicated employment law expert and is recognised as a leading Hong Kong lawyer by a number of respected guides, including the Asia Pacific Legal 500 and Chambers Asia and is also listed as an expert in the Guide to the World’s Leading Labour and Employment Lawyers.
In addition to her LL.B, she holds an LL.M degree in Employment Law and Industrial Relation, and is qualified and has practised as both a barrister and a solicitor in England. Pattie left partnership in London in 2005 to come to Asia and she is an admitted Hong Kong solicitor. She is also an admitted and practising solicitor in New South Wales in Australia. With over 25 years’ dedicated employment law practice, Pattie is highly experienced in the various challenges that employers and employees face when determining their legal employment relationships. She uses her international experience to help employers navigate their way through the complex staffing arrangements of which Hong Kong is often a key element.
Pattie writes extensively for legal and HR publications and is a regular contributor on topical issues to the South China Morning Post and to the local Hong Kong press. She is a regular platform speaker both locally and internationally on the labour law environment in Hong Kong, China and Asia and has conducted a number of radio and television interviews on topical employment law issues both in England and Hong Kong including for the BBC and Sky News.
As always, these books are a team effort and previous editions would not have been completed without the efforts of Deborah Papworth who contributed to the first edition and Alison Hern who was a co-author for the second, third and fourth editions. The contribution of Bird & Bird's Dispute Resolution Team and Corporate Team have also been critical to the successful completion of this edition.
On a personal note, Pattie would like to express her thanks for the on-going support of her husband, Tom, and her children, Barnaby and Tara. She remains cheerfully optimistic that this is the first edition they may actually read.
JEANNETTE TAM is a senior managing associate in Bird & Bird's Asia Pacific Employment practice group, based in Hong Kong. Jeannette has seven years of dedicated employment experience. She completed her LL.B. from the University of Nottingham, UK in 2006, her LL.M. from Tsinghua University, PRC in 2007 and was admitted as a solicitor in Hong Kong in 2010. She specialises in advising on all aspects of day-to-day contentious and non-contentious employment and immigration issues across the Asia Pacific region, this includes advising on labour disputes, investigations, multi-jurisdictional projects regarding post-merger integration and corporate restructuring, strategic advice around terminations and discrimination claims and employment related data privacy issues. Jeannette uses her linguistic and cultural skills to service Hong Kong and international clients in native English and Cantonese and fluent Mandarin and brings an international focus to all elements of her practice. Jeannette speaks regularly at events both in-house with clients and externally and contributes to many legal and HR publications including Wolters Kluwer’s China Staff Magazine. She co-chairs with Pattie the Flexible/Agile Working Committee of Women in Law Hong Kong. Jeannette would like to thank her husband, Crispian for his support, patience and for being her sounding board and her parents and brother for their encouragement.
STEPHANIE WONG is an associate in Bird & Bird's Employment practice group, based in Hong Kong. She was educated in Hong Kong and graduated from the University of Hong Kong with a Bachelor of Laws degree in 2012. She qualified as a solicitor in Hong Kong in 2015. She supports both international and domestic clients on a broad range of contentious and non-contentious employment law matters. This includes day-to-day employment advisory work on the full spectrum of the employment cycle, handling labour tribunal disputes and employee investigations, managing multi-jurisdictional employment law projects and reviewing and drafting various employment documentation such as contracts of employment, employee handbooks and policies. Stephanie wishes to thank her father, Raymond, her sister, Jessica and her fiancé Kenneth for their unfailing encouragement and support.
RICHARD KEADY is a partner and head of Bird & Bird's Dispute Resolution Practice in Hong Kong and JENNIFER ZHUANG is a managing associate in Hong Kong in that practice. Richard and Jennifer were the brainpower behind the chapter on Labour Disputes and the enforcement aspects of the chapter on Post-Employment Restrictions.
PADRAIG WALSH is a partner and in Bird & Bird's Corporate Practice. Padraig has written the entirely new chapter on Employment Incentive Scheme.
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