Our Southeast Asia group includes more than 30 lawyers and consultants with extensive experience in the region — specifically in Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
Firmwide our lawyers, consultants and staff collectively speak more than 40 languages, among them Cantonese, Mandarin, Tagalog and Vietnamese.
The majority of the work we undertake in Southeast Asia corresponds with our principal activities throughout the rest of the world. We represent public and private businesses engaged in day-to-day corporate activity, conducting banking and finance activities, mergers and acquisitions, corporate and commercial transactions, fund development, corporate finance, commercial contracts, cross-border sales and tax advice.
Our capital markets and finance team, based primarily in our New York, Charlotte and London offices, provides advice on private equity, IPOs, debt finance and project finance, and draws upon our significant depth of resources in the US and Europe. In particular, our teams in the US, London and Brussels offer insight and experience in financing and floating companies, acting on behalf of investment banks, syndicated and asset-based lenders, nomads, brokers and sponsors, as well as market entrants. For equity capital markets, we focus on the NYSE and NASDAQ, as well as on the London Stock Exchange, AIM, GXG, JSE, NSE, SGX and a variety of international and regional exchanges. Working with local counsel, we have also advised on IPOs on the Hong Kong and Singapore stock exchanges.
We have particular experience in the region relating to investment by Chinese and Japanese entities. We also act for retail businesses, hotels and family businesses, as well as financial and governmental institutions (including advising on the issue of Eurobonds). We also advise on property development and carbon credits derived from rain forests; tax advice for expatriates; assisting in investment for expatriates in property holdings; and representing financial institutions in their roles as arrangers and administrative agents in credit facilities.
McGuireWoods brings deep legal background in the extractive industries. Our mining industry practice handles matters related to base-metal, precious metals, rare earth minerals, coal, uranium and construction aggregates. Our oil and gas team brings substantial upstream and downstream experience supporting majors and independent extractors, transportation, commodities and distribution. This depth, combined with our US mining capability, gives our team technical and sector strength.
McGuireWoods’ energy industry practice focuses on regulation, deregulation and restructuring of public and private utilities; on the development, acquisition, sale and financing of natural gas, power generation and other energy facilities (including fracking); and on the marketing and trading of energy commodities. We represent governments, utilities and industrial energy consumers in matters related to project development and finance, international energy development, environmental issues, land use, contract negotiation, taxation and privatization.
McGuireWoods lawyers also advise on multinational litigation, international arbitration and dispute resolution. Our dispute resolution practitioners are experienced in litigation project management in multiple jurisdictions.
McGuireWoods brings core capability in navigating the complexities of state-of-the art corporate compliance programmes, which set paradigms for emerging standards of corporate social responsibility as they evolve from the UN, US and EU. Added to these regulations are others regulating international donors, trade associations and NGOs. We regularly advise on global fraud and corruption issues, including the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and the UK Bribery Act 2010 (UKBA), UN, EU and US economic and trade-sanction penalties.
Firm partner, Vivian Robinson QC, based in London, previously served as first general counsel at the UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) where he spearheaded development of the SFO’s enforcement policy under the UKBA and acted as primary liaison to the public and business communities.
McGuireWoods lawyers offer the experience and knowledge of Southeast Asia, as well as the connections, contacts, significant experience and resources of an international law practice. We bring clients a full range of services delivered through an efficient and cost-effective network. Where appropriate, we also tap the resources of local law firms, including fellow members of the LNI global legal network.