Aug 02 2010
This time, its Gibson Dunn making a move to open a new office in Hong Kong. According to the firm, it’s their second Asia office, alongside Singapore. Should be an interesting experiment as they are taking not only a general corporate focus, but a compliance aspect in hiring an FCPA expert to anchor this office.
More details after the jump.
Continue Reading »
Jul 15 2010
Almost
one year ago, I received my copy of
Paul Midler’s book
Poorly Made in China: An Insider’s Account of the Tactics Behind China’s Production Game. I promised to do a review during paternity leave. Obviously that did not happen. However, in the plane a month ago, I actually had a chance to finish this book. And inspired by Imagethief
Sinica 13 post recently, I was inspired to finally write my review.
As many of you know, this book talks about the problem of quality fade. (For those of you who don’t know, quality fade refers to when a factory starts out producing high quality products and then later turns out inferior products by cutting corners to save costs) Paul shares his personal anecdotes of working with a Chinese factory making health and beauty (soap and shampoo) products, as well as run-ins at trade fairs and the experiences with other factories. Most of the book, however, focuses upon his representation of an American company sourcing their soap manufacture to a single factory in Southern China.
Jun 22 2010
Looks like Sidley Austin has opted to tap an American attorney from its executive committee to lead the Asia Pacific region offices. The firm announced in a press release, “Sidley Austin Management and Executive Committee Member, Thomas W. Albrecht, Relocates to Hong Kong as Managing Partner, Asia Pacific”. More details after the jump.
Jun 17 2010
Got an email some time ago that’s been sitting in my email box, and another email recently came that made me go back to it and think about it some more. Someone wrote to me with a link that includes 50 online courses about China, language, history, business, and more. And of course, the blog post is entitled “50 Open Courses to Make You an Expert on China”.
Now I am all for good education and online courses, even better. But is it really that simple to become a “China expert”? My answer is simply: no.
Jun 01 2010
Just got an email announcing the posting of a webcast entitled, “ ‘China Joint Ventures: Context, Contacts and Contracts” that seems very interesting. Slides and audio, and it’s also free. This is a webcast that is intended for in-house counsel, but I have a feeling that many (law students, outside counsel) will find the information interesting. (and also give them more insight into the minds of in-house attorneys like myself) More information after the jump.
May 04 2010
Just heard that Weil Gotshal poached… err… picked up John Fadely from Clifford Chance’s Hong Kong office in order to beef up its China funds practice. Definitely a good time to continue to beef up in terms of private equity staff while things are still a tad slower since it’s bound to pick up sooner or later. Though from the press release, it appears that Mr. Fadely is somewhat of an Asia generalist as well–which of course can be interpreted as positive or negative depending on what your emphasis is. Press release after the jump.
Apr 27 2010
Yet another post from the Georgetown Managing and Representing Exempt Organizations conference. Lawrence Mendenhall from the Hewlett Foundation and Drew Porter from the Gates Foundation gave a good session about lobbying rules for non-profits, and also talked about how you can properly push the limits of the regulations as well.
Apr 23 2010
Still at the Georgetown conference. Had a very good session called “General Counsel Roundtable”, and one of the speakers was Mary Elcano, GC for Red Cross and former acting/interim CEO. While the topic of the discussions was mostly about the role of a general counsel and what worries the typical GC, Mary did a short piece of compliance and ethics policies that I thought was helpful.
Apr 22 2010
Here live at the Georgetown Managing and Representing Exempt Organizations Conference 2010. I was thinking about live blogging, but given the lack of free internet and poor connectivity, I will try to post over the next few days different things that I hear and learn about.
The morning session opened up with Sarah Hall Ingram, Commissioner of Tax Exempt and Government Entities (TE/GE) Division of the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS” or the “Service”). She had quite a bit to say in terms of developments, and I found some particularly interesting:
Apr 21 2010
Need to take a break from watching the Yushu earthquake death toll and the relief effort, and I thought I should post a quick recap and thoughts about Dr. Wang Zhenyao’s visit to the San Francisco Bay Area to discuss the development of NGOs with American non-profit leaders. Dr. Wang is Director-General of the Department of Disaster and Social Relief of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and also a professor at Beijing Normal University.
He had plenty to share about the China NGO sector with us, with some of my thoughts interwoven. (often in parenthetical statements) My apologies for taking a week to get this posted.
Apr 19 2010
Just wanted to share some more details that Dien Yuen at
Give2Asia sent my way regarding their
relief fund for the Qinghai / Yushu earthquake:
Give2Asia is seeking support from donors to help the survivors with the longer-term recovery.
The Chinese government has approved 15 government-organized NGOs to raise funds for recovery and reconstruction.
Apr 15 2010
With the Qinghai earthquake (a/k/a Yushu earthquake and Jiegu earthquake) relief moving along–slowly in the eyes of some, quickly in the eyes of the government–there is still great need there. I saw
this post from Rich Brubaker’s blog at
Collective Responsibility and am just going to borrow much of it. (Rich, I hope you don’t mind–just trying to help!)
So if you or your organization wants to donate through Tsongkha Charitable Association (TCA) or the Response team, you can transfer the funds to either of the bank accounts below. If your donation is large and you prefer it to be handled separately, we can arrange it as well. Otherwise, the team will combine your donation with other resources and purchase relief aids and distribute them together. TCA will be responsible in submitting reports to you.
In terms if needs, I talked to several people in Yushu. All of them lost their houses. Some people still received no aids (by 16:00, 15/April). They need food, drinks, tents, and electricity generators. Although CCTV is quick in propagating the swift response by troops, there still seems to be victims in unseen corners that need emergency assistance. So if you can provide any support, we can purchase needed goods and deliver them to the hands of victims as soon as possible.
If you have any question or need further information, please let me know.
Thank you for your concern,
Kelsang Norbu
Director
Tsongkha Charitable Association
Haidong, Qinghai Province
Tel: 13519714070 / 0971-6363082
Plateau Perspectives has also set up a Yushu Earthquake Relief website, with links to Chinese media that you can run through Google translate. (or if you have Chrome, get it automatically translated) The translations aren’t perfect, but its enough to know what’s happening on the ground there. For your convenience, here is the most helpful part of their page for updates:
Central People’s Government of the People’s Republic of China Website
http://www.gov.cn/jrzg/2010-04/14/content_1580853.htmQinghai Province People’s Government Website
http://www.qh.gov.cn/html/31/133180.htmlQinghai Earthquake Portal
http://www.eqqh.gov.cn/zwgk/zwxx/201004/2298.shtml
