Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance appoints five new partners in Asia Pacific

Leading international law firm Clifford Chance today announced the promotion of 24 lawyers from its partnership, including Dr. Sam Luttrell (Perth), Lena Ng (Singapore), Natsuko Sugihara (Tokyo), along with David Tsai and Terry Yang (Hong Kong). These promotions will take effect from 1 May 2017.

Regional Managing Partner Geraint Hughes offered, "As we reach the end of our most successful year in Asia Pacific, we are delighted to see the promotion of a diverse group of highly talented colleagues. Our five new partners reflect the ambition of our clients and our firm in Asia Pacific, a core region in our global strategy. I am particularly proud to have seen at first hand a number of these partners progress to partnership from being trainees and young lawyers in our firm.

"The appointments are well deserved and demonstrate our continued investment in key markets in the region. The appointments further strengthen our offering in key areas including: complex financial markets regulations and products, cross-border M&A, capital markets and international arbitration. The entire team has huge belief and optimism about the contribution these professionals will make to our clients and our practice."

Clifford Chance Managing Partner, Matthew Layton commented, "Our new partners are characterised by their commitment to excellent service, to supporting the firm in pursuing our collective goals, and to the development of their teams. These partners are already widely recognised by clients and the market for the quality of their insight and judgment, and respected by colleagues for their substantial contributions to the life of the firm. I am delighted to welcome them to the partnership and look forward to working alongside them as their careers go from strength to strength."

Across the globe, the new partners are drawn from all of the firm's market-leading practices and from across all regions. The promotions demonstrate Clifford Chance's continued investment in areas valued highly by its client base of leading organisations globally. As well as adding further capability in practices such as antitrust, M&A, Private Equity, project, acquisition and leveraged finance, regulatory and arbitration, the new partners have expertise across a broad range of sectors and in areas of increasing importance to clients such as cyber security, fintech and alternative financing.

Biographies below:

Sam Luttrell, L&DR, Perth

Sam works in our litigation and dispute resolution practice in Perth. He specialises in international arbitration, focusing on disputes in the energy and resources sectors. His work includes commercial arbitration (projects, joint ventures, commodities) and investor-State arbitration (claims under trade and investment treaties). Sam joined Clifford Chance in 2013. He received his law degree from the University of Western Australia.

Lena Ng, Finance, Singapore

Lena leads the financial regulatory practice in our Singapore office and advises on the full range of financial regulatory issues relating to financial services and market products, including banking services, securities, futures, derivatives and funds. Her recent work includes advising on the sale of private banking businesses, the sale and integration of insurance business and the implementation of the MAS margin requirements. She regularly speaks and advises on fintech, cybersecurity and the regulatory reform agenda. Originally from Singapore, she joined Clifford Chance in 2001 after receiving her LLM from University College London. She is admitted to practice law in multiple jurisdictions including as a solicitor in England & Wales and Hong Kong, and as an advocate & solicitor in Singapore.

Natsuko Sugihara, Corporate, Tokyo

Natsuko advises private equity clients, Japanese and foreign corporate clients, trading houses and financial institutions on private M&A cross-border transactions and joint ventures, including Japan inbound and outbound transactions across a wide range of sectors. Her experience includes work on transactions such as Permira's acquisition of, and exit from, restaurant chain Sushiro and Comcast's acquisition of Universal Studios Japan. Natsuko attended the University of Cambridge and joined Clifford Chance in London in 2006. She moved to Tokyo in 2010 and registered as Gaikokuho Jimu Bengoshi (England & Wales) in 2016.

David Tsai, Capital Markets, Hong Kong

David advises on a wide range of international debt, hybrid, equity and equity-linked capital market transactions. He specialises in capital market issuances by Chinese issuers and has acted for leading investment banks as well as various Chinese state-owned enterprises across industries. His recent experience includes advising the underwriters in China Yangtze Power Co., Ltd. on the issue of two series of USD- and EUR-denominated exchangeable notes and advising China Railway Construction Corporation Limited, as an A+H-share listed issuer, on its innovative H-share convertible bonds issuance. David received his LLM from the University of Auckland and is qualified in New Zealand, England and Wales and Hong Kong.

Terry Yang, Finance, Hong Kong

Terry is experienced in a wide range of OTC derivatives and financial market products including equity and credit linked products, structured repackagings as well as repo and securities lending transactions. He also regularly advises industry bodies and market participants on Hong Kong and international regulatory matters and on issues arising from the global over-the-counter derivatives regulatory reforms. Terry has extensive experience advising both international institutions and PRC entities on structured cross-border financing transactions and investments, including QDII / QFII products and access to the China interbank bond market. Terry joined Clifford Chance in 2010. He attended University College London and qualified in England and Wales in 2007, and in Hong Kong in 2012. Terry is fluent in Mandarin and Cantonese.

The complete list of newly promoted partners is below:

Capital Markets
David Tsai – Hong Kong

Corporate
Samir Azzouzi – Madrid
Marcin Bartnicki – Warsaw
James Bole – London
Jonathan Kewley – London
Frederik Mühl – Frankfurt
Wojciech Polz – Warsaw
Gunnar Sachs – Düsseldorf
Natsuko Sugihara – Tokyo
Anastasios Tomtsis – Brussels

Finance
Graham Brewer – Dubai
Timothy Cleary – London
Folko de Vries – Amsterdam
Christof Häfner – Frankfurt
Owen Lysak – London
Kristine Manoukian – New York
Lena Ng – Singapore
David Robson – London
Terry Yang – Hong Kong

Litigation & Dispute Resolution

Sam Luttrell – Perth
Josep Montefusco – Barcelona
Katrin Schallenberg – Paris

Real Estate
Matt Taylor – London

Tax, Pensions & Employment
Olaf Mertgen – Frankfurt