Every business encounters legal needs – whether as a result of commercial transactions, internal reorganisations, or specific projects. To help you in implementing these transactions effectively and efficiently, you will need a trusted, commercially savvy and responsive adviser.

With the support of multi-disciplinary professionals in the wider KPMG network, our team can offer a broad suite of support in general corporate and commercial matters, such as commercial contracts, corporate governance assistance, shareholder agreements, business set-up, Hong Kong employment and immigration law and technology licensing.

The team has advised on a wide variety of corporate matters in virtually every major sector, including technology, media and telecommunications, finance, pharmaceutical, steel, automotive, consumer products, healthcare, agriculture, aircraft, education, semiconductors, machinery, chemicals, infrastructure, construction and property development.

With companies and their employees increasingly becoming more global, acquisition and management of region-specific talent has also become increasingly important. At the centre of this trend is the Asia Pacific region, which can present challenges with often divergent employment regulations, languages and cultures. We can provide you with legal advice in Hong Kong, and also bridge the gap with other jurisdictions by tapping into our global network of experts.

Our expert employment team can assist you with the preparation or advice on employment contracts, executive stock option and related plans, the on-boarding and exits of employees (including internal transfers), privacy matters, corporate restructuring, employee handbook reviews.

Our team can advise you on employee investigations, advice on disciplinary actions and risk management issues, and on the development of best practice compliance programs to mitigate the risk of disputes.

In today’s dynamic commercial environment of new technologies, of explosive growth in personal data protection risk and regulation, and protection of intellectual property (IP) rights, present major challenges for any business. To succeed, businesses need to recognise and protect their intellectual property rights as key business assets, take steps to ensure their data and that of their customers and suppliers are protected and in compliance with regulations in the markets in which you operate, and manage and protect their technologies in an increasingly complex world of robotics, blockchain and artificial intelligence. Our team takes a business-driven approach which combines our legal expertise with our business acumen, to devise tailored solutions together with you in all aspects of knowledge-based assets, from creation, to commercialisation and protection.

Key areas where we can support you include:

• Portfolio management and development: advising on brand creation, intellectual property counselling, registration, audits and due diligence exercises
• Commercial exploitation and monetization of intellectual property: strategising on intellectual property structure in commercial deals; advising on, negotiating and drafting of a wide range of IP-related transactional agreements and collaborative development agreements
• Reputation management
• Know-how, trade secrets and confidential information protection and enforcement
• Technology and Internet-related IP issues
• Advertising, trade descriptions compliance

The SF Lawyers data privacy team is experienced in tackling complex issues relating to data protection and personal data privacy issues for multinational companies across a wide range of industries. In particular, the team assists clients on the collection, use, storage, disclosure, transfer and disposal of data.

In addition, the team often works together with KPMG Global Legal Services and other KPMG service lines to provide its clients with a complete offering on large data privacy projects. This is especially beneficial for multinational companies handling large volumes of data. The complete offering enables clients to understand and manage data privacy risks from multiple angles and jurisdictions.