Firm friendsAshurst Alumni newsletter – December 2015 »«

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Ashurst – Firm Friends – December 2015

welcomewelcome to our December edition of Firm FriendsOctober 2015 marked 25 years since we opened our tokyo office, embarking on our journey to grow our business in Asia.

we celebrated the occasion in tokyo on 19 november. this 25 year milestone demonstrates the strong history of our Asia practice, as part of the broader 190+ year history of our firm. clients, colleagues and alumni were invited to a cocktail party held at the new Otani hotel. As part of our celebrations of supporting clients in Asia for 25 years, we are pleased to announce that the firm will be launching a pro bono partnership in Asia with Justice without borders.

in this edition, we catch up with a number of our alumni, who have been or are based in Asia including sasha lim, who is now corporate counsel with rio tinto based in singapore; marcus woodger, who is now Group legal counsel for hyva in hong Kong, a private equity-owned manufacturer of hydraulics for heavy-duty transportation equipment; richard cullen, Visiting Professor in the Faculty of law at the university of hong Kong and Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of law at the university of western Australia; David williams, who has dedicated his time to children’s charities in latin America and se Asia; and tony hudson, who worked in our associated office in Jakarta and is now General counsel and company secretary at AsX-listed southern cross media Group.

we warmly congratulate alumnus elizabeth broderick who has been named the 2016 nsw Australian of the Year for her social change and gender equality work as Australia’s recent sex Discrimination commissioner.

thank you to everyone who has sent in their news and updated contact details. we look forward to staying in touch. we hope you enjoy this edition and that it helps you to keep in touch with alumni and firm news. if you would like to be interviewed in the next edition, please contact us.

And a big congratulations to our Asia teams and to those alumni who have contributed to the growth of our Asia practice.

best wishes to you all for a happy and successful 2016.

Ben Tidswellchairman, Ashurst

Mary PadburyVice chairman, Ashurst

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Ashurst – Firm Friends – December 2015

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46

29

Celebrating 25 Years in Asia 4

Alumni News

Where are they now? 6

London Alumni news 6

Australian Alumni news 10

Alumni interviews 12

Alumni get togethers 29

London Alumni Party – September 2015 29

Melbourne corporate connections alumni event 30

Ashurst News

The Singapore story 31

Meet our new Managing Partners in Asia 33

Meet our new partners 34

Vale 37

YeArs in AsiA

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Ashurst – Firm Friends – December 2015

Celebrating 25 years in Asia1988Opening of associated office in Jakarta

1990

Ashurst opens its first Asian

office in Tokyo

1996We open our office in Singapore

1998

Our Shanghai office is opened

2008Our Hong Kong

office opens

YEARS IN ASIA

2013Our Beijing

office is opened

2012Ashurst LLP and Blake Dawson merge to become Ashurst globally

2015Ashurst Asia revenue doubles since merger to more than £46m in FY15From left to right: Ashurst Managing Partner, James Collis; @Asia Associates Managing Director, Elizabeth

Masamune PSM; Australia’s Ambassador to Japan, Bruce Miller; and Vice Chairman, Mary Padbury.Top Left: Ashurst Tokyo Managing Partner, Rupert Burrows; Top Right: Ashurst Asia Managing Partner, Matthew Bubb Bottom Left: Ashurst partner Natsuko Ogawa; Bottom Right: Ashurst’s event at the New Otani Hotel

Ashurst’s practice in Japan began in 1990 when the Tokyo office was opened. The firm now operates as a joint enterprise under Japanese law and acts for many top Japanese and international corporations, financial institutions and multilateral agencies as well as government and semi-government entities.

The event was attended by over 190 people, with significant guests such as Australia’s Ambassador to Japan, Bruce Miller, and senior staff from the British Embassy. Ashurst Managing Partner, James Collis, delivered the opening speech, while Ashurst Vice Chairman, Mary Padbury, gave the toast. Closing remarks were made by Tokyo Managing Partner, Rupert Burrows.

The event provided an excellent opportunity to promote the work of Ashurst in the region to existing and potential clients, including priority clients Hitachi, Mitsui, Itochu, Mitsubishi, and Sumitomo Corporation, amongst others.

Since 1990, our presence on the ground in Asia has grown significantly to incorporate more than 175 lawyers spread across Singapore, Jakarta (through our association with Oentoeng Suria & Partners), Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing and Tokyo. In the three financial years since the merger of the legacy Ashurst and Blake Dawson in Asia, our revenue in Asia has doubled to more than £46 million in FY15.

On Thursday, 19 November our Tokyo office celebrated a 25 year presence in Japan, with a cocktail party held at the New Otani Hotel.

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Ashurst – Firm Friends – December 2015

Giving back – Singapore pro bono secondment with Justice Without Borders

As part of our celebration of supporting clients in Asia for 25 years, we are pleased to announce that the firm will be starting a pro bono partnership in Asia with Justice without borders (Jwb). Jwb is a charity that seeks to empower migrant worker victims of human trafficking and exploitation to pursue legal remedies against their abusers, even after they return home.

As part of this partnership, lawyers in our Asia offices will be able to get involved in pro bono work which supports Jwb’s mission, and a pro bono officer will be hired in singapore and seconded to Jwb for a year to help maximise the positive contribution we can make to marginalised and disadvantaged people in the region.

the role of our secondee will be to help Jwb with their valuable support of migrant workers, as well as to work as a pro bono coordinator for potential pro bono work for Ashurst lawyers to take on in the firm’s offices in Jakarta, tokyo, singapore and hong Kong.

we are also keen to involve our clients if their in-house lawyers are interested and our alumni are also welcome to talk to us about the opportunities. For more information please contact sarah morton-ramwell, Global Pro bono Partner, at sarah.morton-ramwell@ashurst.com

For more information about the work being done by Jwb please visit the Justice without borders website.

Ashurst Global Pro bono Partner sarah morton-ramwell at the tokyo celebrations

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Ashurst – Firm Friends – December 2015

where are they now?

Alumni news

Susanna Adam left Ashurst in 2004 to join Fried Frank where she remained, latterly as a senior counsel, until October 2014. For six of those years she commuted weekly from norway, but is now back in the uK and setting up a new e-commerce business whilst bringing up her family and renovating a former pub in wiltshire.

Vicky Clark (nee butcher) left the firm at the end of 1999, moving to bristows as an intellectual property specialist before establishing her own firm which she ran for seven years before merging it into Keystone law, where she is a consultant solicitor.

Ashley Davies has been a partner since 2011 in the Finance and corporate Group at walkers’ hong Kong office. his career has taken him to a number of countries; on leaving Ashurst in 1997 he joined Dorsey & whitney for whom he worked in hong Kong and london, before joining lovells’ Paris office and, in 2007 the brisbane office of corrs chambers westgarth.

Stephen de Heinrich left Ashurst in 1998. since then he has undertaken an mbA at inseAD, and been a senior director of lycos europe, a leading portal provider operating a network of websites offering communication and other e-commerce services. in 2005 he and his wife founded Omorovicza cosmetics, a budapest-based luxury skincare brand with sales worldwide.

Anna Clayden (nee Gumpert) joined bP’s legal department upon leaving Ashurst in 2000, where she remains, since 2009 as senior counsel.

James Hogben became a partner of the firm in 2006 and stepped down in 2010 to join weil Gotshal, where he is a banking partner.

Rob McBride is also a finance specialist. he left the firm in 2005 to join Fried Frank, where he subsequently became a partner before leaving for watson Farley & williams earlier this year.

London Alumni newsto celebrate the twentieth anniversary of their joining the firm, a number of alumni recently gathered in london to mark the occasion. here we tell you what they’re doing now.

yeAr

1995

From left to right: nick Plummer, iain ward, Jolyon smart, Vicky clark, catherine usher, Anna clayden, Andrew mcmillan, charmian may, James buckland

Ruth Harris (nee Alcock) and Charmian May are still at Ashurst. ruth is a finance partner within the Finance Group in london, while charmian moved out of fee earning work a number of years ago and is now head of Group legal Operations for emeA and usA with responsibility for risk and compliance.

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Ashurst – Firm Friends – December 2015

Andrew McMillan specialised as a telecoms lawyer at Ashurst, becoming a partner in 2008. he left to join simmons & simmons in 2009, where he is a corporate partner and continues to specialise in the tmt sector.

Nick Plummer left Ashurst in 2004 to join Ark therapeutics as General counsel and company secretary. in 2008 he joined first Axiom and then Keystone law as a consultant solicitor and, in 2013, he was appointed senior Director, eu legal services for Patheon, an international supplier of drug substances and drug product services for the biopharmaceutical industry. he and his wife also run a holiday let agency, cotswold lake houses, based near cirencester.

Jolyon Smart went into legal recruitment with taylor root having left the firm in 1997, but two years later moved into residential property development in and around battersea. he is the chairman of battersea wanderers hockey club, for whom he still turns out to play.

Catherine Usher left the firm in 1998, subsequently joining halliwell consulting, the consulting arm of halliwell landau, as an executive compensation consultant. she is now a senior manager in executive reward at Pwc, whom she joined in 2009.

Iain Ward is Group legal counsel and company secretary at consort medical plc. he left the firm in 2000, joining Astra Zeneca as legal counsel, but returned to private practice with covington & burling in 2002 before going back in-house, first with Ge medical and then, from 2006, as Vice President legal at shire Pharmaceuticals, whom he left last year.

Jo Stewart (nee marks) left Ashurst in 2001, joining Freshfields where she remains, although she is currently taking a career break.

Richard Drummond became a corporate solicitor upon leaving Ashurst after completion of his training contract, but subsequently requalified as a primary school teacher.

James Buckland joined GPt halverton, a pan-european real estate asset manager, on leaving the firm in 2005, subsequently becoming the firm’s cOO. Following the financial crisis, when the business was sold, he moved to barcelona and in 2013 became ceO of a P2P business lending platform based in spain.

Alumni news

yeAr

1995

Ruth Harris

Charmian May

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Ashurst – Firm Friends – December 2015

Alumni news

Stephanie Colhoun left the firm in 2011, joining Mishcon de Reya’s corporate department. She is now in-house at Balfour Beatty, the multinational infrastructure group.

Jonathan Collett has been with American Express since the end of 2010, when he left to take up an in-house position. He is now Senior Counsel in their Global Networks and Merchant Services division across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, where he leads on commercial, legal and regulatory strategy.

Natasha Bell has been since 2013 an enforcement and insolvency litigator in HMRC Solicitor’s Office, prior to which she was in the Infrastructure Department at CMS Cameron McKenna, whom she joined in 2007.

Tom de Pelet was at Ashurst until 2010, when he left to found his own business, Hornit, a designer, manufacturer and supplier of high intensity cycle horns. His transition from infrastructure lawyer to entrepreneur was featured in the December 2013 edition of Flashback

Julia Drell left the firm at the end of 2010, when she joined Deutsche Bank’s Compliance Advisory arm, moving to Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management in 2012.

Felicia Efta joined UBS Global Asset Management as a funds lawyer having left Ashurst’s Investment Funds Group in 2013.

Will Gillions was a corporate associate until he left the firm at the end of 2011 and is now Assistant General Counsel at Rothesay Life.

Jamie Hamilton left the Real Estate department at Ashurst in 2012 to join Roll on Friday, the weekly e-magazine for lawyers founded in 2000 by Matthew Rhodes, an Ashurst alumnus, and Piers Warburton, a partner in the Investment Funds Group.

Jen Hawkins joined Bevan Brittan as a planning lawyer, having completed her training contract. She moved to the Planning Group at CMS Cameron McKenna in 2008 and since 2010 has been a professional support lawyer at LexisNexis UK.

Joanna Kay was at Ashurst until 2011, when she joined Tullow Oil as an in-house lawyer, subsequently returning to private practice with the London office of Andrews Kurth LLP, a Texas law firm.

Clare Ricketts (nee Fletcher) left Ashurst in 2011, and since then she has been a professional support lawyer in the Employment department of Slaughter and May. She is expecting her first child in January.

Alana Lowe Petraske left in 2007 to join the Charity and Social Enterprise department of Bates Wells & Braithwaite. She moved to the charities department of Withers in 2010 and is now Special Counsel. She is also a trustee of London Sinfonietta and of Philanthropy (a membership organisation which promotes philanthropy and social investment).

YEAR

2005

Turning to September 2005 joiners, Julia Derrick, Kenneth Pang, Nicola Burke (nee McKenzie) and Tom Cummins are still at Ashurst. Julia is a senior associate in the Resources and Utilities Group; Kenneth is a senior associate in the Finance Group based in Hong Kong; Nicola is a senior associate in Corporate; and Tom is a Dispute Resolution partner.

Tom Cummins

Tom de Pelet

Jen Hawkins

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Ashurst – Firm Friends – December 2015

Alastair Main joined coutts as legal counsel upon leaving the firm’s investment Funds team in 2012. in march this year he moved to schroders, working as legal counsel in the wealth management team.

Laura Marr moved at the end of 2013 to the manchester office of Addleshaw Goddard, where she was a managing Associate. she then moved to handelsbanken uK in september 2015.

Valerie Ford (nee nierlich) is an associate at mcKinsey & company where she has been since 2011. she left Ashurst in 2010 to undertake her mbA at inseAD.

Nick Ransley also did an mbA, in his case at london business school between 2010 and 2012. he spent three years at Fried Frank upon leaving Ashurst. After gaining his mbA he joined turner broadcasting as executive Assistant to the President, and since 2014 has been at nbcuniversal where he is Vice President, commercial Finance and emeA.

Jamie Ritchie left the corporate department of Ashurst in 2011 to join wilsons, a london and salisbury based firm where he is now a partner in their lincoln’s inn Fields office.

Andrea Stucchi left Ashurst in 2009, subsequently becoming an associate at morrison Foerster. in 2012, he became a project director at Global business reports and in late 2013 founded market monitor, a global print and digital media agency that supplies business intelligence across a number of markets.

Chris Thompson left the firm at the end of 2013 and we believe he is now doing overseas charitable work, but we are not currently in contact with him. if anyone knows more, please let us know.

As always, if any reader knows otherwise, or can put us in touch with anyone listed here, please email alumni@ashurst.com.

Alumni news

yeAr

2005

Alastair Main

Jamie Ritchie

Nick Ransley

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Ashurst – Firm Friends – December 2015

Alumni news

Congratulations to Lea Armstrong (Lawyer, Sydney until 1995) on her appointment as NSW’s Crown Solicitor in July this year. Last year Lea became NSW Treasury’s first General Counsel and she is the first woman to be appointed as Crown Solicitor in NSW. This is an enormous achievement for Lea and we wish her all the best in her new role.

Australian Alumni newsCongratulations to Elizabeth Broderick (Partner, Sydney until 2007) who has been named the 2016 New South Wales Australian of the Year. On 22 October, she reflected on her experiences over the past 8 years as Australia’s Sex Discrimination Commissioner, and in particular, her work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities at a breakfast briefing at the Sydney office with the Full Stop Foundation. The Foundation has developed and piloted the “Hey Sis” program to reduce gender based violence in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities. During her term as Sex Discrimination Commissioner, which she finished in September, Elizabeth has been committed to improving gender equality through her advocacy in preventing violence against women and sexual harassment, improving lifetime economic security for women, balancing paid work and unpaid caring responsibilities, promoting women’s representation in leadership and strengthening gender equality laws and agencies. Elizabeth has also developed the Male Champions of Change strategy with a group of 25 leading CEOs who have pledged to gender equality in their companies in her aim to involve both men and women in a more inclusive community. We look forward to hearing about her future plans and achievements.

Congratulations to Associate Justice Mary-Jane Ierodiaconou (Senior Associate, Melbourne until 2005) who was appointed to the Supreme Court of Victoria in May 2015. She left the firm to establish her own firm, Justitia which was named Law Firm of the Year in 2013 in the Law Institute Awards. Justitia was also listed by the Commonwealth Government as one of the top 10 pro bono contributors in 2013-14. While at Blake Dawson, her Honour was the Melbourne office Pro Bono Co-ordinator and in that capacity, working with Margaret Gurry, Rea Hearn-Mackinnon, Alice Mulhebach and Gillian Payne, established the Melbourne Refugee Sanctuary Group, which extended financial assistance to refugee visa holders to enable them to bring family members to join them in Australia. The appointment is a recognition of her Honour’s skills and experience. We wish her Honour all the best in her new role.

From left to right: Tara Moss, Patron of the Full Stop Foundation; Helen McKenzie, Partner; Karen Willis, CEO of the Full Stop Foundation; Elizabeth Broderick; Dixie Link-Gordon, co-creator of the “Hey Sis” program; and Kate Cato, previously Head of CSR at Ashurst.

Elizabeth Broderick and Sarah Dulhunty, Partner

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Ashurst – Firm Friends – December 2015

Anna Bartl

Laura Lombardo

Chris McMeniman

Glenn Geerts

Alumni newsMatt Bailee (Lawyer, Canberra until 2015) has joined the Australian Federal Police as a Legal Counsel in Employment and Litigation.

Anna Bartl (Senior Associate, Sydney until 2015) has joined Westpac as a Senior Associate.

Laura Bowlt (Senior Associate, Perth until 2015) has joined INPEX Corporation, a leading worldwide oil and gas explorer and producer, as a Legal Counsel, working on the Ichthys LNG project.

Christina Forsyth (Senior Associate, Sydney until 2015) has joined Standards Australia as a General Counsel.

Victoria Garrington (Senior Associate, Sydney until 2015) is now Intellectual Property Counsel at Swarovski in Liechtenstein.

Glenn Geerts (Lawyer, Perth until 2015) is now the Monitoring and Communications Officer – Legal Aid Justice Centre for Legal Aid (JCLA) based in Jordan. While on leave of absence, Glenn completed a capacity building assignment at the centre with funding from the Australian government, assisting with fundraising, monitoring and evaluation, and human resources. On completion of the assignment, he stayed on with JCLA.

Paula Iannitti (Counsel, Sydney until 2015) is now Legal & Compliance Director ANZ with Smith & Nephew Pty Ltd, a global medical technology business.

Angela Lin (Senior Associate, Sydney until 2015) is now Legal Director for ANZ at Reckitt Benckiser, a consumer health and hygiene company.

Laura Lombardo (Senior Associate, Sydney until 2015) is now Senior Solicitor, Strategic Litigation with the Public Interest Advocacy Centre Ltd, an independent, non-profit legal and policy centre, dedicated to providing legal help to the most vulnerable and disadvantaged people in our community

Dominique McConnell (Senior Associate, Perth until 2015) is now Senior Legal Counsel with INPEX Australia in Perth.

Chris McMeniman (Senior Associate, Sydney until 2015) was admitted to the NSW Bar in 2015 and is now a Reader with the Tenth Floor Chambers.

Serge Radojevic (Lawyer, Brisbane until 2015) is now Legal Counsel with Idemitsu Australia Resources Pty Limited.

Robert Rankin (Lawyer, Sydney until 1990) has been appointed Chairman of Crown Resorts. He is also CEO of Consolidated Press Holdings Pty Ltd, a position he has held since March 2015. Prior to joining Crown, Mr Rankin was Co-Global Head of Corporate Banking and Securities, and Global Head of Corporate Finance at Deutsche Bank AG. Congratulations to Robert on his appointment.

Tony Ryan (Partner, Sydney until 2004) has joined JLL, as the global head of Mergers and Acquisitions in the hotels and hospitality group based in Singapore. As partner at Blake Dawson Waldron he established Australia’s first integrated tourism and hospitality legal practice. When he left he established Ryan Lawyers, a hospitality focused legal firm.

Emma Steel (Senior Associate, Brisbane until 2015) is Legal Counsel with Telstra.

Josh Thorneycroft (Lawyer, Brisbane until 2015) is a Corporate Lawyer with Eastern Australia Business Unit, Santos Limited.

Justi Tonti-Filippini (Counsel, Melbourne until 2015) has joined The Financial Ombudsman Service.

Kwartemah Topen (Senior Associate, Melbourne until 2015) has joined Westpac as a lawyer.

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Ashurst – Firm Friends – December 2015

Alumni interviews

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Sasha Lim 13

Marcus Woodger 15

Richard Cullen 18

David Williams 21

Tony Hudson 26

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corporate counsel, rio tinto in singapore

blake Dawson waldron, Perth office from 2007 to 2011blake Dawson/Ashurst, singapore office from 2011 to 2013

Q. when were you at blake Dawson/Ashurst and in which office?i started as a graduate in 2007 and joined the Perth m&A team under the reign of roger Davies. i learnt a lot and have many fond memories of my time there – of being part of a great team and making some lifelong friends, of late nights and “family dinners” at the office and of escaping a shareholder’s meeting through a hotel kitchen with roger (which was subsequently chronicled in a christmas skit to the backdrop of whitney houston’s “the bodyguard”).

i then moved to the singapore office in late 2011, which was just prior to the merger with Ashurst being announced. it was an interesting time and great to be part of the initial wave of the merger (it issues aside!). we learnt a lot during this time too, including the surprising number of cultural differences between the Aussies and brits (such as that the coco Pops jingle is different between the countries).

Meet sasha Lim

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Ashurst – Firm Friends – December 2015

Alumni interviewsmeet sasha lim

in singapore, i worked in the energy and resources team, mainly with Ashurst associated indonesian firm, Oentoeng suria & Partners. i travelled to Jakarta pretty often and took the opportunity to learn bahasa. there were a few people from the office who learnt and i remember the indonesian songs that we sang would resonate throughout the office.

Q. tell us about your current role.i joined rio tinto in singapore in 2013 and mainly support the marketing teams. i assist with projects around the world so have had the opportunity to travel and see some interesting (and remote) parts of the world. As i write this, i am in salt lake city, where one of rio tinto’s mines has been in operation since 1906. Another highlight for me was visiting mongolia and riding a camel in sub degree weather in the Gobi desert.

Q. what do you enjoy most about your work and what has been your most rewarding achievement?the work has been interesting and there are always innovative projects underway. i particularly enjoy supporting businesses that challenge the norm and look for ways to improve and change. i’ve also enjoyed developing relationships with my internal clients and seeing projects develop and being involved in these from the beginning.

Q. this century has been called the “Asian century” – what are your thoughts about the trends and challenges of doing business in Asia?there is a lot of opportunity in Asia, particularly in singapore. it’s a good place for foreign investment and there are lots of different companies operating here. while the fluctuating commodity prices certainly have an effect on the work that i do, it does feel like singapore is protected to some extent from the economic slowdown. Apparently singapore is one of the world’s busiest ports which certainly seems to be the case – i look out at the numerous container ships from my desk and often marvel how busy the waters are. it’s definitely been an interesting time to work in Asia – i’m interested to see what changes come.

Q. Do you have tips for lawyers wanting to move to an in-house role?i had been on a few secondments while at Ashurst but working full time, in-house, is pretty different. i’d suggest building up a good foundation in private practice before moving to an in-house role. i think it’s important to do so to develop as a lawyer and to have the confidence to deal with matters on your own. i get a lot of walk up consultations, urgent requests and “quick questions” which i wouldn’t be able to handle as well without the training i had at Ashurst. some great people spent time mentoring and training me, including Antonella Pacitti, who still helps out with some of my own “quick questions”. while rio tinto has a fairly large legal team, all of whom you can bounce ideas with, there isn’t the same kind of structured learning you have in a law firm.

Q. what are the major differences between what you are doing now and practising law in a law firm?i’d say that for me, it has been developing relationships with internal clients, and learning to work through difficult issues together. in-house, you get to see matters through from start to finish and there can be contentious issues along the way as you deal with the tensions between the commercial and legal wants and needs. i have learnt a lot about how to champion legal issues while being under pressure to be commercially astute and practical – which is more difficult to do when you’re embedded in the business and your clients sit right next to you (so you can’t ignore a phone call!).

Q. Do you keep in touch with Ashurst/blake Dawson colleagues?Definitely. i count a number of my colleagues from Ashurst as some of my very good friends. the rio tinto office in singapore is also just below Ashurst’s office which means we are always running into each other at the coffee shop.

Q. what’s your favourite thing to do on the weekend?i love to travel and being in singapore means that it’s pretty easy to get away for the weekend or even home to Perth. A lot of great places are only a few hours away by plane. i went to sri lanka earlier this year and am heading to myanmar next, so ticking a few places off my bucket list. i’ve also recently taken up running and am training for a half marathon – singapore’s humidity is pretty good for training!

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Meet Marcus woodger

Group legal counsel, hyva in hong Kong

marcus joined “Ashurst morris crisp” in 1992 as an articled clerk, qualifying into the corporate department. he left at the end of 2000 to join Jardine matheson in hong Kong. he is now Group legal counsel for hyva, a private equity-owned manufacturer of hydraulics for heavy-duty transportation equipment with its hQ in hong Kong.

when choosing which law firms to apply to, at the end of the 1980s (ouch), a focus for me was a firm’s ability to allow me to work abroad. being an expat myself with my home in exotic belgium, i anticipated that i would not want to be based in london for ever, and my travels had reinforced this. One of the first questions i asked roger Finbow, then the graduate recruitment partner, was why Ashurst didn’t have an office in hong Kong!

Alumni interview

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Ashurst – Firm Friends – December 2015

whilst in corporate, in between doing “Geffen deals”, i had a stint at the liaison office in Delhi but the key moment came when i was about two years qualified and was asked if i would like to go to the tokyo office. my time would be divided between a secondment to the legal department of mitsui &co, one of the great trading houses of Japan, and company and financing work for the newly-formed “major Projects” department. i chose the path to the east – a life-changing decision as it turned out. i was the first junior assistant in tokyo, and spent two years involved in telecom and power station deals, joint ventures between all the combinations of Japanese, uK and indian corporates, and helping to recruit the next wave of personnel. in the meantime, Japan became my home and a base for exploring a lot of Asia.

On rotation back to the london office i continued with uK m&A and venture capital work, and enjoyed telecom and satellite projects in the middle east, but i realised i missed the Far east. the secondment had also shown me that i was suited to the in-house role. i had liked the variety of advice and drafting it had given me and the ability (actually, the requirement) to build relationships with people within all the elements of a business.

During one of my visits to hong Kong from tokyo i had met my wife-to-be at a party on board HMS Chatham, which had effectively become “Government house”, two weeks before the handover to china. we met again in london, and after a year or so it became clear that we wanted to go back to Asia together. it was the usual stuff: “why not go abroad for a couple of years..?” Fifteen years and three children later, we are still in hong Kong.

i spent seven years in Jardine matheson’s legal department, with work for head Office (ranging from selling historic parts of the group, such as the shipping container handling business in hong Kong and the sugar mill plantations in the Philippines, to the acquisition of a strategic shareholding in rothschild’s international investment and private banking group in switzerland) and all varieties of commercial deals for Jardine’s non-listed businesses. i became a dab hand at pizza franchises in Vietnam, car dealerships in the uK and the ground services business at hong Kong Airport. my horizons were broadened to trademarks, it service agreements, internal investigations and swatting away or settling contentious matters.

the high point was having responsibility for all the legal aspects of various divestments the us and hawaii, including the mercedes benz dealership in beverly hills. this culminated in a completion party thrown by our investment bank. i found myself at the hotel bel-Air for a couple of days, with only a couple of informal meetings on the schedule. Angelina Jolie was there with a small

entourage, and i nodded a hello to her. she looked confused, but nodded back.

i left Jardines in 2008 to become Gc and part of the senior management team at a small biotech company developing products which incorporated its own anti-viral technology, specifically face masks and wipes that could kill viruses on their surfaces. this was an incredible learning experience – add in to the mix collaborative r&D and iP-licensing, hiring and firing, managing the patent portfolio, running the regulatory compliance and company secretary functions and doing distribution deals. the company was typical of the entrepreneurial spirit of hong Kong, and had excellent backing. the “swine flu” pandemic in 2009 provided an enormous boost but we didn’t have the production facilities in place to meet the demand and the business struggled thereafter.

i side-stepped into real estate funds and spent three years with invista Plc, which became Palmer capital, as their legal and compliance Director for Asia, structuring funds, dealing with investors and buying and selling commercial buildings in hong Kong and singapore. At the same time, i worked with other hong Kong entrepreneurs and became involved in a charitable foundation, the aim of which was to attract funding for projects throughout Asia to encourage the viewing, creation and discussion of art. the Foundation’s headline event was an annual exhibition and prize, hosted by a regional gallery (the first being the ullens centre for contemporary Art in beijing). the negotiations to set all this up showed me how tough the art world can be.

i became a dab hand at pizza franchises in Vietnam, car dealerships in the uK and the ground services business at hong Kong Airport.

“

Alumni interviewsmeet marcus woodger

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Ashurst – Firm Friends – December 2015

Alumni interviewsmeet marcus woodger

in 2013 i joined hyva as Group legal counsel (and compliance Officer) as part of the gathering of the c-suite in hong Kong by the Asia-based owners. hyva has leading positions in products such as tippers, truck-mounted cranes, compactors and other hydraulics applications used in the infrastructure, mining and environmental services industries. it has manufacturing sites in six countries and sells in 36. i am responsible for all legal matters for the group, globally, and the role is typical of the modern in-house function in that there is an increasing focus on corporate governance and risk management (particularly the avoidance of bribery and corruption), on top of everything else. this can be as crazy as it sounds – it can be done, but only through the build-up of experience from the various roles i have had over the years, three-quarters of which have been in Asia.

A question often asked is whether hong Kong has changed since the handover. the capitalist system and the hong Kong way of life (that brings a diverse group of expat professionals here in the first place) continues, but you can see the increasing influence of china. more than ever hong Kong is a hub for global business, but overall i would say that the opportunities for foreign corporate lawyers are diminishing. it is still a great place to live, with easy access to the sea, the hills (and lots of hiking) and interesting food!

On the family front, my wife is now a partner at norton rose Fulbright, and our two youngest children are at the british international school here, which our eldest left last year to go to Prep school in sussex. the children are proud of their hK connection. As they get older we travel around Asia more, and have just returned from the jungle in laos. Our ties to the uK are as strong as ever, and our cottage in the lake District is our antidote to the heat, smog, crush and rush of hong Kong; but we are not ready to leave our friends and experiences here just yet!

my legal background gave me certain traits and skills that have, in a more general sense, proven invaluable.

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Ashurst – Firm Friends – December 2015

Meet richard CullenVisiting Professor in the Faculty of law, university of hong Kong

Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of law at the university of western Australia

i was born in colac, Victoria in 1948 and brought up in echuca, Victoria, where i attended st. Joseph’s college. i began my legal career with blake & riggall in melbourne in 1983, after completing my llb at melbourne law school (mls) in 1982. i was with blakes for two years, first as an Articled clerk, under Geoff hone, and then as a junior solicitor. i commenced my PhD at Osgoode hall in toronto, canada in early 1985. i am admitted to practise law in Australia, hong Kong and england and wales.

Prior to entering mls and completing my llb, i worked as a manager with csirO in Australia.

Alumni interview

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Ashurst – Firm Friends – December 2015

Alumni interviewsMeet Richard Cullen

I enjoyed my time working with Blakes immensely. Notwithstanding the comparative newness of the premises high-up in the then BHP Building, the remarkable history of Blakes in Melbourne dating back to 1841, could be plainly felt. The intellectual atmosphere was demanding, in the best way. The opportunities to relax in fine company were excellent – not least the ad hoc meetings of the junior staff, “Escape Committee”. Tunnelling out of BHP House was never a serious option but it was a great way to keep a sense of balance – and fun – in the midst of all of those inevitable, early-career work pressures.

The experience of completing my PhD in 1986 spurred what proved to be a long-term engagement with academic writing. Shortly after this, I decided, with some regret, to leave Blakes. I accepted a position as Senior Lecturer at Monash Law School, in Melbourne, in 1987. In late 1991, I moved to Hong Kong, to take up a position in the then new School of Law at the City University of Hong Kong.

I returned to Monash University in 1999 as a Professor and Head of the Department of Business Law and Taxation. And I took early retirement from Monash in 2006.

Since then I have been a Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Hong Kong (HKU). I am also, nowadays, an Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Law at The University of Western Australia. I have written and co-written several books and more than 160 articles, notes and commentaries and have supervised a number of PhD and MPhil theses.

Over recent years, I have focussed on reflective essay writing. Recent examples include: “Land Revenue and

the Chinese Dream” (which was selected by the China Policy Review as one of the Top 20 Economic Essays in China for 2014 and “Magna Carta – 800 Years on: A Sino-Euro Reflection” in 2015).

My books include Federalism in Action (1990) and Media Law in the PRC (1996) (with H. L. Fu). More recent books are: Electing Hong Kong’s Chief Executive (2010 – 2011 (in Chinese)) (with Simon Young); and Green Taxation in East Asia (2011) (Contributing Editor with Jefferson VanderWolk and Xu, Yan). I have made presentations across Asia, in Europe and in North America and have been a Visiting Scholar at Universities in Austria, Belgium, Canada, Japan and Switzerland.

I look back on my experience at Blakes as pivotal – and highly fulfilling. I learned much about the value of self-reliant, problem solving, deep attention to detail, robust, continuous critical analysis – and accepting real responsibility. This essential professional understanding grew out of direct critical commentary – and serious client expectations! But, even more so, it developed from excellent collegial example, support and advice – most often delivered in a non-nonsense fashion but always constructively and typically with penetrating humour. I am particularly pleased to have maintained strong links as a result of the close friendships developed during 1983-1984. (Mary Padbury became a wonderful friend at that time – and remains so today.)

The special skills related to self-organisation of complex work-projects that I developed during those two years at Blakes meant that I was able to “hit the ground running” when I arrived in Toronto in early

January 1985. The PhD was written and successfully submitted within 20 months.

Even more pivotal in terms of career and life experience, for me, was my move to Asia. Like so many expats, I first came “just for two years”, in late 1991 – and then stayed. Today I have two places to call home: Hong Kong and Melbourne. I am now part-time at HKU, so can spend around 4 months of each year back in Melbourne.

My wife, SK, is Hong Kong Chinese. She runs her own solo legal practice in a low income part of West Kowloon. SK is a wonderful muse and partner.

The Asian century & the rise of China The late, remarkable, Belgian-Australian Sinologist, Pierre Ryckmans (pen-name: Simon Leys) put the special position of China, in my view, better than anyone else (in, The Burning Forest, (Paladin, London, 1988):

“From a western point of view, China is simply the other pole of the human mind. All the other great cultures are either dead (Egypt, pre-Columbian American and so on), or too exclusively absorbed by the problem of surviving in extreme conditions (primitive cultures), or too close to us (Islamist cultures, India) to present a contrast as total, a revelation as complete, an “otherness” as challenging, an originality as illuminating as China. It is only when we contemplate China that we can become exactly aware of our own identity and that we begin to perceive which part of our heritage truly pertains to universal humanity, and which part merely reflects Indo-European idiosyncrasies.”

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Alumni interviewsmeet richard cullen

china has plainly produced the world’s largest and most enduring, continuous civilisation. it has also, more recently, constructed the world’s largest and most successful One Party state (OPs). that OPs has experienced dire upheavals and awful devastation, as it has developed, especially over the first 30 years after 1949. but that same OPs has been the architect of a near 20 fold increase in real GDP terms, in the Prc economy, across the three decades to 2011 (according to the us congressional research service). A recent bbc report noted that the Prc has accounted for as much as the rest of the world combined in the striking progress made towards meeting certain millennium Development Goals set down by the united nations in 2000.

there are immense challenges still facing china. but the revitalised china which is emerging is built upon this extraordinary civilisation. this does not guarantee inevitable success, still less, a rise free of trauma and trouble. it does, however, help explain the immense positive potential – and remarkable achievements to date. some us economists have argued that china has, since 1978, largely just joined-the-economic-dots – no big deal. if this were so, however, why is it, that only china has managed such change on this remarkable scale?

Q. what’s the best advice that you’ve been given?the fine british essayist, theodore Dalrymple (tD) made certain observations in 2011, which have stayed with me (tD is a great admirer of simon leys, as it happens).

“the population…has no doubt about the metaphysical origin of human rights: they are inscribed in the constitution of the universe.” … “Any form of correction, however mildly phrased or studiously restrained, is thus an assault on a person’s conception of himself as the sun King of his own soul.”

the reason i have quoted tD is because the best advice i have had, from childhood onwards, runs almost directly counter to the individual life-imperatives just noted. Above all, i learned that you do have to take clear responsibility for yourself and your own actions.

You build self-reliance and stabilise your wider perspectives, over time. You build in impulse control – which many studies show to be fundamental to enjoying a life well lived, whatever you do. You also become deeply grateful for the remarkable opportunities life has to offer.

the Ancient Greeks used to stress the key concepts of truth, beauty and Goodness. to these i would add, engagement. learning about deeper (and unselfish) engagement with others underpins all the best sort of relationships – and avoidance of the worst kind.

two decades of living in Asia has strengthened these convictions. my chinese friends know as much about day to day squabbling as anyone. but they also are, typically, better at maintaining ongoing engagement.

chinese civilisation has long held that “molecular” human engagement is pivotal for a successful civilisation in a way which did not feature on the contemporaneous Ancient Greek (notably more individualistic) cultural-radar.

Q. what are your favourite quotes?“Trust only the person who doubts”

(lu,Xun (1881-1936) leading modern chinese novelist, editor, translator, literary critic, essayist, and poet).

“Illegitimi Non Carborundum”

(a mock-latin aphorism which strongly suggests paying scant attention to adversely intentioned, unworthy folk you may encounter).

in a similar vein:

“Pay no attention to your critics, don’t even ignore them”

(adapted from sam Goldwyn).

And, finally:

“Facciamo Una Festa!”

the response, reportedly, of an italian film producer to each major turn of fortune, whether triumphant or disastrous (“let’s have a party!”).

Q. what are your favourite pastimes?spending time with good friends and family in hong Kong and melbourne. reading and writing for pleasure. introducing friends to hong Kong’s wonderful choice of places to eat.

richard is happy to hear from current Ashurst staff and Alumni – please email him at: richard.cullen@gmail.com

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Ashurst – Firm Friends – June 2015

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Alumni interview

Meet David williamsDavid williams was with Ashurst from 1995 to 1999, predominantly in the Paris office. he left to join Deckchair.com and then betfair as a founder manager before retiring from the legal world in 2004, and has since dedicated his time to children’s charities in latin America and se Asia. »«

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Q. how do you remember your time at Ashurst? i joined Ashurst off the back of a great summer placement in 1991, spent, from what i can remember, drinking, playing cricket and generally being very well looked after by roger Finbow and team…all of which may have set expectations unrealistically high! i then didn’t actually start my training contract until 4 years later after securing a post-law school sabbatical which i spent teaching in the ecuadorian Amazon and a tibetan refugee monastery in southern india – all of which was sublime and life-changing – but certainly didn’t make it easy settling in to city life, particularly when i found myself in a challenging first seat with the notorious chris Ashworth in march 1995.

After a gruelling start in company and banking, i had a great six months with richard Palmer and colleagues in the tax Department with intellectually challenging work, a brilliant bunch of people…and much more humane working hours. i applied to do my last seat in Delhi, but with that office in regulatory lockdown, Finbow offered me Paris instead, which curiously no-one else wanted. i grabbed it, attracted by the French reputation for resisting hard work and expectations of my feet up most afternoons with a glass of wine overlooking the seine. it didn’t quite turn out like that. i spent the next three years working very hard indeed for christopher crosthwaite and thomas Forschbach, who were both brilliant, colourful and entertaining characters, but very demanding taskmasters. i had a spectacular commute by bicycle from my quaint little apartment on the ile saint louis to the then office off the champs elysees, but rarely made the journey in daylight hours and kept a much used sleeping bag

in the office for the regular all-nighters. exhausting as it was, it gave me a fabulous array of challenging experiences in interesting places. there were huge amounts of ghastly due diligence, but it never seemed so bad when it was on-site in casinos in the Alps or start-ups in the côte d’Azur or family businesses in the middle of the champagne region or, my all-time favourite, leading a team of romanian lawyers on the privatisation of the bucharest water and sewage works.

i arrived in Paris with nothing but schoolboy French and the typical english terror of speaking a foreign language, but was required to manage meetings between native-French-speaking PDGs pretty much on arrival (to their absolute dismay no doubt) and left somehow able to blag my way through grillings by French judges, lawyers and academics in oral exams to pass the French bar. And i went from being utterly dependent on the office’s precious copy of “Doing business in France” on day one to advising French blue chips on the establishment of stock option schemes and the like towards the end. All great training in coping with being out of your depth in a foreign environment which has served me extremely well all over the world ever since.

After giving crosthwaite particularly effective guilt-trips, i was allowed to take a few months off in late 1997 (spent on the road in southern Africa and eastern europe, which only made me keener to get back to those kinds of settings) and then yet more time off to study and qualify as a French lawyer. but by late 1999 i knew my heart wasn’t really in it and it was time to move on.

Q. tell us about how you got to betfair and your time there.i was leaving Ashurst with the long-term intention of working my way back to development work in the third world, but in the short term i was looking into any option offering an interesting stepping stone: business school, cDc, DFiD, the Foreign Office – even re-qualifying as a doctor. but at the time there was no job as plentiful as in-house lawyer for a dotcom for those prepared to risk it. i knew nothing about the internet world but the prospect of instant millions, as we all sincerely believed, was irresistible and, after my years with Ashurst, i felt confident about identifying and addressing problems in pretty much every aspect of a company’s legal set up (one great benefit of all those due diligence exercises) and negotiating funding with Vcs and other investors. i was introduced to the bob Geldof-led internet travel company, Deckchair.com, and spent christmas 1999 managing a funding round full of media companies and pop stars, fully expecting to be comfortably retired within six months. sadly Deckchair very quickly went the way of boo.com and almost every other internet company at the time, along with what little i’d saved from my time at Ashurst.

my brother introduced me to another start-up, betfair. with the dotcom bubble in apocalypse mode, minimal cash in the bank, prospective investors fleeing in droves, no live website and having already lost first-mover advantage to a vastly better funded competitor (Flutter), the prospects did not look good. but i had nothing to lose and it was worth joining just for the ride, made up as it was of a fabulous team of fun-loving maverick city dropouts working on a brilliant

Alumni interviewsmeet David williams

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Alumni interviewsmeet David williams

industry-revolutionising idea (betting exchanges) in a fun space (sport and gambling). luckily, from the moment we did launch, betfair was a phenomenal success with punters, we were soon buying out Flutter for a fraction of our paper (simon beddow advising) and the combined business just took off.

At that point, the crusty old heavyweights of the betting industry woke up and started to use any means, fair or foul, to crush these betting exchange upstarts with their vastly more entertaining, versatile and price efficient models - and my work really began. the major bookmakers and their associated vested interests accused betting exchanges of facilitating illegal bookmaking, not paying our fair share of everything from betting tax to the exchequer to contributions to sport, of facilitating corruption in sport, of facilitating money laundering, even of being a front for Al Qaeda. trouble was stirred up with hmrc, the Dcms, mPs, the police, licensing authorities, the Jockey club, the hblb, the FsA and anyone else who would listen. most of these nobly did their jobs and i gained a huge respect for our civil servants, enforcement agencies and judiciary for their intelligence, patience and objectivity – and for consistently finding in our favour! we steered our way through these icebergs but somehow, despite our victories in every forum, the objectors never seemed to be silenced, and indeed, as the business itself thrived, protests from our powerful competitors across the globe just got louder. we were called to make our case countless times to all of the above in the uK and many of their equivalents abroad and ended up in the midst of parliamentary committees, new primary legislation on betting and secondary legislation on tax, a judicial review as victims of procedural impropriety, lawsuits

against us in scotland and holland and many more threatened across the globe where the equivalent authorities tended to be much less patient or impartial than back in the uK.

while we kept our heads above water on the legal and regulatory side, the business continued its stellar growth and soon third parties were banging on the door to buy shares at fabulous valuations. by 2004 we had expanded our legal team to a number of individuals vastly more qualified than me in all relevant areas, so i seized the moment, sold out enough to move on and by October 2004 i was in the Dominican republic learning spanish and teaching english (with a little kitesurfing in between) with a view to starting work with a charity for street-involved children in mexico (JucOni) that i had long revered the following year. mission accomplished.

Q. what got you interested in children’s charities in the third world in the first place? my father worked for shell so i was lucky enough to be brought up in some very colourful locations in se Asia, the caribbean and latin America which no doubt nurtured the passion for and eliminated any inhibitions to living in those parts of the world. And while i lived a very privileged expat childhood, we were often surrounded by great poverty which certainly impacted me. by the end of uni i, like most graduating students, felt little drawn to anything resembling serious work, but i did feel drawn to the more colourful and adventurous corners of the world and i had been greatly impressed by friends who had done interesting/constructive holiday/year-off/elective work as teachers and medics with refugees and other disadvantaged groups abroad. that led to the nine months off before joining Ashurst to go teach in the Amazon and tibetan refugee settlement.

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Alumni interviewsmeet David williams

those were completely life-defining experiences, and by the time i left india for Appold street in march 1995, i felt pretty sure that that was the kind of work and life i wanted to pursue in the long-term. that feeling only grew during my time at Ashurst and betfair. there are of course an infinite number of worthy causes to get involved with, but i soon learnt that i felt most inspired and fulfilled when working with children in extreme circumstances in the third world, where relatively small interventions and cash can make a huge difference to an individual, their family and perhaps the whole community and you can be actively involved in that story and enjoy watching it happen over the years and live a life in which every day is an adventure alongside it.

After leaving betfair, my interest in this kind of work was very much affirmed by my time with JucOni mexico, a superb organisation working with street-involved children in Puebla, with a brilliant team working with great kids. i split my time between helping the mD on management and fundraising issues in the office and working closely with the children in their programmes. since then i’ve tried to steer a path where my professional skills and experience remain useful but i am working as much as possible face-to-face with the children and young people i am trying to help.

Q. what brought you to northern thailand? After three great years in the Dominican republic, cuba, mexico and brazil from 2004 to 2006, i came to se Asia just to put a niggling interest in the region to bed. i travelled widely looking for projects of interest and ended up teaching and working on educational projects with the Karen, a hill-tribe in the far nw of thailand, one of numerous ethnic groups of subsistence rice farmers

eking an existence from the mountains and forests. i fell in love with the Karen and the region as a whole and have been hooked ever since.

thailand has been at the epicentre of some of the most fantastic, exotic cultures in human history and is certainly a fabulous place for an expat to live and bring up children as life is always full of wonder and adventure (where else can your children step out of school and be frolicking with their favourite baby elephants in a river 20 minutes later?) but also very comfortable in most respects and the thais really are the friendliest of people, particularly with children. but thailand also lies at the centre of a region that has seen some of the most appalling conflicts, atrocities and misery in human history: the Japanese occupation of se Asia in wwii, the chinese revolution, Vietnam war, cambodian killing fields, laotian “secret” war, 70 years of ethnic conflicts and democratic uprisings in burma, the insurgency in south thailand, the Golden triangle opium trade – all in the last 75 years alone. All of these have led to major displacements of people, often into thailand and that

continues today. most recently in the news (even in the west) has been the tragic story of the rohingya and their appalling experience at the hands of pogroms in burma through traffickers, pirates, navies and regional authorities alike, which illustrates the depths to which this region, including thailand, still sinks. but there are plenty of other horror stories continuing in the region. thailand is a relative haven of peace and prosperity and as a result is the obvious destination for migrants in search of a better life (an estimated c.4m out of a population of 67m). but many of these exist in a legal black hole of extreme vulnerability and abuse; thailand is in the top 10 in the world for absolute numbers of people in modern slavery; and is towards the top of many international blacklists for human rights abuses, child exploitation, people trafficking, the sex trade, corruption, political meltdowns, coups and smuggling of every kind. And all that in the region’s “safe haven”. se Asia is to me the most fascinating but also one of the most tragic regions on earth. there are plenty of people living in desperate circumstances and there is plenty of work for anyone interested in helping out.

Q. so what do you do here? i’ve been involved with many different projects in many nGOs, but in essence they all involve working with or providing support to highly marginalised groups in northern thailand and further afield throughout se Asia to help get their children into or further in education. the majority are children of refugees and migrants from burma and thai hill-tribe groups.

my most hands-on work in the last couple of years has been setting up and running a scholarship and mentoring programme (on behalf of the sievert larsson

there are plenty of people living in desperate circumstances and there is plenty of work for anyone interested in helping out.

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Alumni interviewsmeet David williams

scholarship Foundation) with about 400 students at any one time which involves meeting up regularly with each individual to see how they are doing, motivate and encourage, make sure they are managing to attend and progress and aren’t at risk of dropping out, help them find a path through and make the most constructive plan possible for their futures. we have students who come from many difficult backgrounds, from extreme circumstances such as refugee families burnt out of their villages by the burmese army, hiV orphans and abandoned children to just children of very poor hill-tribe or migrant families. i work with local community-based organisations to find students in most need of assistance. And i look to promote specific initiatives such as encouraging students from hill-tribe backgrounds to get on nursing or public health courses, with all the benefits that should bring to themselves, their families and wider communities. it is stirring work and i rarely finish a day without feeling greatly inspired by the students, the lengths they sometimes go to to get an education and the transformation they achieve over just a few years in doing so.

i then also run a small foundation, the Popocatepetl trust, which seeks out communities or individuals in extreme need and provides help to impressive educational nGOs already serving those people. tPt helps fund specific projects and i work either to assist these projects or to encourage other donors interested in supporting the same projects and communities. these have included: educational projects for children from migrant and refugee communities along the thai-burma border, where children would otherwise be denied an education, together with initiatives to get those children integrated into a formal education system; similar initiatives through burma’s conflict zones across to the rohingya refugee camps on the burma-bangladesh border; programmes in northern thailand helping migrant and hill-tribe girls who have been victims of trafficking or commercial or sexual exploitation; “orphanages” for stateless abandoned children of migrants on the thai-burma border; programmes for street-involved children on the thai-cambodian border at very high risk of abuse and trafficking; and many more.

Again, it is impossible not to be deeply moved by the stories of these children, amazed by their resilience in the face of the often terrible circumstances they have had to endure and inspired by the transformations that can occur in their futures with relatively little help from outside.

To support David’s foundation or to find out more about its work, please visit www.thepopocatepetltrust.org

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Alumni interviewMeet tony hudsontony hudson, worked in our associated office in Jakarta and is now General counsel and company secretary at AsX-listed southern cross media Group

Q. when were you at blake Dawson and in which offices?

i joined the melbourne office of blake & riggall as an articled clerk in 1986. the merger that created blake Dawson waldron happened in 1988 and for a time i had a busy practice of shepherding sydney partners through their admission to practise in the supreme court of Victoria.

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Ashurst – Firm Friends – January 2015

Alumni interviewsmeet tony hudson

Ashurst – Firm Friends – December 2015

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Young lawyers didn’t rotate through different practice groups in those days. however, bob Paterson, who was my principal in the firm’s corporate and commercial Department, had a broad practice and he was generous in sharing it with me. bob was a pragmatic commercial lawyer with an eye for detail. it was only slightly embarrassing more than 20 years later when bob rang me in my role as company secretary at connecteast to point out an error i had made in a release to the AsX.

in 1993 i moved to the firm’s associated office in Jakarta, indonesia. my girlfriend, wendy, had agreed to come with me, but i found out shortly before leaving melbourne that our local partners would not welcome an unmarried couple. eleven years of courtship seemed long enough to be sure and our subsequent marriage pleased our indonesian partners and our families.

Q. tell us about your recent roles.my current role is very new. i started on 7 september as General counsel and company secretary at AsX-listed southern cross media Group, which operates about 80 Fm radio stations and 20 commercial television

licences around Australia. it’s a dynamic business with challenges and opportunities in fragmenting media and advertising markets, and i’m looking forward to learning more about it.

before joining southern cross, i was General counsel and company secretary for 10 years at connecteast, the operator of the eastlink toll road in melbourne’s south east. connecteast was a special purpose bid vehicle which won the Victorian government concession to design and construct eastlink and then to operate it until 2043. i joined eight months after the bid had been won, and was employee number seven. there were not many of us and there was a lot of work to do!

we opened eastlink to traffic three years later (five months ahead of schedule) and today the road is regarded by the Victorian government as a showpiece for the Public Private Partnership model. the project won a range of awards for its urban design. eastlink has over 400,000 account customers and hosts an average of 220,000 trips each day. we were most proud of it having the lowest casualty accident rate of any urban freeway in Australia.

Q. what do you enjoy most about your work and what has been your most rewarding achievement?As in-house counsel, i enjoy working with people across the business. we had a terrific core management team at connecteast who enjoyed working together.

with good luck, planning and hard work, a lot went right during construction of eastlink, but potholes appeared when we opened amid the Global Financial crisis in 2008 with a highly leveraged capital structure, traffic

and revenue nearly 40% below forecast, depleting cash reserves, and a $250 million claim from our construction contractor. From a peak of $1.80, our share price had more than halved and would ultimately fall below 30 cents.

we rolled our sleeves up. we raised additional equity twice and paid down debt. we dealt openly and fairly with staff whose positions had become redundant. we negotiated a settlement with our contractor that met both our needs. we survived and, a little later, we negotiated a $2.2 billion privatisation of eastlink as a mature business.

many members of the team have moved on since the privatisation. in my new role, i’m working again with the former cFO of eastlink. i reflected in my farewell speech that several other former eastlink colleagues are also working together in their new roles.

Q. this century has been called the “Asian century” – what are your thoughts about the trends and challenges of doing business in Asia?having returned from indonesia in 2000, i’m less qualified on this topic than i once was. however, even then i wouldn’t presume to generalise about doing business in Asia. north Korea, Japan, china, indonesia and every other Asian country have very different characteristics.

that said, Asia provides great opportunities for Australia and the reverse is equally true. we have a small population with a high standard of living and high expectations that can’t be maintained unless we engage with the rest of the world and especially our closest neighbours. Asia’s large populations have growing

...Asia provides great opportunities for Australia and the reverse is equally true.

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aspirations that will only be fulfilled by continuing to open their economies to the world.

Geography provides a comparative advantage for dealings between southeast Asian countries and Australia. this geographical advantage will remain – even as it is eroded by modern communications technology – but does not assure success.

the success of most business dealings relies on relationships and trust. whether your business partner is in the next suburb or the next country, you have to invest in the relationship and seek the same in return. much of my role in indonesia was “managing expectations”, particularly helping foreign parties to understand the nuances of business and cultural practices in indonesia. the expectation gap was often just as wide for clients from other Asian countries as it was for Australian, American or european clients.

Q. Do you have tips for lawyers wanting to move to an in-house role?show an interest in your clients’ businesses, not just their legal problems. Ask questions. Visit their operations. Get to know their people. work out whether you could see yourself in their shoes.

Discuss your thoughts and concerns with people you trust. try not to make big decisions alone.

Q. what are the major differences between what you are doing now and practising law in a law firm?life as a general counsel is more personal and less transactional than practising in a law firm.

i’m part of the executive team of the business with shared responsibility to deliver the company’s strategy. that stretches from a close relationship with the chairman, board and chief executive through to supporting other managers to plan and implement their initiatives.

i’ve seen it said that a general counsel needs to be a combination of optimist and conspiracy theorist, telling the business “yes”, where it can be; and “no” when it must be.

Q. what’s the best career advice that you have been given?Don’t burn a bridge. i’m not the world’s greatest networker, but my two in-house roles have come through connections. the same considerations apply to internal opportunities. this is more important as you become more senior because new roles are typically fewer in number, highly competitive and subject to the vagaries of interview processes. understand and nurture your networks of family, friends, work colleagues and others.

Q. Do you keep in touch with Ashurst/blake Dawson colleagues?we now live close to Anthony Klok, who was the resident partner in Jakarta when i moved over there. Anthony was from the Perth office. in return for his forcing my hand in marriage, wendy and i had a role in introducing Anthony to his wife, who was with another firm in Jakarta at the time. they were at our place for dinner recently for our annual celebration of indonesian independence Day.

Q. what’s your favourite thing to do on the weekend?the answer to this question changes over the years and i’m looking for a new answer now! my three children are late teens and the joy of doing things with them on the weekend is less frequent these days. i am a keen recreational runner with a goal of getting down (at least close) to a three hour marathon. weekends usually include a long run somewhere on melbourne’s network of paths, but injury niggles have become a more regular companion.

i do look forward to our annual family holiday, which this year took in the beautiful Kimberley in western Australia.

Q. Do you have any other recent highlights or achievements?since 2010, i’ve been a director of the wheeler centre (wheelercentre.com), which is a Victorian Government initiative and the centrepiece of melbourne’s designation as a unescO city of literature.

the centre has a small, energetic and creative team that has built a fantastic asset for melbourne in a short time. the annual program of over 200 talks, lectures, readings and debates reaches a physical audience of 45,000 people and many more – in Australia and overseas – through our website, podcasts and video archive.

Alumni interviewsmeet tony hudson

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Ashurst – Firm Friends – December 2015

Ashurst newsAlumni get together

London Alumni party – 30 september 2015

Ashurst london held another successful and well-attended party. we had a great turn out of alumni and current Ashurst attendees. ben tidswell gave a speech on what the firm has been up to over the last year, updating everyone on our recent successes. thank you to everyone who joined us and for making the evening such a success.

melanie willems and tom cartwright roger Finbow and Dan wilkins

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Ashurst – Firm Friends – December 2015

Ashurst newsAlumni get together

Ashurst Melbourne Corporate Connections alumni event

Ashurst’s melbourne office hosted a corporate connections lunch for alumni on 28 October 2015. Gordon hughes, senior consultant, discussed the Australian privacy regime. we were delighted to be joined by alumni from a range of organisations including AiA Australia, AnZ, cargill, crown, henley Arch, impact Fertilisers, mitsui and mmG. if you haven’t previously attended a corporate connections forum but are interesting in attending future forums in melbourne, please contact Jennifer turnbull.

mandeep mundae and Adrian sim candy Johnson (nee beevers), Dominic morley, sara laver, hans schumann and ian starr

edward Arden, Prateek swaika, lindsey roberts and Priscilla conti

Jon Parry, David macfarlane and Deborah Poole

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Ashurst – Firm Friends – December 2015

Ashurst newsthe singapore story

richard Gubbins recalls the opening of the singapore office in 1996Almost 20 years ago, Ashurst llP was pitching for Projects in south-east Asia with only a tokyo and new Delhi liaison Office and less than 10 lawyers between the two offices. the Projects Group was pushing for the firm to open an office in hong Kong or singapore and, given the uncertainty over what would happen with the handover of hong Kong to china in 1997, Ashurst took the decision to first open in singapore.

i was asked if i would head up the Office, form a team and put a business Plan together for approval by the Partnership. After many months of consultation with fellow partners, trips to singapore to find home and office accommodation and schools for our children, we opened our singapore Office on 1 september, 1996 with an Ashurst brassplate, telephones, secretaries but no business!!

the founder team comprised myself, scott brodsky, clive tucker, tom whelan and shaun lascelles and we were soon joined by richard ham and John may, our project finance specialists, ted ringrose, our Australian telecoms guru and stephanie Keen, our first trainee.

it was a brave new world for me. clive tucker advised me that my office would be my laptop and my new found it skills passed the test when amending a pitch document (to act for Videocon Group on an equity raise for an iPP in india) and winning the pitch en route from hong Kong to tokyo. hitting Asia brought a whole new meaning to “cold calling”, 28 meetings in one week in Jakarta, 32 meetings in 10 days in bangkok and similar visits to Kuala lumpur, hong Kong and manila. in three years, i got through two passports!

the singapore Office focused on energy and telecoms transactions. energy deals consisted of advising marubeni and sumitomo on indian iPPs and our telecoms practice received a huge boost when starhub instructed us on their interconnection Agreement with singapore telecom and singapore telecom instructing us on their largest ever acquisition in malaysia (binariang/maxis). having won the job, the whole office (5 of us!) then spent one whole week in Kuala lumpur doing the due diligence – i still ask myself the question to this day “when was an Ashurst Partner last found doing due diligence in a data room with a laptop!!!!????” the team effort was immense and we produced our first due diligence report one week later which ran to 250 pages!! i still feel guilty in not being able to allow stephanie Keen to spend the weekend with her parents in thailand.

looking back it was very much frontier territory. Fraser henderson, another early joiner, attracted many cVs and applicants when wearing his Ashurst t-shirt on the ferry over to play golf in the indonesian islands of batam and bintan at weekends. the only way i could be admitted to membership of the singapore cricket club was to submit my cricket cV and accept an invitation on a cricket tour to Perth, western Australia, following which i played for singapore in two one day internationals against malaysia. it took me until the age of 40 to gain my first international cap!

business Development in singapore itself could not have been easier. every client, potential client and investment banker went down to harry’s bar at boat

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Ashurst – Firm Friends – December 2015

Ashurst newsthe singapore story

Quay on a Friday evening and the night just developed from there! singapore was likened to an aircraft carrier with deals carried out in the region. when we took the decision to open the office, Asia was booming but in 1997, Asia fell out of bed and project finance deals came to a crashing halt. however, every cloud has a silver lining and the opportunities that arose were meat and drink to m&A/restructuring lawyers. marubeni instructed us to advise on the restructuring of their us$1.6 billion chandra Asri Project in indonesia with a signing ceremony that had 100 people in the room with every document having to be notarised beforehand. the hong Kong Government instructed us to advise on their cyberport Project in hong Kong with richard li’s group, Pacific century cyberworks since we were a truly independent law firm in that we did not have an office at that time in hong Kong. we punched above our weight against those uK and us law firms who had been in the region for much longer than we had and we considered ourselves flag bearers in spreading the Ashurst name in Asia.

As a team, we were a very close knit unit. we all sympathised when richard ham had his bike painted at the same time as the railings to which it was chained. tom whelan had to marry maria so he could get dependants passes for his “wife and children”. James collis replaced stephanie as our second trainee, and it was singapore where James gained an early insight to management and strategic thinking and naming his son stamford!

the Gubbins became rentokils’ biggest client since they were called in on numerous occasions to deal with spitting cobras in our garden. carolyn Gubbins found a

baby python in the bread basket and threw it over the garden fence only to wonder where the mother was. we soon found out when i returned home at 9.00 p.m. that evening to find a 10 foot python (a protected species) lying across the drive to our house!

i made a complete nuisance of myself with management (what has changed you may ask!) telling them that we needed to open in hong Kong, since all the investment bankers had moved back to hong Kong after the damp squib handover of hong Kong back to china. in 1999, i agreed to commit to go to hong Kong for another five years and having found a house in stanley and, schools for the kids in hong Kong, Geoffrey Green came out to singapore and said “Gubbo….hong Kong is off…..you are coming back to london because i can make more money out of you back in london!”. so we were on the next plane home, my Asia dream was over and i returned to london in 2000 to catch the m&A gravy train boom that lasted until the lehman crash of 2007/2008. huw thomas replaced me in singapore to continue the cyberport Project and chandra Asri restructuring and matt bubb joined us in singapore shortly thereafter after working at blake Dawson waldron until 2004 as a senior Associate.

singapore was the highlight of my career, the first time that i had been entrusted to start a business. i was

taken out of my comfort zone completely and after that, you can experience anything that life throws at you. it would not have been possible without the support and help of those other four founder colleagues who flew out from london with me and the others (including richard ham, John may, huw thomas and ted ringrose) who joined us later. A special thank you to all of them and to all those who have followed us and built Ashurst singapore up to where it is today.

PostscriptOf the original team, scott brodsky is now a partner at macfarlanes in Johannesburg; tom whelan and stephanie Keen are both corporate partners at hogan lovells; John may has retired; richard ham is a structured finance consultant at cms cameron mcKenna; clive tucker became a partner at Ashurst but left in 2010 to found Pitch Partners, a consultancy which advises on effective pitching; ted ringrose is counsel at singtel Optus; Fraser henderson is managing director at Propel investments, a sydney-based private equity manager; huw thomas remains at Ashurst and shaun lascelles has recently returned to Ashurst having been a private equity partner at skadden Arps and will be returning to singapore in 2016.

Richard Gubbins Partner, london

blake Dawson opened their singapore office in January 2009 to support offshore clients, particularly in the hotels, tourism and Gaming sector. the decision to establish a singapore base was in response to growing client demands and work flow within the region. the two singapore offices combined when Ashurst llP and blake Dawson combined their practices in Asia in 2012. the office now comprises some 40 lawyers, including 12 partners.

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Ashurst – Firm Friends – December 2015

Ashurst newsMeet our new Managing Partners in Asia

Congratulations to corporate partner, Lina Lee, who has been appointed as Managing Partner of Hong Kong and also to corporate and projects partner, Rupert Burrows, who has been appointed Managing Partner of Tokyo.

Lina specialises in equity capital markets, particularly IPOs and secondary offerings, as well as public and private M&A. She has extensive experience of advising investment banks and corporate clients mainly within the Greater China region.

Having worked in Tokyo for over 20 years, Rupert has a wealth of expertise in overseas infrastructure projects, in the electricity, oil and gas, chemicals and transport sectors and corporate M&A deals.

Partner Robert Ogilvy Watson who was Managing Partner of Hong Kong re-joins the London corporate M&A practice. Robert is a member of the firm’s Board and will continue to work with Asia-based clients.

Managing Partner James Collis said: “We have an incredibly strong management team in Asia and ambitious plans to strengthen our client offering in the region even further. Lina has excellent leadership skills and she will play a critical strategic role in driving forward the future growth and development of our Hong Kong office. Rupert is widely acknowledged as one of the leaders in his field and has played a key role in the ongoing success of the Tokyo office over the years. I congratulate both Lina and Rupert on their appointments.”

Lina Lee commented: “Helping to build and further develop our business in Hong Kong is an exciting challenge. We have an incredibly strong offering and I will work with the team to help strengthen our position as one of the leading firms in the Hong Kong market. The firm has made significant investment into the Asia Pacific region and I am fully confident that we will continue to capitalise on all opportunities.”

Rupert Burrows said:“Operating in Tokyo for 25 years, we have significant strength in our key areas of project finance, banking and corporate and we undertake some of the market’s most high profile and complex transactions for Japanese clients. Earlier in the year we announced that senior partners Matt Bubb (Head of Asia) and Dominic Gregory were relocating to further strengthen the business. I am looking forward to ensuring we capitalise on all opportunities, working closely with other offices across Asia, Australia, Europe, the UAE and the US.”

Lina Lee

Rupert Burrows

Alan Cameron

Congratulations to Alan Cameron AO (former first national Managing Partner and Consultant with Ashurst Australia) on his appointment as the Chairman of the NSW Law Reform Commission. Alan said it would be a great privilege to lead such an important legal body and that he looks forward to advising the NSW government on areas of the law in need of reform.Alan has worked in recent years principally as a company director, and an advisor on corporate governance and regulatory issues. He is also Chairman of several companies in the Westpac Bank group, and of Property Exchange Australia Limited. He has been the Commonwealth Ombudsman and served for eight years as chairman of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and its predecessor. Alan is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Alan was national executive partner of Ashurst Australia (then Blake Dawson) from 1989 to 1991, and Managing Partner from 1982 to 1985. He was Deputy Chancellor of The University of Sydney from 2007 until 2014.

Congratulations to Alan Cameron AO

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Ashurst – Firm Friends – December 2015

Ashurst newsmeet our new partners

Kim Desmarais, Finance, New YorkKim has substantial experience representing investment and commercial banks, borrowers/issuers and private equity firms in a broad range of leveraged finance transactions, including us and cross-border acquisition financings, refinancings, debt restructurings and other secured and unsecured lending transactions. she also advises on personal property and other commercial law matters associated with secured financings, with special emphasis on Articles 8 and 9 of the uniform commercial code. Kim is admitted to the bar of new York.

Jini Lee, Finance, Hong KongJini specialises in debt capital markets and has over 10 years of experience working on international capital markets transactions. Jini has wide-ranging experience in advising investment banks, corporates, governments and government agencies in debt capital market transactions globally. her range of expertise includes standalone bonds across all currencies (including offshore rmb bonds), medium term notes and commercial paper programmes, liability management exercises (buybacks, tender offers and consent solicitations) and equity-linked transactions (convertible and exchangeable bonds). Prior to joining Ashurst, Jini worked in the london headquarters of a leading uK international law firm before transferring to the hong Kong office to work on transactions in the Greater china and Asia Pacific region.

Andrew Digges, Resources and infrastructure, Singapore Andrew has extensive experience advising on project development, project finance and structured finance in the power, infrastructure, mining, oil and gas and petrochemicals sectors. Andrew has over 13 years experience while with a leading international law firm advising on projects in south east Asia and spent the last 4.5 years working as a projects partner based in Jakarta. he has experience advising on finance documentation and specialist expertise with construction and other project contracts, including concession, power purchase agreements, operation & maintenance, offtake and feedstock/fuel supply agreements. he also has experience advising on general commercial contracts and regulatory matters in the mining and oil & gas sectors in indonesia.

Shaun Lascelles, Corporate, Londonshaun has extensive experience, particularly in cross-border m&A and private equity. shaun advises a broad range of private equity firms, hedge funds, state-owned investment funds and other investment funds. shaun joins Ashurst from the london office of skadden, Arps, slate, meagher & Flom where he co-headed the firm’s global private equity practice. he joined skadden in 2002 and became a partner in 2007.

shaun was one of the founding team of the Ashurst singapore office working there as an Associate from 1999 to 2002.

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Ashurst – Firm Friends – December 2015

Ashurst newsmeet our new partners

Stephen Edlmann, Finance, Milanstephen specialises in debt and equity capital markets issues. he has advised issuers and underwriters on a wide range of capital markets products, including international bond issues, exchangeable and convertible bonds, regulatory capital issues, medium term note programmes, euro commercial paper programmes, liability management exercises as well as premium, standard and Aim listings of equity and depositary receipts on the london, euronext and other international and domestic stock exchanges.

Detmar Loff, Financial services regulatory, FrankfurtDr Detmar loff is a German rechtsanwalt and specialises in regulatory law with a particular focus on the German capital code (licence requirements, structure, fund set-up, risk management, eligibility of investments), securities trading Act, outsourcing, compliance matters, cross-border issues, banking regulation and other regulatory aspects (eg data protection, anti-money-laundering). Detmar has in-depth experience in the implementation of regulatory requirements, eg miFiD/miFiD ii, PriiPs, AiFmD and ucits. Prior to joining Ashurst Detmar worked for other leading international law firms in Germany and one of the big four auditing firms.

Fernando Navarro, Finance, MadridFernando has extensive experience in financing transactions both through syndicated and bilateral loans, as well as in the area of derivatives and structured products. he has also participated in a number of portfolio disposals transactions acting for spanish and Portuguese banks and has also advised several funds that were acting as purchasers of portfolios. Fernando has a degree in law and is also a solicitor of england and wales. before joining Ashurst Fernando was a finance partner at cuatrecasas, Gonçalves Pereira for 10 years and prior to that he was head of legal at a spanish savings banks Group and legal counsel at Grupo santander.

Eric Stuart, Corporate, London eric advises corporates and investment banks on international capital markets and m&A transactions. Qualifying in new York, he has been principally based in london and was a partner in Ashurst between 2003 and 2011. eric has more than 20 years of experience acting on public and private offerings of equity and debt securities, including private placements, initial public offerings, follow-on offerings, accelerated book builds, and debt programmes, as well as on cash tender and exchange offers, mergers, spin-offs, and other corporate restructurings. his recent experience includes transactions for companies in the health care, technology, energy and natural resources, financial services and real estate sectors, as well as for investment funds.

Thomas Sacher, Corporate, MunichDr thomas sacher is a German rechtsanwalt and his area of expertise comprises mergers & acquisitions, private equity and alternative investments. he particularly advises his national and international clients in the automotive industry and sectors such as industrial and consumer goods, it, media and medical technology, on all types of domestic and cross-border corporate transactions: acquisition and sales of corporates or corporate stakes, joint ventures, takeovers, spin-offs, mbOs/mbis, transformations and mergers. Prior to joining Ashurst thomas was partner with another major law firm.

James Wood, Corporate, LondonJames has significant public and private cross-border m&A experience across many sectors, working with global client and adviser teams, leading negotiations and providing advice to senior client stakeholders on significant, complex and transformative transactions. James has advised on disputes arising from m&A transactions and agreeing and implementing settlements with governments.

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AbOVe: shortlisted entries for 2015. belOw: the winning artworks

Ashurst news

the Ashurst emerging Artist Prize 2016we are proud to be collaborating with Oaktree & tiger Gallery again for the Ashurst emerging Artist Prize 2016.

the Ashurst emerging Art Prize was launched in 2014 to support and mentor artists and to provide them with a platform for showcasing their work. in 2015, over 600 entries were received from over 250 artists of all ages, backgrounds and nationalities. As a direct result of the initiative, a number of artists have since secured sales for the first time, representing a major milestone in their careers.

the Ashurst emerging Art Prize 2016 is open to entries from artists based anywhere in the world. entrants can use a range of mediums for example painting, photography, mixed media or sculpture.

the Ashurst emerging Artist Prize structure places a strong focus on supporting artists throughout their application process. by providing access to talks and events during the submission period, and providing mentoring to those shortlisted. the deadline for entries is 14th February 2016 with a shortlist to be announced in march, and final winners announced in June 2016.

if you are a budding artist, or know someone who would like to get involved, please encourage them to enter the competition.

For further details of the prize, please click here.

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Ashurst – Firm Friends – December 2015

Vale David Gordon barr Former Partner, David Gordon barr, passed away on 10 november 2015, aged 91 years. David was appointed a partner in 1955 and retired in 1984 from Dawson waldron, as the firm was then. he was a long serving partner, firstly Partner “G”, then Partner “3” in the original numbering systems of the firm.

David was a leading lawyer, specialising in real property and in local government. he was also the second last solicitor appointed to the council of the city of sydney in 1966. John Odbert succeeded David as the last sydney city solicitor in the early 1980s, both continuing the long tradition of a prominent partner from our firm being appointed to the role, since 1893 when George charles King waldron, the sydney firm founder, was appointed the first city solicitor.

David was President of the law society of nsw from 1977 to 1978. he was also a former challis lecturer in conveyancing at the university of sydney. David was highly regarded for his expertise, sound judgment and integrity.

David contributed enormously to the life of our firm and was very interested in its history. he wrote travinto Performances – A history of Dawson waldron sydney 1881-1981. he started collecting material and making notes about the origins of Dawson waldron in the early 1960s. he also had a great interest in english and Australian history.

David was involved in setting up the first Aboriginal legal service (Als) in sydney in the 1970s, working with the Aboriginal community and hal wootten Ac, Qc now emeritus Professor of law at the university of nsw, to change the state Government policy towards Aboriginal people. many lawyers at the firm at the time, including partners Alan cameron, hugh Keller and Peter stapleton were involved in the early days and Ashurst continues its strong connection with the Als today.

he also loved cricket and in the late 1970s and early 80s participated in the annual cricket matches between sly and russell (now norton rose) and Dawson waldron.

David loved listening to music, particularly Gilbert & sullivan, handel Oratorios, the bach Passions and mozart’s operas. David initiated Friday night singing around the piano at Partners’ conferences, including singing Gilbert & sullivan. “the Judge’s song” from trial by Jury (1875) by Gilbert & sullivan was played at his service and also the “And the Glory of the lord” (chorus) from the messiah by handel.

in tribute to David’s great contribution to the firm, the sydney office has a client meeting and function room named in his honour at our new martin Place office along with the stephens and somervaille rooms, as we also had in our previous Grosvenor Place office.

several Ashurst partners and past partners attended his service on 16 november, as did the current nsw law society President John eades and two former law society Presidents. Our thoughts are with David’s family at this sad time.

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Ashurst – Firm Friends – December 2015

Ashurst news

Vale Ashok Mubayi we are sorry to share the sad news of the recent death of Ashok mubayi, who was for many years our india country manager and ran our liaison Office in Delhi, retiring a few years ago.

Ashok joined us in 1994, initially in a part-time advisory role, and soon became full-time and an invaluable member of Ashurst’s india team. he previously had a distinguished career in the indian Administrative service and the ministry of external Affairs, during which he had worked very closely with three former Prime ministers of india. he was based in Delhi with the firm for a number of years in the 90s, and spent three years in london helping us to develop the india practice, before returning to Delhi to run the liaison Office. he was instrumental in the strategic decision to close the liaison Office in February 2010 and to establish (in 2011) our successful best friends relationship with Gopika Pant and indian law Partners.

Ashok played an invaluable role over many years in guiding the firm through some difficult times in india when there were significant regulatory and tax challenges brought about by the opposition of indian lawyers to the presence of international law firms, including a long-running case in the mumbai high court. he was extremely well-connected at the highest levels, and had a great understanding of how india works, and we came to rely hugely on his advice and guidance. he was a loyal and valued member of the firm, who became a good friend to all those involved with the india practice, and will be greatly missed.

A memorial event was held in Delhi on monday, 7 september at which Geoffrey Picton-turbervill represented the Firm and gave an address. the event was attended by many senior former friends and colleagues of Ashok, including Dr manmohan singh the former Prime minister.

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Ashurst – Firm Friends – December 2015

Ashurst news

Vale James Francis bullock James Francis bullock, formerly of Ashurst’s tax department, passed away suddenly on 14 september 2015 aged 47 years.

James joined Ashurst as a trainee solicitor in september 1990, having attended blundell’s school in Devon from 1981-1986 before reading law at sidney sussex college, cambridge, and then going on to the college of law at Guildford. he qualified into the tax Department in 1992, working principally for Jack Amos and stephen machin. he developed an interest for tax litigation and investigation work which brought some unusual clients to the firm, not least the owner of a number of “Gentlemen’s clubs” in swallow street.

James left the firm in February 2000 to join Klegal where he founded one of the uK’s first specialised tax litigation practices. Following regulatory changes that practice folded back into mcGrigors and James took on the role of head of risk Advisory services. Prior to its merger with Pinsent masons, he played a lead role in developing mcGrigors’ city offering and, following that merger, headed up Pinsent masons’ litigation and compliance practice, developing a reputation as a passionate and uncompromising litigator.

Outside of work James cared deeply about politics and education. he was chairman of cambridge university conservative Association in 1989 and continued to be an active supporter of the conservative party throughout his life.

he became a Governor of blundell’s in 2009 and was chairman of the Governance committee and on the Finance & General Purposes committee, and had been a huge supporter of blundell’s for a number of years in many different ways. A James bullock memorial Fund has been established by James’ family, with the aim of providing an annual prize for students achieving good university placements. this will alternate annually between the best student from blundell’s obtaining a place at cambridge, and the best student from an inner city comprehensive obtaining a place at sidney sussex college. the firm has generously supported this fund.

richard Palmer, Global head of tax, represented Ashurst at James’ funeral which was held at st stanislaus rc church, Dulverton on 28 september and a number of Ashurst staff, both past and current, attended a celebration of James’ life held at stationers’ hall in london on the evening of 8 October. he will be sadly missed.

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Ashurst – Firm Friends – December 2015

Ashurst LLP is a limited liability partnership registered in England and Wales under number OC330252 and is part of the Ashurst Group. It is a law firm authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority of England and Wales under number 468653. The term “partner” is used to refer to a member of Ashurst LLP or to an employee or consultant with equivalent standing and qualifications or to an individual with equivalent status in one of Ashurst LLP’s affiliates. Ashurst Australia (ABN 75 304 286 095) is a general partnership constituted under the laws of the Australian Capital Territory and is part of the Ashurst Group.

Further details about Ashurst can be found at www.ashurst.com.

© Ashurst LLP and Ashurst Australia 2015. No part of this publication may be reproduced by any process without prior written permission from Ashurst. Enquiries may be emailed to aus.marketing@ashurst.com.

Design AU Ref: 17623 Dec 15

Share your newsWe always look forward to hearing your news. If you would like to be interviewed or to share your news in our newsletter or let us know any suggestions for our alumni programme please email alumni@ashurst.com

For more information on our alumni programme visit us online.

Join our Alumni LinkedIn groupIf you are registered on LinkedIn please join our group. Simply search for “Ashurst Alumni”.

Make sure your current profile reflects your past employment at Ashurst or Blake Dawson so we can confirm your membership.

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