Organised by: Next Generation Committee, Legal Practice Committee
Session abstract:
With this broad topic, we can discuss the challenges and solutions adopted by various law firms in addressing issues presented by the Covid-19 pandemic, across key areas of:
- Human Resources/People – maintaining and enhancing the engagement of lawyers as they adapt to work from home and other flexible arrangements
- Finance – as the Firm deals with cash flow issues
- Client Management and Business Development- without the usual face-to-face meetings
- Office/Facilities Maintenance – as Firm’s decide on the level of physical presence
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Emerico O. De Guzman
Emerico O. De Guzman is the Managing Partner of ACCRALAW. He was the Head of the Firm’s Labor and Employment Department from 2008 until his election as Managing Partner in February 2014. He obtained his Bachelor of Science (Psychology) and his Bachelor of Laws degrees from the University of the Philippines. He attended the Executive Program in Negotiation of NUS and Kennedy School in 1999, the Academy of American and International Law in Dallas, Texas, U.S.A. in 2005 and the Leadership in Law Firms Program of Harvard Law School Executive Education in 2018. Prior to ACCRALAW, Mr. De Guzman was exposed to human resource management in both the private and public sectors for six (6) years. He was a member of the PMAP Board of Directors for four years. In November 2005, he was elected President of the Association for the year 2006. Mr. De Guzman was also in the Board of Directors/ Officers (1997-2000) of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (Makati Chapter). He was the Managing Editor of the IBP Journal for 2003-2005. In June 2007, Mr. De Guzman was elected to the Board of Directors of the Philippine Bar Association (PBA). In 2013, he became a Vice-President of the PBA. In July 2014, he was elected as the President of the PBA for the term 2014-2015. In 2019, he became Chair of the Legal Practice Committee, Inter-Pacific Bar Association. He currently sits as an Employer Representative in the National Tripartite Industrial Peace Council and is the Legal Counsel of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines.
Mr. De Guzman’s practice areas include Employment Law, Labor Relations and Litigation involving employment related issues. He is advising several of the top multinational corporations in a variety of industries (manufacturing, semiconductor, offshoring and outsourcing, hotels and healthcare).
Julie Raneda
Julie Raneda is a partner in Schellenberg Wittmer’s international arbitration practice in Singapore. She represents clients in international commercial, investment and sports arbitration matters.
Julie has been involved as counsel in complex arbitrations seated in civil and common law jurisdictions under various arbitration rules (in particular ICC, SIAC, SCAI, UNCITRAL, CAS, VIAC). Her main areas of expertise include construction and engineering, energy, pharmaceutical/life sciences, manufacturing and international sales. She is also developing a practice as an arbitrator.
After completing a degree in international relations at the Graduate Institute Geneva, Julie graduated with a law degree from the University of Geneva. Julie Raneda joined Schellenberg Wittmer in 2008. She also practiced at a leading international law firm in London in 2014–2015. Julie was admitted to the Swiss Bar in 2011 and to the Singapore bar in 2016 (foreign lawyer).
Julie is the chair of the Swiss Arbitration Association (ASA) South East Asia Chapter and vice chair of the IPBA Next Generation Committee. Julie is AIJA’s National Representative in Singapore and a co-founder of the Women’s Business Society established in Geneva in 2012. Julie Raneda is recognized as a top arbitration practitioner by Who’s Who Legal (2017-2021), and has been described by clients and peers as “excellent advocate, calm and persuasive” combining “all qualities of an outstanding arbitration practitioner”.
Speakers
Stephen Revell
Stephen practised at Freshfields, the international law firm, as a corporate transactional lawyer for over 41 years on 3 different continents and was a partner for 33 years. He held a number of leadership and management positions in Freshfields. As a lawyer, he specialised in debt and equity securities offerings and M&A. Virtually all of his work was cross-border – he has worked on transactions in over 50 countries. He is known for his global perspective and local knowledge. He is now a consultant to the firm and is involved in Freshfields’ StrongerTogether initiative, its network of relationship firms around the world that allows it to deliver Freshfields’ service to clients in any market.
He has recently established a consulting firm in Singapore/London/Vancouver – Making Change Happen (https://makingchangehappen.com/) – through which he provides management advice to law firms and other professional service providers.
He is co-author of a variety of books and a regular speaker on law firm management, business development, market regulation and anti-money laundering topics. His most recent publication is the 2nd Edition of Business Development (https://lnkd.in/g4QCzNJ). This has become the ‘bible’ for law firm business development.
He is the Vice Chair of the IBA Law Firm Management Committee.
James Miller
Elected to the role in January 2017, James Miller is RPC’s Managing Partner.
James has been at the firm for 22 years having joined as a Trainee in 1995. He made Partner in 2003.
An international property and international casualty insurance lawyer by background, James previously headed RPC’s Insurance and Reinsurance Group and served on the firm’s management board.
James is dual-qualified in England & Wales and Hong Kong.
Before becoming a lawyer, James started his career as a registered osteopath, and acted as President of the Osteopathic Association of Great Britain.
Daniel Yi
Daniel Yi practices in Yulchon LLC’s Corporate and Finance practice. Daniel heads the firm’s Asia Practice Team and is engaged in the firm’s M&A, insurance and mobility teams. He has extensive experience in representing corporations, private equity funds and financial institutions in a broad range of cross-border transactions and disputes.
Prior to joining Yulchon in 2008, he practiced at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, LLP in its Tokyo office. Mr. Yi graduated from University of California, Los Angeles, where he received his B.A. degree in economics/international area studies, and Harvard Law School, where he received his J.D. degree. He is licensed to practice in New York.
Arya Tripathy
Arya graduated in 2011 and has advised various domestic and international clients on diverse aspects of business law, such as cross-border and domestic M&A, joint-ventures, investments, general corporate & governance, regulatory, labor & employment, and environment law aspects. She is focused on advising clients in healthcare, pharmaceuticals, defence, IT/ITES, technology & media, automobiles, and heavy manufacturing industries.
She has substantial experience in advising global and national clients on the evolving aspects of data protection and privacy rights regime, with specific focus on EU and Indian legal landscape, helping them navigate and create robust organizational data management and lifecycle processes. She has conducted data protection trainings for leading IT/ITES multi-national companies, organized round table sessions and spoken at public forums on comparative data protection jurisprudence.
Arya pro-actively contributes to the Firm’s pro-bono services and has advised several well-known as well as emerging not-for-profit clients. She is actively engaged with not-for-profit incubator, Nudge Foundation as the legal mentor for several social impact start-up organizations.
She is a member of ITechLaw Association, and is the Junior Vice-Chair of IWIN Committee. She is also a member of Inter Pacific Bar Association and is actively engaged in working of its next generation lawyers and aviation committees. She has represented the Firm and spoken at various national and international conferences and seminars on a wide array of subjects. Arya has also published various articles in reputed international and national journals on contemporary legal topics, and regularly contributes to the Firm’s publications.
Ashish Kabra
Ashish heads the International Dispute Resolution & Investigations Practice at Nishith Desai Associates, Singapore. He focuses on commercial litigation, international arbitration and white-collar crimes. He is a registered foreign lawyer with the Legal Services Regulatory Authority, Singapore and the Singapore International Commercial Court. He is an honorary overseas member of the Commercial Bar Association (England & Wales) and member of the Inter-Pacific Bar Association.
AREAS OF PROVEN EXPERTISE
Ashish is particularly adept in advising on shareholder and construction disputes, issues related to director liability and general commercial litigation. He has successfully represented several prominent individuals, private equity investors and corporate houses before the courts in India and in domestic and international arbitrations. He has an excellent record of building and implementing cogent strategies for resolution of complex international disputes. He is a regular speaker at law schools and seminars and actively contributes to various international publications.
CERTAIN SIGNIFICANT ENGAGEMENTS
• Representing a leading consumer products and medical devices manufacturer in an arbitration under the SIAC Rules arising out of termination of certain distributorship relationships.
• Represented an internationally leading Japanese general construction business company in a construction dispute arising out a FIDIC contract against a leading global healthcare company.
• Represented Indian sellers in Singapore seated arbitrations under the SIAC Rules arising out of a set of share purchase agreements involving allegations of breach of non-compete provisions.
• Representing the erstwhile director of Satyam Computer Services Ltd. in on-going cases arising out of a USD 1.4 billion accounting fraud (Satyam Scam).
• Represented Mauritius based real estate investment firm in an ad-hoc arbitration against other shareholders on alleged breach of ROFR provision of the Shareholders Agreement.
• Represented India’s largest post-production house in a dispute against a private equity investor involving Emergency Arbitration seated in Singapore under SIAC Rules.
• Represented multiple investors from India & Mauritius in an ad-hoc arbitration involving allegations of breach of Share Subscription cum Shareholders Agreement.
• Represented an offshore investor before the Supreme Court of India in proceedings to enforce an arbitral award which led to landmark judgment on applicability of amendments to the arbitration law.