Wilson Sonsini Expands China Practice


PALO ALTO, CA (September 17, 2012) - Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, the premier provider of legal services to technology, life sciences, and growth enterprises worldwide, today announced that it has added Hong Kong law capability to the firm’s offerings and is also pleased to welcome new partner Khoon Jin (KJ) Tan. Tan will help develop the firm’s Hong Kong law practice, which operates through Chen & Associates, a Hong Kong firm of solicitors with which the firm’s Hong Kong office is in association.



“Hong Kong increasingly has become an attractive market for many global companies and financial sponsors when it comes to initial public offerings, mergers and acquisitions, and private equity transactions,” said Jack Sheridan, co-managing partner of the firm. “The addition of Hong Kong law capability is a logical extension of our China practice. We have assembled a terrific group of attorneys, including KJ, who brings more than a decade of Hong Kong-related corporate and finance experience to the firm. He will be an invaluable asset to our growing China-based team.” 



“I’ve known KJ for many years,” said Weiheng Chen, head of the firm’s China practice. “He is a reliable and trusted counselor with an excellent balance of solid legal skills and acute business sense. KJ's hire allows us to provide much needed Hong Kong law services to our enterprise and private equity clients. We are all looking forward to working closely with him to further expand the firm's footprint in China.”



Tan is a Hong Kong-qualified solicitor with extensive capital markets experience. Prior to joining the firm, he was a managing director of an international investment bank in Hong Kong, where he was an execution banker on the China team and acted as one of its Responsible Officers for Hong Kong IPO execution. In this role he was heavily involved in the IPO process, including the supervision of the external legal team representing the underwriters.

Earlier in his career, Tan worked in the London, Hong Kong, Beijing, and Singapore offices of a London-based international law firm on numerous corporate finance transactions. In addition, he advised clients on a wide variety of general corporate and commercial matters, including mergers and acquisitions, restructurings, and financing arrangements. He earned his LLB in 1997 from the University of London, and is admitted to practice in Hong Kong, Singapore, England, and Wales. A native Mandarin speaker, Tan is fluent in English and speaks Cantonese and a number of other Chinese dialects.



Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati’s China team represents clients based in Greater China and the U.S. in a variety of international matters, including cross-border mergers and acquisitions, private equity and venture capital investments, joint ventures and branch operations, capital market transactions, going-private transactions, project development, and spin-offs, as well as corporate, intellectual property, and antitrust counseling, export controls, economic sanctions, and issues related to CFIUS and FCPA.

The firm has extensive experience advising on initial public offerings by Chinese companies on the U.S. and Hong Kong exchanges, follow-on offerings and placements, and PIPE transactions, and frequently represents private equity and venture capital funds in their investment matters in Greater China. In addition, the China practice teams with the firm's U.S.-based technology transactions and litigation practices to represent Chinese clients in various litigation and IP matters.



About Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati



For more than 50 years, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati has offered a broad range of services and legal disciplines focused on serving the principal challenges faced by the management and boards of directors of business enterprises. The firm is nationally recognized as a leader in the fields of corporate governance and finance, mergers and acquisitions, private equity, securities litigation, employment law, intellectual property, and antitrust, among many other areas of law. With deep roots in Silicon Valley, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati has offices in Austin; Brussels; Georgetown, DE; Hong Kong; New York; Palo Alto; San Diego; San Francisco; Seattle; Shanghai; and Washington, D.C. For more information, please visit www.wsgr.com.