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Nicholas Hiu Fung Chan
Partner
Nick Chan, Justice of the Peace and Medal of Honour recipient, a partner based in the Hong Kong office, is experienced in guiding clients in projects in around two dozen countries in Asia Pacific. Nick serves clients utilizing his computer science background with in-house experience at two Fortune 100 technology companies where he had regional responsibilities. His core legal disciplines include corporate and commercial, cross-border and international M&A, private equity and venture capital work, intellectual property, competition laws, data privacy, cybersecurity, law drafting, regulatory advocacy, disputes resolution, public policy advocacy with a focus on 5G, metaverse, artificial intelligence, advertising and media, anticorruption, autonomous vehicles, aviation, big data, biotech, blockchain, cloud services, commercialization, content acquisition and licensing, cryptography technology, data center operations, e-commerce, EduTech, energy, ESG, FinTech, IaaS, IoT, LawTech, LifeScience, ODR, O2O, Research-to-Industry, PaaS, PropTech, RegTech, RetailTech, SaaS, smart data, Smart City, V2X, and many other industries.
His clients include universities, governments, sovereign funds, private equity firms, venture capital firms, startups, entrepreneurs and multinational corporations. He has acted in many multibillion-dollar M&A projects, cross-border and multinational inbound and outbound investments, prevent and resolve investor state disputes, PE/VC and IP licensing projects that help commercialize technology that impacts on everyday life. Nick has worked on the liberalization of telecommunications markets in many jurisdictions, including market entry and exit, joint ventures, multibillion-dollar technology projects, submarine cable projects, data center projects and spectrum allocation projects, as well as drafting of competition guidelines, IP and commercialization policies.
Nick devotes a lot of time to advancing the Rule of Law, innovation, technology, education and the broader community, serving in various roles over the past two decades, such as elected National People’s Congress member of the People’s Republic of China, where he participates in drafting laws and formulating policies for the country, member of the Hong Kong Institute of Arbitrators, ex-chairman of the eBRAM International Online Dispute Resolution Centre and vice chairman of the Law Society Belt and Road Committee. As its director, Nick leads the operation of the AALCO Hong Kong Regional Arbitration Centre, which is established under international treaty and operates under the auspices of Asian-African Legal Consultative Organization (AALCO), with 47 member states in Asia and Africa.
The Hong Kong Food and Health Bureau has appointed Nick on a government board in a pro bono personal capacity to help vet and approve organ transplant surgeries in Hong Kong. In addition, Nick serves as the honorary legal adviser to the Federation of Hong Kong Industries, MILESAA Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong Aviation Industry Association, Hong Kong Association of Interactive Marketing, Hong Kong Internet Service Providers Association, Hong Kong Information Technology Federation, International Federation of Creativity and Technology Modernized Chinese Medicine International Association and Hong Kong Medical and Healthcare Devices Industries Association. He serves as chairman of the Legal Committee of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce.
Nick frequently appears in print, as well as on radio and television programs, and is a columnist with a weekly column in a leading newspaper to help share legally related information with the public. He has spoken at international conferences in Australia, Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taipei, Malaysia, Moscow, Singapore, Switzerland, the UK and the US. He led a panel of business leaders and experts in discussing opportunities and challenges for the financing and operations of data centers at an international data center conference. Nick has also guest lectured on competition laws and opportunities at The Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Nick’s articles have been published in China Law & Practice and Hong Kong Lawyer, the official journal of The Law Society of Hong Kong. He regularly contributes to World Bank studies and has a legal column in Headline News, one of the leading Chinese language newspapers.
Nick has guest lectured at business schools and Peking University. In addition, in 2022, he served as Visiting Fellow to teach Law, Business and Technology at City University’s LLM program. He has addressed a wide range of subjects, including implications of an amendment to the Copyright Ordinance to the creative industry, the introduction of competition laws in Greater China, e-commerce and m-commerce, triple-play in China, antispam laws, e-marketing opportunities, and the practical and legal aspects of China’s revised labor laws, National Security Law and Personal Information Protection Law.
- Assisting in a US$10 billion acquisition of a global networking business including assets and employees in more than 50 countries.
- Participating in a US$8 billion submarine cable network project.
- Counseling in a US$7 billion global joint venture merging all international operations of two of the world’s largest telecommunications companies.
- Advising on a US$300 million buyout and privatization of a publicly listed company on the Thailand stock exchange.
- Advising on a US$100 million regional Internet data center project.
- Advising on a US$90 million private equity investment to a household appliances retailer in mainland China.
- Participating in a US$45 million lawsuit regarding international refile and call forwarding arrangements.
- Advising on various multimillion-dollar loan and securitization projects.
- Creating a draft domain name dispute resolution policy for one of the world’s leading dispute resolution centers.
- Collaborating with a UK-based antispam agency to negotiate and obtain funding from the Hong Kong government to operate a multimillion-dollar and multiyear antispam project involving website classification and filtering technology.
- Advising clients on protection of data transmission under constitutional law, applicable laws and codes, and telecommunications licensing conditions in Hong Kong.
- Advising NGOs, multinational companies and individuals on the existence, scope, operation and enforcement of personal data privacy laws and data protection laws including restrictions on data matching; transfer of data outside of jurisdiction; and purpose of collection, use, correction and destruction of data.
- Drafting terms and conditions that include account data protection and privacy law principles.
- Conducting surveys of major government, private sector and NGO companies to identify organizational and technological measures being taken in selected countries and states and assessing the information based on effectiveness.
- Identifying measures taken by the government to remedy breaches of the legal provisions relating to trust and privacy by service providers, network operators, equipment and software providers, and by third parties using these providers.
- Advising on self-regulatory measures regarding security of networks, equipment, online services and measures aimed at ensuring privacy of information transferred over networks using different types of services.
- Providing regional advice for major Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and US fixed, wireless, satellite and Internet companies on commercial, employment, trademark, outsourcing, domain name registrations, regulatory issues and the use of broadband.
- Advising governments and telecommunications authorities in formulating and revising interconnection access, data privacy protection, e-commerce and competition laws including drafting of a reference interconnection offer.
- Advising e-casinos and e-clearance websites on operations.
- Assisting a government agency in establishing its business policy and intellectual property retention and licensing program to bridge university research, entrepreneurship and commercial exploitation.
- Assisting telecommunications regulators with initiatives to revise and formulate their Type II interconnection and local loop unbundling policy, competition policies and laws.
- Assisting in a global frequency spectrum allocation project for a multibillion-dollar wireless broadband project covering more than 40 countries.
Education
- The Australian National University, Graduate Diploma, with merit, 1997
- The University of Melbourne, LL.B., 1996
- The University of Melbourne, B.Sc., 1996
- East China University of Political Science and Law, Certificate of Completion, 1996
Admissions
- England and Wales (non-practicing), 2007
- High Court of Hong Kong, 1999
Courts
- Supreme Ct. of Victoria
- High Court of Australia
- Supreme Ct. of Australian Capital Territory
Memberships & Affiliations
- Elected National People's Congress member of the People’s Republic of China, where he participates in drafting laws and formulating policies for the country
- Member of the board of all three law schools in Hong Kong at HKU, CityU and Chinese University
- Member of Hong Kong Institute of Arbitrators
- Member of East Asia Branch of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators
- Arbitrator on the panel of the Shenzhen Court of International Arbitration
- Vice chairman of eBRAM International Online Dispute Resolution Centre
- Advisory Committee member of Hong Kong Innovation and Technology Venture Fund
- Hospital Governing Committee member for two hospitals
- Hong Kong Football Association board member
- Advisory Committee member of Hong Kong Trade Development Council Professional Services
- Legal Aid Services Council member
- Vice chairman of Law Society InnoTech Committee
- Vice chairman of Law Society Belt and Road Committee
- Council member of The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
- Ex-chair of Knowledge Transfer Committee of The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
- Vice chairman of Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce Legal Committee
- Member of the Broadcast Complaints Committee of The Office of the Communications Authority
- Honorary legal advisor of the Federation of Hong Kong Industries
- Adjudicator in various appeal boards on appointment by the government
Languages
- Chinese (Cantonese)
- Chinese (Mandarin, also known as Putonghua)
- English
- Who’s Who Legal: “Leading Professional in Telecoms Media & Entertainment 2022”
- China Business Law Journal: “Deal of the Year 2019: Overseas Deals – Baiyin Nonferrous acquires China-Africa Gold Investment Holding”
- AsiaLaw Leading Lawyers since 2004
- Who’s Who Legal 2014 and The International Who's Who “Regulatory Communications Lawyers 2011”
- The recipient of the 2012 International Law Office (ILO) Client Choice Award
- The Law Society of Hong Kong Pro Bono Award
- One of the ASIAN-MENA Counsel’s 2013 External Counsel of the Year
- Speaker, “Responding to Legal and Business Developments in the Telecommunications, Data Privacy Protection, and Information Technology Industries,” legal workshops for in-house counsels and lawyers in private practice, Asian Legal Business.
- Speaker, “Launching and Negotiating Large-scale Tender Projects,” IT masterclass for lawyers and procurement managers from multinational corporations and the government, LexisNexis, Hong Kong.
- Speaker, “How Russia-based Businesses Can Take Full Advantage of the New IP Laws in Russia and Protect Innovations,” IP conference, Moscow.
- Speaker, “Legal Proceedings Targeting Individual Music File-sharers in Hong Kong” and “Peer-to-peer Sharing and Rights of the Recording Industry and Internet Service Providers,” the Metro Broadcast and The Law Society of Hong Kong.
- Speaker, “Formulating Your Intellectual Property Rights Strategy for China,” Moscow.
- Speaker, “IT Contracts Master Class,” Hong Kong.
- Speaker, “Negotiating Contracts – Practical Guide,” Hong Kong.
- Speaker, “Competition Laws and Data Privacy Laws in China and the HKSAR,” Hong Kong.
- Speaker, “Lessons Learned From the Criminal Case in Hong Kong Against Bank Employees Involving the Shanghai Land Case,” Hong Kong.
- Speaker, “Risk Management and the Negotiations of Licensing/Manufacturing Contracts in the Medical and Healthcare Industry,” Hong Kong Medical and Healthcare Device Industry Conference, Hong Kong.
- Speaker, “Opportunities, Challenges and Developments in Taiwan’s Market Post-WTO,” Fifth Taiwan Telecoms International Summit, Taiwan.
- Speaker, “Blueprint for MII’s Post-WTO Telecom Competition Framework with Special Emphasis on the Satellite Market,” Global VSAT Forum and China’s Ministry of Information Industry, Beijing.
- Speaker, “Globalization and Harmonization of Competition Laws, International Conflicts and Cooperation, and their Implications for Singapore,” with the Singapore Ministry of Trade and Industries, Singapore.
- Speaker, “Doing Business in China,” Gateway to China Conference.
- Guest speaker, “Justice for All,” a popular primetime educational television program on the rights and obligations of parties under the Hong Kong law.
- Speaker, “Venture Capital and Private Equity Trends and Issues in Asia,” Dow Jones Venture One Conference, San Francisco.
- Author, “Competition Law in Singapore – Principles, Practice and Procedure,” LexisNexis, 2007.
- Author, “How to Pursue Opportunities and Manage Risks in a Volatile Market Place,” The Economic Digest.
- Speaker, “Practical Advice and Tips on SMEs,” DAB radio station.
- Speaker, “IP Laws, Privacy Laws and Media Content Regulation,” Primetime Business and Current Affairs Program, NOW TV.