On Thursday August 13, AABANY held a general interest meeting and CLE program in connection with exploring the establishment of an Asia Practice Committee at AABANY.

Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz hosted the meeting at its midtown Manhattan office. With about 60 attendees, the event was at capacity.

The general interest meeting, led by Executive Director Yang Chen, took place from 6:30 to 7:00, with a discussion about the need for an Asia Practice Committee within AABANY and soliciting interest from among the attendees in helping to launch it. Alex Hao, a partner at Jun He who helped AABANY organize the event, expressed that now was a great time for AABANY to start an Asia Practice Committee, with the high level of activity currently taking place between the United States and Asia. 

The CLE portion of the program took place from about 7 pm to 8 pm. The topic was Latest Legal Developments in China and Their Impact on US Companies. Alex served as moderator and introduced the speakers: Adam Li, a partner at Jun He, who spoke about China’s Proposed Foreign Investment Law; Yingling Wei of Jun He, who spoke about China’s Latest Antitrust Enforcement Efforts; John Du, a partner at Jun He, and Ralph Levene, a partner at Wachtell, who engaged in a discussion comparing the latest anti-corruption efforts in China and the United States. Alex wrapped up the panel discussion with a short update on China’s outbound investments. All attendees received 1 CLE credit in Areas of Professional Practice.

After the conclusion of the CLE program, the guests enjoyed a reception with wonderful food and drinks courtesy of Wachtell.

The event overall revealed a strong interest in starting an Asia Practice Committee at AABANY, and we will reach out to the attendees to start a working group to plan the next event, sometime in the fall. If you were not able to attend but wish to join the listserv for the Asia Practice Committee Working Group, please contact Simone Nguyen at [email protected] to be added to the listserv.

Thanks to Wachtell for hosting and all the participants and attendees for making this initial meeting a success. Stay tuned for future announcements.