Professor David B. Wilkins
Lester Kissel Professor of Law,
Vice Dean, Global Initiatives on the Legal Profession,
Faculty Director, Center on the Legal Profession, Harvard Law School

David B. Wilkins is the Lester Kissel Professor of Law, Vice Dean for Global Initiative on the Legal Profession, and Faculty Director of the Center on the Legal Profession at Harvard Law School. He is also a Senior Research Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and a Fellow of the Harvard University Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics.  

Professor Wilkins has written over 80 articles on the legal profession in leading scholarly journals and the popular press, and is the co-author or editor of five books, including one of the leading casebooks in the field. His current scholarly projects include Globalization, Lawyers, and Emerging Economies, Disruptive Innovation in the Market, the Reemergence of the Big Four Accountancy Networks in the Market for Legal Services, and After the JD: A Ten Year Longitudinal Study of Lawyers Careers.  

Professor Wilkins teaches several courses on lawyers, including The Legal Profession, and Challenges of a General Counsel. In 2007, he co-founded Harvard Law School’s Executive Education Program, where he teaches in several courses including Leadership in Law Firms and Leadership in Corporate Counsel. Professor Wilkins has given over 50 endowed lectures at universities around the world and is a frequent speaker at professional conferences, law firms and corporate retreats.  

He holds honorary degrees from Roger Williams University (2017) and Stockholm University in Sweden (2012). He is also the recipient of numerous awards, including the Harvard Law School Alumni Award, (2016), the Aptissimi Award for Academic Excellence from ESADE UNIVERSITY in Spain (2014), the Distinguished Visiting Mentor Award from Australia National University (2012), the American Bar Foundation Scholar of the Year Award (2010), the J. Clay Smith Award from Howard University School of Law (2009), and the Order of the Coif Distinguished Scholar Award (2008). In 2012, Professor Wilkins was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 2014 he was elected as a corresponding member of the Spanish Royal Academy of Doctors.  

Mr Ng Joo Khin
Director, Morgan Lewis Stamford LLC

Joo Khin is a partner at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP and also a director at Morgan Lewis Stamford LLC, a Singapore law corporation affiliated with Morgan, Lewis & Bockius.

Joo Khin Ng counsels capital markets and corporate finance clients. Clients seek his commercial skills and ability to bring transactions to the market. Over the past two decades, he has worked on all forms of equity and debt capital-raising transactions as well as pre-listing private equity and strategic investments. He also provides counsel for real estate investment trusts (REIT) and business trust initial public offerings (IPOs). Joo Khin is fluent in Mandarin.

Joo Khin has been active in many of Singapore’s largest and most innovative transactions in recent years. He is recognized by Chambers Asia-Pacific and Chambers Global as a leading capital markets practitioner and is praised by clients for his "deep and extensive knowledge and good and innovative solutions."

Prior to practicing law, Joo Khin worked in the asset management unit of a global private bank. He employs that background to assist high-net-worth clients with their succession needs and in establishing family wealth management structures, including private family trusts, foundations, and private trust companies.

Joo Khin was formerly a member of both the Professional Affairs Committee of the Singapore Academy of Law and the Financial Reporting Committee of the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants. Joo Khin is also a registered professional under the Catalist board of the Singapore Stock Exchange (SGX) for sponsor-supervised listed entities.

Professor Lee Pey Woan
Dean, Yong Pung How School of Law, Singapore Management University

Lee Pey Woan is Professor of Law at Singapore Management University. She graduated with an LL.B (First Class Honours) from King’s College, University of London and subsequently obtained the BCL from Oxford University. Pey Woan is currently Dean of the Yong Pung How School of Law. Prior to this appointment, Pey Woan was Vice Provost (Faculty Matters) of the University. In that capacity, she assisted the Provost on the planning and development of faculty and advises on faculty personnel policies generally. Pey Woan teaches Corporate Law and the Law of Torts but her research interests encompass company, private and commercial law. She has published widely in local as well as leading international journals including the Modern Law Review, Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, Law Quarterly Review, Lloyd’s Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly as well as Journal of Business Law. She has also co‐authored text books on Contract Law, Tort Law and Company Law. Her works have been cited by the Singapore Court of Appeal, the Singapore High Court and the Canadian Supreme Court. Apart from academic activities, Pey Woan also serves the legal profession by periodically speaking at legal conferences. In 2016, she was appointed amicus curiae to the Singapore Court of Appeal in PH Hydraulics & Engineering Pte Ltd v Airtrust (Hong Kong) Ltd [2017] SGCA 26; [2017] 2 SLR 129. 

Mr Yeong Zee Kin
Chief Executive, Singapore Academy of Law

Zee Kin holds a Master of Laws from Queen Mary University of London and completed his undergraduate law degree at the National University of Singapore. His experience as a Technology, Media and Telecommunications lawyer spans both the private and public sectors. He has spoken and published in areas relating to electronic evidence and intellectual property, as well as legal issues relating to Blockchain and AI deployment. 

Zee Kin is an internationally recognized expert on AI ethics. He spearheaded the development of Singapore’s Model AI Governance Framework, which won the UNITU WSIS Prize in 2019. He is currently a member of the OECD Network of Experts on AI (ONE AI). In 2019, he was a member of the AI Group of Experts at the OECD (AIGO), which developed the OECD Principles on AI. These principles have been endorsed by the G20 in 2019. He was also an observer participant at the European Commission’s High-Level Expert Group on AI, which fulfilled its mandate in June 2020.

Zee Kin is also a well-regarded expert on data privacy issues. He has contributed to publications on legal issues relating to data privacy, and has spoken at many well-recognised international and domestic platforms on this topic. 

Mr Dirk Hartung
Executive Director, Center for Legal Technology and Data Science, Bucerius Law School, Hamburg

Dirk Hartung is the Executive Director of the Center for Legal Technology and Data Science at Bucerius Law School, Hamburg, with a special interest in computational legal studies, natural language processing, network science as well as the regulation and digitalization of the legal profession. He is a non-residential fellow at CodeX: The Stanford Center for Legal Informatics. In his research, Dirk applies methods from complexity and computer science to the legal domain. He has most recently published on regulatory complexity and NLP in the legal domain including the industry standard LexGLUE benchmark and widely-read reports on digitalization in law firms, in-house departments and courts with the Boston Consulting Group. 

Ms Rita Kriz
Deputy General Counsel, Head of Legal - Asia/GCR, McKinsey & Company

Rita Kriz is the Deputy General Counsel and Head of Legal for Asia at McKinsey & Company. She leads a team of legal professionals across Asia in responding to legal matters.  In her role, Rita provides strategic legal counsel and advice to leadership, oversees litigations and internal investigations, and mitigates legal risks over such diverse topics as sanctions, anti-corruption, privacy, public sector, geopolitics, and data management. At the FT Asia-Pacific Innovative Lawyers Awards in 2022, Rita’s team was recognized as the “most innovative in-house legal team in Asia-Pacific” and Rita herself received the FT Innovative Lawyers award for Talent Management. 

Rita has over two decades of business, legal, government, and compliance experience. Prior to joining McKinsey, she engaged in private practice with a focus on M&A at Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett in New York and Los Angeles and with White & Case in Singapore. In addition, she spent time in the public sector in San Francisco, where she established a compliance department responsible for tendering public infrastructure projects. 

Rita graduated from Stanford University with a Bachelors of Arts in Economics and holds a JD from Harvard Law School.

Mr Chia Ko Wen
Head of Sustainability, Singlife

Chia Ko Wen is Head of Sustainability at Singlife, a leading financial services company in Singapore. Ko Wen is responsible for implementing the ESG strategy for the Singlife Group, including its net zero commitments. He has over 22 years of experience in the insurance industry, covering both Life and General insurance in local and regional capacities, overseeing cross jurisdictional and functional Legal, Compliance, Financial Crime and Risk Management teams. Prior to Singlife, Ko Wen held various senior regional roles at Aviva Asia. He is a founding member of the Life Insurance Association (LIA)’s Sustainability in Insurance Committee in Singapore. He has been a non-executive Board member for a Singapore IPC since 2014, focusing on nursing care for the underserved communities.

Ko Wen graduated from the National University of Singapore with a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) and a Master of Laws (LLM) and is admitted to the Singapore as well as England and Wales Bar. He was also the first batch of Compliance professionals in Singapore to be admitted as a Fellow of the International Compliance Association (ICA).

Ms Dawn Tan Ly-Ru
Managing Director, ADTLaw LLC

Dawn is the Managing Director of boutique commercial firm ADTLaw LLC, which she founded in 2013. ADTLaw LLC is in Formal Law Alliance with international firm Ashurst LLP.

She has substantial experience and expertise in the resolution of complex commercial disputes, including banking, finance, company, insurance and energy- and property-related disputes encompassing international arbitration and litigation. She has been appointed as arbitrator and acted as lead counsel in international arbitrations conducted under prominent institutional rules. She is an experienced litigator who has appeared at all levels of the Singapore courts. 

She also has a significant strategic advisory practice, regularly advising in the areas of employment, anti-bribery and corruption, privacy and data protection.

Dawn is passionate about the use of Singapore law in international commercial transactions and the evolution and future of the legal profession in Singapore. She has published articles and op-ed pieces in leading broadsheets on these and other related issues.

Dawn is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and Singapore Institute of Arbitrators. She is the Deputy Chairwoman of the Singapore International Chamber of Commerce and the Co-Chair of its Legal Services Interest Group. Dawn is also a practitioner and certified teacher of Sogetsu Ikebana.

Professor David B. Wilkins
Lester Kissel Professor of Law,
Vice Dean, Global Initiatives on the Legal Profession,
Faculty Director, Center on the Legal Profession, Harvard Law School

David B. Wilkins is the Lester Kissel Professor of Law, Vice Dean for Global Initiative on the Legal Profession, and Faculty Director of the Center on the Legal Profession at Harvard Law School. He is also a Senior Research Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and a Fellow of the Harvard University Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics.  

Professor Wilkins has written over 80 articles on the legal profession in leading scholarly journals and the popular press, and is the co-author or editor of five books, including one of the leading casebooks in the field. His current scholarly projects include Globalization, Lawyers, and Emerging Economies, Disruptive Innovation in the Market, the Reemergence of the Big Four Accountancy Networks in the Market for Legal Services, and After the JD: A Ten Year Longitudinal Study of Lawyers Careers.  

Professor Wilkins teaches several courses on lawyers, including The Legal Profession, and Challenges of a General Counsel. In 2007, he co-founded Harvard Law School’s Executive Education Program, where he teaches in several courses including Leadership in Law Firms and Leadership in Corporate Counsel. Professor Wilkins has given over 50 endowed lectures at universities around the world and is a frequent speaker at professional conferences, law firms and corporate retreats.  

He holds honorary degrees from Roger Williams University (2017) and Stockholm University in Sweden (2012). He is also the recipient of numerous awards, including the Harvard Law School Alumni Award, (2016), the Aptissimi Award for Academic Excellence from ESADE UNIVERSITY in Spain (2014), the Distinguished Visiting Mentor Award from Australia National University (2012), the American Bar Foundation Scholar of the Year Award (2010), the J. Clay Smith Award from Howard University School of Law (2009), and the Order of the Coif Distinguished Scholar Award (2008). In 2012, Professor Wilkins was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 2014 he was elected as a corresponding member of the Spanish Royal Academy of Doctors.

The Honorable Justice Aedit Abdullah
Supreme Court of Singapore

Justice Aedit Abdullah was appointed Judicial Commissioner in 2014 and High Court Judge on 30 September 2017.

Justice Abdullah obtained a Bachelor of Laws (First Class Honours) from the National University of Singapore (NUS) in 1994, as well as a Bachelor of Civil Law (First Class) from the University of Oxford in 1998 and a Master in Public Management from NUS in 2007.

He joined the Singapore Legal Service in 1995 and began his career as a Justices’ Law Clerk. He then taught at the Faculty of Law, NUS, before re-joining the Singapore Legal Service. He has held various appointments, such as Deputy Public Prosecutor, Deputy Senior State Counsel and District Judge of the Subordinate Courts (renamed as State Courts in 2014). He was appointed Chief Prosecutor (Economic Crimes and Governance Division), and subsequently Chief Prosecutor (Criminal Justice Division) at the Attorney-General’s Chambers in 2011 and served as special counsel at the Monetary Authority of Singapore from January 2008 to June 2009. He was appointed Senior Counsel in 2012.

He is the Judge in charge of Transformation and Innovation in the Judiciary, and is also Chair of the Promotion of Legal Technology Innovation Committee of the Singapore Academy of Law.

Mr Eric Chin
Asia Pacific Director, NewLaw, PwC

Eric is a Director in the Asia Pacific NewLaw practice and specialises in innovation, strategy, and technology consulting in the legal industry, working with legal departments and law firms in the APAC region. He is also engaged in building grassroots LegalTech and legal innovation movement through the formation of ASEAN LegalTech and Legal Hackers Melbourne.




 

Mr Adrian Fisher
Asia Head of TMT, Linklaters

Adrian Fisher is Linklaters’ Asia Head of TMT based in Singapore and supports clients on complex technology transactions and legal issues relating to their use of technology. Adrian advises on both transactional projects such as technology procurement, collaboration arrangements and outsourcing, and advisory matters focusing on data privacy, cybersecurity and technology risk management.

Adrian has worked in the firm’s Singapore and Shanghai offices, as well as in the Sydney and Hong Kong offices of Linklaters’ Australian alliance partner Allens. Adrian moved to Singapore in 2014 to set up the firm’s Asian TMT capability.

As digital transformation has become a key business focus, Adrian has supported on novel and innovative transactions from setting up digital-only banks, to helping clients build AI-enabled tech platforms, to working closely with clients to deal with the consequences of cyber attacks and data breach.

Assistant Professor Jerrold Soh
Yong Pung How School of Law, Singapore Management University

Jerrold is an Assistant Professor at the Yong Pung How School of Law and the Deputy Director of its Centre for Computational Law. He teaches undergraduate and executive courses on law and technology and the law of torts. His research sits at the intersection of law and AI technology in particular, covering areas such as liability attributions for AI systems generally and automated vehicles specifically, regulatory frameworks for AI, and duties of care for machine learning datasets. More scientific works cover the physical properties of case law citation networks, causal inference methods for legal text analytics, methods for expressing legal rules as code, and empirical analyses on the use of academic material by judges as well as the development of Singapore’s legal system. He holds degrees in Law and Economics from NUS and an LLM from Harvard Law School.

Professor Tang Hang Wu
Yong Pung How School of Law, Singapore Management University

Tang Hang Wu is a Professor at the Yong Pung How School of Law, Singapore Management University and co-head of the Trusts & Private Wealth desk at TSMP Law Corporation. He has published widely and his work has been cited by all levels of the Singapore courts and the Commonwealth courts. In addition to his academic work, he been instructed as Counsel or expert witness by Singapore and international law firms, local and international banks on complex property and trust disputes and issues.

Ms ​​Elizabeth Kong
​​​​Asia General Counsel (Transportation and Electronics), 3M

Elizabeth’s principal work commitment is with 3M, which is listed on the NYSE and has a market capitalisation of $60 billion and approximately 80,000 employees globally. She is a senior leader in the execution of strategies and key priorities of 3M across 10 jurisdictions in Asia, and is presently its Asia General Counsel (Transportation and Electronics Business), having previously served as its Asia General Counsel (Enterprise Operations).

Elizabeth concurrently sits as an Independent Non-Executive Director of Singapore Post, a leading e-commerce logistics solutions provider and a blue-chip company listed on the SGX. Beyond her general board role, she also sits on the Finance and Investment Committee, the Sustainability Committee, and the Nomination and Corporate Governance Committee of the Board.

Prior to 3M, Elizabeth was with leading international firms, Clifford Chance and Morgan Lewis Stamford. She was involved in some of the largest headline transactions in the region and has experience advising on deals of an aggregate value exceeding $25 billion. Elizabeth was noted in Chambers Asia, Legal 500, AsiaLaw Leading Lawyers, Lawyer Monthly and Acquisition International Legal, and was the youngest to be featured in Singapore Business Review's inaugural list of "20 Most Influential 40 and Under Lawyers" and was also featured in Prestige Singapore's list of "40 under 40".

Elizabeth is a Trustee of Cambridge Assessment Singapore, and a Fellow of the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust.

Mr Stuart Fuller
Head of Global Legal Services, KPMG

Stuart is Global Head of Legal Services for KPMG and its Asia Pacific Regional Leader for Legal Services. In those roles, he leads a team of more than 2,850 legal professionals across 80 jurisdictions in KPMG’s global legal network. Prior to joining KPMG, Stuart was the inaugural Global Managing Partner of King & Wood Mallesons.  He is well known in the Australian and global legal industry and to regulators of the legal profession.

Stuart has been recognised for his strategic thinking, his ability to lead, manage and significantly grow a business; for his ability to implement significant change programmes; and for his ability to lead and manage large scale transactions and transformations. 
In terms of practice, Stuart has a strong track record in the finance industry, and is an expert in structured finance and securitisation.  He is connected and well-respected across financial institutions, non-bank lenders, investment banks, regulators, government departments and government itself. 

Stuart led the structured finance/securitisation practice for over ten years, and acted for a range of banks (nab, ANZ, Macquarie Group), non—banks (Resimac, Pepper Group, Liberty Financial, FirstMac, RAMS Home Loans), commercial property owners, asset backed financings, as well as arrangers and trustees.  Since joining KPMG Law, the team has acted as transaction counsel for a number of non-bank/fintech lenders across the residential home loan, commercial lending and SME lending sectors.

Ms Lynette Ooi
Senior Director & Associate General Counsel, PayPal

Lynette is a senior lawyer and corporate leader with 15 years’ experience advising fast-growing businesses and building teams. She has worked in the technology field for most of her career, supporting high-growth industries including fintech, e-commerce retail and logistics, and cloud computing. In her current role at PayPal, Lynette is responsible for the company’s legal affairs at its international headquarters, Singapore, as well as other cross-border markets including Southeast Asia, India, Middle East & Africa, Hong Kong & Taiwan. Her role involves developing a multi-jurisdictional team, acting as a trusted adviser to PayPal Pte Ltd’s board of directors and a variety of international stakeholders, and strengthening relationships with a range of government authorities.

Mr Jerry Koh
Managing Partner, Allen & Gledhill LLP

Jerry is Managing Partner of Allen & Gledhill. He has been practising as a corporate lawyer since 1993 and his main areas of practice cover capital markets, investment funds, and mergers and acquisitions (M&A); where he has advised on numerous international and domestic transactions. Jerry also heads the Firm’s real estate investment trust (REITs) Practice and Investment Funds Practice, and he has been involved in the listings, secondary offerings and convertible bond issues of almost all the REITs and business trusts in the Singapore market. Additionally, Jerry regularly advises on the establishment of private funds, complex securitisation and structured finance transactions, M&A transactions and corporate governance.

Ms Chew Ern Lim
Associate Director, Kerry Consulting

Chew Ern leads the Private Practice Recruitment Desk at Kerry Consulting, a leading executive search firm based in Singapore. 

She comes with a wealth of experience in the Legal recruitment market with a strong track record in placing legal professions of all seniorities into Silver Circle, Magic Circle and White Shoe law firms across Singapore and Hong Kong.  

Prior to specialising in Private Practice, she also has a proven record in placing in-house counsels into MNCs, particularly within the Insurance and Financial Services sectors.  

She graduated with a Bachelor of Business from Nanyang Business School, majoring in Human Resource Consulting. 

Mr Stephen Revell
Founder and Partner, Making Change Happen

Following his retirement from Freshfields, Stephen has established a consulting firm in London/Singapore – Making Change Happen – through which he provides management advice to law firms and other professional service providers throughout the world.  He advises on a wide range of topics relevant to the management of law firms, ranging from governance and remuneration to right sizing business services and implementing new pricing strategies.

Stephen practised at Freshfields for over 41 years on 3 different continents and was a partner for 33 years.  He has extensive experience representing corporate and institutional clients in all types of corporate transactions – from M&A and joint ventures to IPOs, equity offerings and debt offerings of all kinds – many with a cross-border element and involving emerging markets – he has worked in over 50 countries.

As part of his portfolio of activities, he is a member of the advisory boards of several law firms and is an independent non-executive director on the board of several companies including Crown Resorts Limited, a leading player in the Australian entertainment industry.

He is co-author of a variety of books and a regular speaker on law firm management.  Most recently he edited a second edition of “Business Development” – an IBA/Globe book that is the ‘bible’ on the subject.

Stephen has been very active in the IBA for many years and is involved in a wide array of project, activities and committees.  He is presently Co-Chair of the Law Firm Management Committee.

Mr Cyril Shroff
Managing Partner, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas

Cyril Shroff has over 41 years of experience in a wide range of practices areas, including corporate and securities law, disputes, banking, bankruptcy and infrastructure. 
Over the years, his passion for a just world, blended with a keen sense of fairness and empathy has helped cam firmly establish itself as a trusted advisor to its clients. Mr. Shroff has consistently been ranked as “eminent practitioner” in India by Chambers & Partners and is often regarded as the “M&A King of India”. A thought leader and a visionary, Mr. Shroff is known for advising on many first of their kind transactions in India. He regularly gets recognised as an award-winning professional across practices.

Mr. Shroff is Chairman of FICCI’s Corporate Laws Committee and chair of the CII Financial Regulatory Committee. He is a member of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) working committee on regulatory issues relating to Fintech. He is also a member of CII’s national start-up council, a member on the Board of Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC), a member of the first apex advisory committee of the IMC International ADR Centre, and a Task force member of the Society of Insolvency Practitioners of India. He was a member of SEBI’s constituted Uday Kotak Committee on Corporate Governance.

He serves on the board of number of educational institutions as member of governance committees including Krea University; Advisory Board of the Centre for Study of the Legal Profession established by the Harvard Law School and Advisory Board of National Institute of Securities Markets (NISM). He is also a member of the Thought Committee on Bank Insolvency of the Insolvency Law Academy.

Mr Tai-Heng Cheng
Co-Managing Partner, Sidley

TAI-HENG CHENG is a U.S. trial lawyer, international arbitration practitioner, and legal advisor to governments, C-suites, and boards.

Clients turn to him to solve their most significant legal problems, win their largest disputes, provide strategic advice on—and help close—substantial international transactions, and navigate some of the most complex and urgent issues of our day. Recently, his engagements have included: recovering US$700 million in losses suffered by innocent third parties in the largest corruption scandal in Brazil; obtaining and collecting damages under the first treaty arbitration under a Singapore investment treaty; restoring full rights to a life sciences company over oncology antibodies it is developing to treat currently incurable cancers, without paying any of the US$350 million in damages notwithstanding his client’s violation of contract breach of the joint venture agreement; defeating a motion to dismiss in a defamation lawsuit in New York against short sellers—which was previously unprecedented and forced the short sellers to settle claims swiftly; obtaining an early dismissal on jurisdictional grounds racketeering claims concerning the largest cyberheist of the New York Federal Reserve; advising on a multi-billion dollar alleged crypto hack that broke the blockchain; and structuring the international sale of over a billion dollars of Indian coal assets, which dramatically reduced a client’s carbon footprint.

Since joining Sidley five years ago, Tai has won every civil dispute in which he has served as lead counsel—except one that settled on favorable terms early on in the case, after Tai made a successful impromptu oral discovery application at a 2:00 a.m. prehearing conference, which resulted in a billion dollar victory for the client without the cost, delay, and risk of protracted litigation.

More generally, over the last 25 years, Tai has obtained and collected nine figure awards and judgments in international arbitration and court litigation. He has successfully represented corporations before the U.S. SEC, DOJ, and other government agencies. Sovereign nations and major corporations regularly appear before him in treaty and commercial arbitrations in which he serves as co-arbitrator or Tribunal President. Tai’s awards that have been reviewed by courts were all unanimously confirmed.

His clients span virtually all key industries, including energy and infrastructure, pharmaceuticals, real estate, manufacturing, and financial services.

Operating from New York, Tai is global co-head of international arbitration and trade. In addition, he splits his time in the Singapore office, where Tai is co-managing partner.

He is one of very few leading lawyers who have been recognized as a top arbitration practitioner and trial lawyer in North and South America and in Asia, including by Who’s Who Legal, Chambers Global (2016-2023), Chambers USA (2015-2023), Euromoney, Benchmark Litigation, American Lawyer, and Asia Legal.

The global press seeks Tai out to comment on international issues, including: CNN, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Bloomberg, New York Times, Financial Times, South China Morning Post, Al-Jazeera America, Singapore Straits Times, Singapore Business Times, and Nikkei Asia.

Tai is a board member of the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of Asian Art and the Frick Collection. He is co-founder of the Cheng-Harrell Institute for Global Affairs and has served as vice president of the American Society of International Law. He is also an elected fellow of the College of Commercial Arbitrators, The American Law Institute, and the Foreign Policy Association.

Mr Mark Fisher
Deputy Executive Director, Asian Business Law Institute

Mark Fisher is the Deputy Executive Director of the Asian Business Law Institute (ABLI) where he focuses on initiating and driving forward ABLI’s work to provide practical guidance, and promote the convergence of, business laws in Asia.

Previously, Mark practiced complex litigation for both international and domestic firms in Australia, particularly matters regarding securities litigation and matters involving private international law issues. Mark holds a Bachelor of Economics (Hons) and a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) (Hons) from the University of Sydney.

Dr Cameron Ford OAM
Independent Arbitrator, Counsel and Mediator

Dr Cameron Ford OAM is an independent arbitrator, counsel and mediator practising from Singapore. He holds a PhD on the topic Towards a Transnational Standard for Security for Costs in International Commercial Arbitration, and is a Specialist Mediator with the Singapore International Mediation Centre.

Cameron is on the arbitration panels of SIAC, HKIAC, KCAB, CIETAC and BAC and has conducted numerous commercial and investor-state arbitrations as counsel and as arbitrator under various institutional rules including SIAC, ICC, ICSID and UNCITRAL.

Cameron was most recently a partner in the international dispute resolution group of Squire Patton Boggs, based in Singapore. He has spent about a decade as in-house counsel with National Australia Bank, Downer Group and Rio Tinto, managing large commercial and investor-state disputes. From that experience he gained a deeper appreciation of the commercial imperatives operating on businesses and their desire for efficient disposition of disputes.

Before going in-house, Cameron was a barrister and had been a dispute resolution partner in a firm. He is a registered adjudicator under an Australian construction security of payment scheme, has written over a dozen determinations and has advised on numerous applications for and responses to adjudications.

Mr JJ Disini
Managing Partner, Disini Buted Disini Law Offices

JJ Disini is one of the leading information and technology law experts in the Philippines. He graduated (Dean’s Medal) from the UP College of Law and placed 7th in the Bar Examinations. In 2004, he obtained his LLM degree from Harvard Law School.

Since 1994, JJ has represented local and foreign clients in corporate, project finance, securities, foreign investment, technology, and telecommunications, among others. He is a frequent speaker in forums and programs discussing issues involving e-commerce, cybercrime, data privacy, and intellectual property. 
 
He is a Professor in the UP College of Law and Director of its Technology, Law and Policy Program. As such, he is at the forefront of discussions on the development of technology-related policies, including the Philippines’ accession to the UN ECC. He is also Chairman of the Court Technology Committee of the Philippine Judicial Academy.
 
JJ is the founder-director of Digital Freedom Network, an organization promoting research on technology-related policies. He is the President of the Harvard Law School Alumni Association of the Philippines and a member of the Board of the Creators and Influencers of the Philippines, and Fintech Alliance.ph.
 
JJ is an active contributor to the work of the Asian Business Law Institute, including on regional data privacy issues and cross-border contract drafting.

Dr Nguyen Quoc Vinh
Senior Counsel, Indochine Counsel

Nguyen Quoc Vinh is a senior counsel at Indochine Counsel, bringing over 25 years of experience in both the public sector and international law firms.

As an expert in Vietnamese banking and real estate laws, Vinh provides valuable insights to the firm's corporate and commercial group, advising high-profile banks on secured and unsecured corporate lending and regulatory compliance. He also has extensive experience in M&A, energy, insurance, real estate development projects, negotiating management contracts, and advising on real estate and corporate matters. In 2012, he was appointed as an arbitrator for the Vietnam International Arbitration Center. He was elected as the Chairperson of the Vietnam Business Lawyers Club for the 2022 term.

Prior to joining Indochine Counsel, Vinh was a partner at the Ho Chi Minh City office of Tilleke & Gibbins and a legal consultant at Mayer Brown JSM, Ho Chi Minh City office. Vinh is an adjunct lecturer at Vietnam's Judicial Academy and Ho Chi Minh City's University of Law. He also provides counsel to numerous government ministries in Vietnam.

Vinh's strong language skills in English and Japanese complement his breadth and depth of legal knowledge. In recognition of his contributions, Vinh received a commendation from the Minister of Justice in November 2021.

Mr Zhang Chenyang
Partner, Tian Yuan Law Firm

Zhang Chenyang is a partner of Tian Yuan Law Firm based in Beijing, and specializes in dispute resolution, including litigation, arbitration and alternative dispute resolution. Prior to joining Tian Yuan Law Firm, he worked with Yuanhe Partners and King & Wood Mallesons.

Chenyang has extensive experience in commercial litigation, bankruptcy/insolvency matters, and intellectual property. His clients include large-scale Chinese enterprises such as Sinopec, CNOOC, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Capital Airport Group, Cinda Investment, as well as trading and investment enterprises from the US, Germany, Australia, India, Turkey, Brazil, UAE, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and other countries or regions. Chenyang has represented clients in over one hundred cases before the Supreme People’s Court of China, local Chinese courts, as well as arbitral institutions such as the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission. 

Chenyang obtained his LL.B. in 2011 and LL.M. in 2013 from China Foreign Affairs University respectively. His working languages include Chinese (Mandarin, native) and English (fluent). He is frequently engaged as a speaker and is author of publication Win in Chinese Courts – Practice Guide to Civil Litigation in China (forthcoming, Springer Nature).

Professor David B. Wilkins
Lester Kissel Professor of Law,
Vice Dean, Global Initiatives on the Legal Profession,
Faculty Director, Center on the Legal Profession, Harvard Law School

David B. Wilkins is the Lester Kissel Professor of Law, Vice Dean for Global Initiative on the Legal Profession, and Faculty Director of the Center on the Legal Profession at Harvard Law School. He is also a Senior Research Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and a Fellow of the Harvard University Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics.  

Professor Wilkins has written over 80 articles on the legal profession in leading scholarly journals and the popular press, and is the co-author or editor of five books, including one of the leading casebooks in the field. His current scholarly projects include Globalization, Lawyers, and Emerging Economies, Disruptive Innovation in the Market, the Reemergence of the Big Four Accountancy Networks in the Market for Legal Services, and After the JD: A Ten Year Longitudinal Study of Lawyers Careers.  

Professor Wilkins teaches several courses on lawyers, including The Legal Profession, and Challenges of a General Counsel. In 2007, he co-founded Harvard Law School’s Executive Education Program, where he teaches in several courses including Leadership in Law Firms and Leadership in Corporate Counsel. Professor Wilkins has given over 50 endowed lectures at universities around the world and is a frequent speaker at professional conferences, law firms and corporate retreats.  

He holds honorary degrees from Roger Williams University (2017) and Stockholm University in Sweden (2012). He is also the recipient of numerous awards, including the Harvard Law School Alumni Award, (2016), the Aptissimi Award for Academic Excellence from ESADE UNIVERSITY in Spain (2014), the Distinguished Visiting Mentor Award from Australia National University (2012), the American Bar Foundation Scholar of the Year Award (2010), the J. Clay Smith Award from Howard University School of Law (2009), and the Order of the Coif Distinguished Scholar Award (2008). In 2012, Professor Wilkins was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 2014 he was elected as a corresponding member of the Spanish Royal Academy of Doctors.