Stephenson Harwood is a London-headquartered law firm with nine offices across Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. The firm has offices in Shanghai, Hong Kong and an association—with PRC law firm Wei Tu—in Guangzhou catering to its clients’ interests involving Greater China.

Focusses / specialisms 

The firm’s Hong Kong office offers multi-lingual English and Hong Kong law advice, especially in regulatory, banking and funds matters, projects, infrastructure, real estate, and restructuring and insolvency mandates since 1979.

Key clients 

Key clients of the firm include China Development Bank, Bank of China, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Eurofins Scientific, PwC, and Madison Pacific.

Research period review: 32^nd edition (2022/2023)    

During the research period, the firm advised various financing mandates such as asset finance, syndicated lending, structured finance, fintech, secured and unsecured lending, and trade finance often acting for lenders, borrowers, arrangers, and facility agents.

The M&A team kept busy in public and private acquisition, joint ventures, and divestments and mainly advised acquirers, sellers, joint venture partners, and investors across different regions such as Hong Kong, China, Singapore, the United States, Indonesia, Sweden, and the British Virgin Islands.

The restructuring and insolvency team was active in a range of mandates advising on provisional liquidations and insolvencies acting mainly for liquidators. 

Deal highlights: 32^nd edition (2022/2023)   

China Merchants Bank Rmb$12 billion PRC on-shore guarantee and on-shore loans

Unitas Group Company HK$1.182 billion financing through secured term loan facilities

Eurofins Product Testing LUX Holding Sarl $159 million acquisition of the Modern Testing Services (MTS) Group

Shanghai Huaxin Group HK$30 billion insolvency proceedings

Client Feedback: 32nd edition (2021/2022)    

Banking and finance

"Very professional, detail-oriented with timely completion."

"They are very positive and they know clients well."

"Very helpful and responsive; good quality work for a reasonable cost."

Financial services regulatory

"Very responsive and has dedicated experience in financial industry."

"Well-balanced with commercial sense."

Investment funds

"Good attention to detail, thorough approach; exceptional value for money."

"Its partners are professional and maintain communication with clients on the latest industry updates from a legal professional point of view. The advice and opinions are timely and relevant. "

"Familiar with the Hong Kong regulatory environment and has good network with Cayman legal counsels."

Insolvency

"Boutique with a global presence. Practical, refined and commercial."

"Technically sound and competent."

"The firm is highly responsive, detail-oriented and pragmatic in their approach (in particular dealing with senior management)."

"They are responsive and their fees are reasonable."

"They are very commercial and easy to work with. Responsive and provide practical advice. The lawyers in the firm are very approachable. Most importantly, their charges are very reasonable with such a high quality of professional service."

"Timely and constructive advice."

"We have built a long relationship with the firm and they have always been a very reliable adviser. Given their knowledge of local market and language capabilities, it was particularly helpful in handling such a high profile local case in HK. Their team is very commercial minded and worked in a flexible time to meet the urgent deadline, which played a very important role in this engagement.

"I find the firm good value for money. They have a select group of legal professionals dedicated to assisting clients, and are client focused."

"Proactive. Good research."

M&A

"Its counsellors are meticulous and conscientious. They do well in listing-related matters."

"They have depth in technical expertise and with good resources on tap."

Private equity

"Friendly, helpful, responsive and meticulous."

"Very efficient with fast communication, patient explanation to client with little law background, and very good quality since I tried to find another law firm to do the same job, but they could not handle it in time."

Restructuring

"I have found the firm to be good value for money. They are able to deliver the work quickly and efficiently, and within budget."

Anthony Wong

"Detail-oriented, provides professional advice."

Alexander Tang

"Good at understanding the client's needs and problems. Able to deliver practical solutions. "

"He is very technical and detail-oriented. He can always think ahead and mitigate risk going forward."

"Very commercial and approachable."

"Friendly, willing to listen and prompt response."

"He is very experienced and delivers practical solutions to clients."

"We are very happy with his advice and service overall. He would go extra mile to remind us on matters that we have no time to think about. He is very attentive and committed throughout the engagement."

"Attention to detail and ability to deliver his advice and services to clients in a cost-effective manner."

"Understands client's needs."

Ivan Ng

"Very smart, practical advice, manages difficult client very well, thinks outside the box."

Jamie Stranger

"Strong dealing with senior management and pragmatic approach to problem-solving."

Jane Ng

"She is professional, technically able and personable."

"She is technically able, professional and personable."

Katherine Liu

"Responsiveness."

"Responsive, professional. "

"Very helpful and responsive to questions; acted as a good coordinator between various departments within the firm."

Penelope Shen

"Penelope is dedicated and responsive. She demonstrates a great willingness and aptitude to understand the business in all its subtleties. We can rely on Penelope and her team to understand the complexities of the transaction and also give good, considered advice."

"She is highly knowledgeable in legal and regulatory-related perspectives and issues by having an insatiable open mind in learning new things to contribute and share with clients from time to time for the benefit of both the clients and her firm, which is particularly important for an ever-changing landscape in the hedge fund industry with compliance issues from multiple fronts with different jurisdictions. She also maintains efficient and effective communication flows with clients in a timely and friendly manner. Most importantly, she proposes relevant and practical solutions tailored to clients, literally the most value-added element in the business relationship, which makes the best value for money . "

"Friendly, knowledgeable and responsive."

"Providing solutions but not complications in a timely manner. "

"She is the handling partner of our matter. I must say that we have had nothing but exceptionally fine dealings with her in this matter. She has given a solid and various introduction to fund establishment in the Cayman Islands and Hong Kong jurisdictions and has let us to decide which is the most appropriate products for our management's selection. "

"She is familiar with our firm and our products. "