An excellent start of your career journey
An excellent start of your career journey
We cover a broad spectrum of commercial work. Each law firm organises its practice groups in a different way. The descriptions below give a flavour of the type of work we do rather than of the separate practice groups (which often contain a number of overlapping areas of speciality).
This covers a range of areas, from regulatory (for example banking regulation, anti-money laundering and consumer finance regulation) to bank lending and financing for borrowers, acquisition finance and project finance, and trade finance. We also cover more specialised areas (in cross practice group work) such as art law.
We have an extremely active and successful capital markets team at Deacons, both equity capital markets (financing through issues of shares, whether in IPOs or in secondary issues) and debt capital markets (debt financing and bond issues) and associated regulatory and compliance work. We have extensive experience in all areas of capital markets. In some years there are more IPO funds raised in Hong Kong than in anywhere else in the world. We are at the heart of a very dynamic market.
Deacons was the first firm to have three licensed foreign law firm offices in Mainland China. We have been advising on China trade and foreign direct investment work for over forty years. Our services include assisting clients obtain approval for investment projects, handling cross-border M&A and arranging joint ventures with Mainland Chinese companies.
Our competition practice combines legal and economics experience with in-depth knowledge of business practices in Hong Kong. Our lawyers and in-house competition economist advise companies and senior executives in a wide range of antitrust investigation and litigation matters and high profile regulatory cases, as well as on cross-border and domestic transactions.
Deacons’ construction team covers the full range of advice on construction projects including contractual, risk management and contentious matters, on both public and private sector projects. Our lawyers have extensive industry experience in Hong Kong, mainland China and the Asia Pacific region.
Deacons serves an extensive client base of local and international companies, banks, private equity, government bodies, partnerships and private individuals. We handle all aspects of corporate M&A, including public takeovers, private mergers, acquisitions and disposals, private equity and venture capital investments and exits and local and cross-border joint ventures.
Every company incorporated in Hong Kong must comply with a number of legal requirements and must have a Company Secretary. Deacons has a large team of experienced Chartered Secretaries. This practice is over a hundred years old and has a strong reputation for care and reliability.
We are experienced in giving advice and acting on a wide range of issues in both Hong Kong and Mainland China, including data privacy policies and compliance, exploitation of data, cybersecurity and handling data breaches, domestic and cross-border data transfer, as well as investigations and appeals before enforcement authorities.
We act for a wide range of companies, from multinational corporations to smaller Hong Kong businesses, as well as pension trustees and administrators, on a wide variety of issues including employment documentation, employee benefits and incentives, day-to-day HR issues, employment disputes, pension regulations, work and residence visas and the employment aspects of M&A.
We provide advice on a full range of family law matters, both contentious and non – contentious, from pre and post nuptial agreements, to divorce and separation and child care issues. We recognise the importance of alternative dispute resolution methods and our team includes experienced mediators.
Our large insurance team works closely with international and domestic insurers, intermediaries, regulators and others on a broad range of insurance matters. These range from defending insurers and their insureds in large claims, to advising on regulatory issues and policy documentation.
Deacons’ top ranked IP practice covers all areas of contentious and non-contentious IP work, including Hong Kong, mainland China and international trade marks, copyright and design rights, patents, domain names, data protection, technology, e-commerce, advertising and brand protection issues.
Deacons’ investment funds team has a leading position, particularly in the retail funds area. The work ranges from establishment of authorised funds and products and exchange traded funds (ETFs), to alternative investments, hedge fund services, private equity funds and cross-border work with the fund industry in mainland China. On the regulatory side the practice advises on Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) compliance and licensing.
We cover the full range of litigation and arbitration work, with a large general commercial dispute resolution practice and substantial specialist practices including insurance, construction and IP. The areas covered are diverse and might concern for example shareholder disputes, tax investigations or contentious regulatory matters.
Deacons has a long tradition of helping individuals and their families, including family offices and family businesses, often across generations. Our services include tax planning and succession planning, philanthropy, real property, probate and administration, and trust and probate disputes.
Our large team provides high quality advice on a wide spectrum of real estate matters for Hong Kong and international clients, ranging from the sale and purchase of commercial real estate, development projects, joint ventures for property development, property management and landlord and tenant issues, to real estate tax and dispute resolution.
We cover a broad range of contentious and non-contentious regulatory matters with significant “bench strength” in particular areas in our specialist practice groups. Areas covered include anti-money laundering, banking regulation, competition, SFC and Stock Exchange compliance matters, corporate governance, data protection and privacy, and regulatory investigations.
Deacons is one of the few law firms in Hong Kong that has a dedicated tax practice. The work ranges from business and corporate tax planning, personal tax planning, real estate tax, tax investigations, audits and disputes to trust and charity work.