HKU Law Welcomes Ms. Lea-Anne Lee

Welcome to Ms. Lea-Anne Lee, who joins the Faculty of Law as a Senior Lecturer.

Lea-Anne graduated from University College London and obtained her Postgraduate Certificate in Laws at the University of Hong Kong. She was admitted as a solicitor in England and Wales and Hong Kong.

During her extensive private practice with Hogan Lovells, Clifford Chance and Freshfields in London and Hong Kong, she specialised in advising financial institutions on mergers and acquisitions and financial laws and regulations. Her clients included the full spectrum of participants in financial services including retail and investment banks, insurers, asset managers, fund houses, brokers and intermediaries.

Since the Global Financial Crisis in 2008, Lea-Anne undertook various senior management roles in house advising on domestic and cross border legal, compliance and regulatory aspects on restructuring, business controls and risk management for various international financial services operations in Asia Pacific (covering China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, Korea, India, Taiwan, Australia as well as various South East Asian countries), including ABN AMRO, Credit Suisse/UBS and Bank of China (Hong Kong) Limited. She was responsible for navigating regulatory affairs and handling critical and large scale interactions with domestic regulators and international college of supervisors.

At the University of Hong Kong, her main focus of teaching is on financial laws and regulations. She looks forward to sharing her deep experience on the financial industry’s practice and compliance issues.

Hualing Fu on High Policing and Human Rights Lawyering in China (CUP book chapter)

"High Policing and Human Rights Lawyering in China"
Hualing Fu
in Weitseng Chen (ed) and Hualing Fu (ed), Regime Type and Beyond: The Transformation of Police in Asia, (Cambridge University Press, May 2023), pp. 53-86

Summary: This chapter studies the interaction between human rights lawyers and activists and political policing in China. While coercion is key to authoritarian governance, coercive and repressive measures in and of themselves do not produce regime resilience and deliver orders, compliance, and effective governance that is commonly observed in China. This chapter examines the systemic use of “soft repression,” which is preventive and preemptive in nature, characterized by surveillance, early intervention, and political persuasion. The process is informal and interactive in which the Chinese political policing systems bring government pressure and other non-state forces to bear on target groups and individuals to achieve compliance. Subtle intimidation, consent under duress, relational repression, and voluntary detention, all hallmarks of China’s political policing, which is referred to as coercive political persuasion, have worked to constrain legitimate advocacy without frequently resorting to direct violence or blatant violation of legal rules.

New Book by Angus Young & Kai-Uwe Seidenfuss: A Concise Guide to Corporate Compliance Management (2nd Edition)

"A Concise Guide to Corporate Compliance Management (2nd Edition)"
Dr Angus Young & Dr Kai-Uwe Seidenfuss
Wolters Kluwer (HK) (formerly CCH)
Published in March 2023
228 pp.

Book Description: Compliance is more than operating within the boundaries of the law and regulations. It epitomizes the norms and the integrity of an organization, and it contributes to good business results. Rather than just knowing and following the respective requirements, compliance management covers a wide range of areas.

      Moreover, effective compliance does require professionals who understand regulatory obligations, who listen to the business, including but not limited to skilful educators, counsellors, governance professionals, accountants, and facilitators.

     While the first edition outlined the key concepts of compliance and looked at the area from serval perspectives, this second edition also covers new topics including: New ISO standards on compliance management systems; Practitioners’ perspectives and selective discussions on regulators in financial services sector; and Discussions on the Three Line Model as well as leadership and impacts of the use of technology in compliance.

       The updated edition is meant to be practical and structured to support the reader, with insights for those already in the profession and for those thinking of entering the field. 

HKU Law's New Executive Director of the LLM Compliance & Regulation Programme

Syren Johnstone has been appointed Principal Lecturer and Executive Director of the Faculty of Law's LLM Compliance & Regulation Programme. 

     He is a Member of the Fintech Advisory Group of the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), and a Consultant and Examiner to the Hong Kong Securities and Investment Institute (HKSI) for the Licensing Examinations for securities and futures intermediaries, the industry benchmark examination recognized by the SFC. Formerly a solicitor with Linklaters (London, Tokyo, Hong Kong), he moved into investment banking where he undertook senior management and responsible officer roles where he was regulated by the SFC and The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited. 

     In 2016 he co-authored Financial Markets in Hong Kong: Law and Practice (OUP). His academic works have been referenced in Hong Kong’s Legislative Council and the Court of Appeal. Syren’s areas of expertise encompasses regulation of the securities industry, financial services law, listed companies, compliance processes, Fintech, corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures. 

     He holds two masters degrees, in science and law, from Oxford and London universities respectively.

New Scholarship from Bryane Michael (AIIFL Fellow)

1. The Optimal Design of the Qianhai Special Economic Zone

This paper discusses changes to Qianhai's and Hong Kong's regulations necessary to make Qianhai a pre-eminent financial centre. We conduct econometric analyses which show that regulatory reform could increase innovative companies' profits by a factor of 10 over the long-term.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers2.cfm?abstract_id=2907608

2. Hong Kong's Corporate Governance Rules, Lessons from the Panama Papers and Hong Kong's effect on Changing China's Corporate Governance

This paper describes the changes to Hong Kong's law needed to improve profitable corporate governance reform at home and on the Mainland. We show that the adoption of these standards could increase market valuations by 7%. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2914865

3. The Problems and Prospects for an IGAD Development Bank

The IGAD region, covering most of East Africa, represents a challenging area for investment in the best of times. The paper argues for a new design for multi-lateral development financial institutions -- one which focuses on securitisation and less sovereign involvement.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2790661

4. A Theory of Compliance Regulation

This paper looks at the way financial institutions should organise their compliance functions. We create a database of legal complexity of banking regulations around the world and show that increased regulation may promote banking productivity.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers2.cfm?abstract_id=2563981

5. Regulations Determine an M&A Centre's Success

Legal complexity can actually help a financial centre attract more M&A business from places like China. This paper shows the extent to which international law firms and financial advisors have benefited (or not) from their jurisdictions' legal rules.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers2.cfm?abstract_id=2607348

6. SCMP's Letter of the Law

Abstract legal theory can be used in the real world. Roughly each month, I look at the deep legal principles driving law enforcement and business in Hong Kong.

http://www.scmp.com/author/bryane-michael

7. Law and Economics Video Series

Are you too lazy to read academic papers? This YouTube Channel presents the main ideas from legal theory and practice in Hong Kong -- in a graphic and common language way.

https://www.youtube.com/user/lawandeconomics1

8. The Law and Economics Podcast

Too busy to watch a video? Why not subscribe to the podcast version? As new videos about legal theory and practice appear, this podcast makes the content available to anyone with a iPod.

https://soundcloud.com/infographicinstant

HKU's New LLM in Compliance & Regulation (Q&A with Prof Arner)

Prof D Arner, Prof Alexa Lam, Prof KC Chan, Dean Hor

The official ceremony launching HKU's new LLM in Compliance and Regulation was held on Monday, 14 March 2016, in the company of distinguished guests including the Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Professor KC Chan. In the following interview, the Director of the LLM(CR), Professor Douglas Arner, explains the genesis, aims, scope and structure of the new programme, which begins in September 2016. 

     1. What inspired this new LLM? Does it exist anywhere else?  Over the past 20 years, in Hong Kong and around the world, financial regulation and compliance has been one of the faster growing areas. This programme is very much intended to meet a high and increasing demand among firms and market participants for a high quality degree in the area. The programme builds on existing Faculty strengths, in particular our world class Asian Institute of International Financial Law and LLM in Corporate and Financial Law, and related staff, research and teaching. In particular, the LLM in Corporate and Financial Law has seen a very large increase in applicants seeking a compliance related degree over the past 10 years. In the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis, we felt that now was the right time to create a new and focused programme.

     This is the first such programme in Hong Kong and the region. Other major universities elsewhere have also recently been launching or considering launching similar programmes for the same reasons as HKU. Given our existing strengths in the area, it is a very appropriate next stage for HKU's efforts.

Prof Arner

     2. How will this new LLM be different from the LLM in corporate and financial law and the other LLM offerings? The LLM in Compliance and Regulation is designed to focus on the needs of those working or intending to work in regulation and compliance areas. It is designed to provide them with an overall understanding of the major trends in the area as well as their expression in Hong Kong, Mainland China and the Asia Pacific region. It is thus a more focused programme than the LLM in Corporate and Financial Law, which is designed for those looking for greater understanding of key trends and issues in the transactional area. The LLM in Compliance and Regulation will focus not only on the content of international standards and local rules and regulations in the financial sector but also on developing professionalism and culture to support competitiveness not only in firms but also in the financial sector generally.

Dean Hor

     3. There are already many compliance training programmes offered in the marketplace. How will this one be distinctive and what is the target group?  This is the first university masters programme in the region. It is thus an academic programme rather than one focused on compliance training. Graduates will expect to have a broad understanding of the issues and trends as well as of the rule makers and the rules themselves. As a university, this is our advantage compared to a private sector training programme and one that fits with our mission of supporting both human capital and societal development. The programme will accept students with or without law degrees and will strongly consider related experience. We anticipate a balanced cohort of mid-career, senior and junior applicants from a wide variety of different academic and professional backgrounds.

    4. Based in a Faculty of Law setting, will this programme be highly academic and not sufficiently practical? What are the expected learning outcomes of the programme?  As a university, our advantage is building an integrated programme that builds wider understanding of key issues and trends, providing those completing the programme with the tools to address compliance and regulatory issues as they develop in future. The programme is built on a foundation course which will provide the necessary tools to understand the complex international and local regulatory systems. In addition, there are a wide range of specialised courses providing in-depth analysis of specific areas, such as anti-money laundering, securities regulation, listed companies compliance, privacy etc. The programme is topped with a series of capstone courses seeking to integrate understanding across specialised areas. Thus, those completing the programme should find themselves well placed for career advancement in the sector.

     At the same time, the teachers in the programme will be a mix of experienced academics as well as highly experienced professionals working in the area and seeking to share their knowledge and expertise.

     5. How is the programme related to the research programme of the HKU Faculty of Law?  Corporate and financial law and regulation forms one of the Faculty's core strategic research areas and areas of strength. We have been building in this area of almost 20 years, reflected in the fact that our Asian Institute of International Financial Law is now widely regarded as the leading corporate and financial law research centre in the Asia Pacific region. Likewise, our LLM in Corporate and Financial Law is highly competitive, with graduates working at all levels across the region and the world. Thus, the LLM in Compliance and Regulation very much builds on existing Faculty research strengths.

      For more information on applying to the programme, click here.