Mark heads the partner and head of the non-contentious side of two of the firm's practice groups: the finance group and the financial services group of Stephenson Harwood based in Hong Kong. From a wide-ranging commercial law background, he specializes in providing general banking, finance, insolvency, financial/investment regulatory and employment advice to financial and investment institutions and intermediaries, investment funds, insolvency practitioners, borrowers, investors and issuers. He handles transactions involving secured and unsecured lending (bilateral and syndicated), ship and other asset finance, trade finance, structured finance, finance asset sales, debt issues, investment products, financial and equity derivatives, bank mergers, contractual debt restructurings and insolvencies.
Mark is listed as a leading individual for asset finance in the Asia Pacific Legal 500's from 2001 until the present. He has been listed as a leading individual in banking and financial regulatory and restructuring / insolvency in China / Hong Kong by Chambers Asia. He is also ranked as a leading individual in shipping and maritime for 2009 by The International Who's Who, and as a leading individual for banking and insolvency and restructuring for 2010 and regulatory and government for 2011 by Asialaw.
Financial services
Mark concentrates on the financial services sector, advising not only financial and investment institutions and intermediaries but also their customers on the borrower, issuer or investor side. As a result of servicing his clients' needs in many areas, Mark's experience allows him to advise such clients not only on their core financial services activities, such as financial and investment services and products, but also on regulatory, compliance, employment, insolvency and corporate law issues. Clients include major US and European banks, such as Wachovia, State Street, Société Générale and Natixis, and brokers and fund managers, such as CVC, DB Zwirn, Icap and Stark Investments.
Regulation
Mark is perhaps now best-known in Hong Kong for his regulatory advice to financial and investment institutions and intermediaries, such as banks, brokers and investment funds.
This advice covers all the important HK regulatory regimes and supports financial services businesses starting with their initial set-up and authorisation and continuing through their operation and compliance. Clients in this practice area include Wachovia, Société Générale, State Street, Natixis, CVC, Newedge and DB Zwirn.
Trade finance
Mark is one of the few lawyers in Hong Kong having extensive trade finance experience, ranging from the documenting of trade finance facilities to the structuring and documenting of innovative trade finance products.
His work covers L/C business and UCP advice, secured and unsecured credit facilities, receivables and commodity finance and cross-border security issues.
Clients in this practice area include Wells Fargo, Bank of New York Mellon, Société Générale and Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria.
Employment
Having advised so many financial and investment institutions on set-up, expansion and downsizing programmes, Mark has developed extensive employment law expertise and regularly advises financial services sector clients in this area.
Clients in this practice area include Stark Investments, Wachovia, Bank of New York Mellon, Old Mutual and DB Zwirn.
Insolvency and restructuring
Having worked through several economic downturns in the UK and Hong Kong, Mark has applied his commercial, finance and insolvency expertise to good use in many insolvency-driven debt and corporate restructurings, including those involving Wah Kwong Shipping in the 1980s, BskyB in the 1990s and a number of manufacturing and retail corporate groups in recent years.
