“For lawyers in Asia, particularly in Hong Kong, perhaps the biggest news of the week focused on  Dennis Kwok, the highly respected former member of the Hong Kong Legislative Council who was vocal in his pro-democracy stance, pressing for the rule of law, greater democracy and human rights, resulting in the central government in Beijing disqualifying him from the Legislative Council in November 2020. Later that month, Kwok announced he was resigning from politics and left Hong Kong.

“Last week, Kwok announced that he and three former Phillips Nizer partners have formed a boutique firm in New York that will focus on white-collar defense, investigations and complex business litigation. An important part of their work will be to take on clients that can’t use big international firms due to conflicts of interest — specifically in China. Kwok, who was an associate at U.K.-based Herbert Smith earlier in his career and later a barrister in private practice, said the new firm will be free to help the many American companies that have sought to decouple their operations from China because of human rights abuses, the environment and a global supply chain that has been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. …”