Tom Chau is of more than 25 years of experience as a Hong Kong qualified lawyers.  He also holds practising certificate as an England and Wales solicitor.  Tom's practice areas focuses on Hong Kong capital market and regulatory and compliance advisory work for Hong Kong listed companies.  Other than IPO and post IPO funding raising (by equity and debts) , Tom also actively involves in providing advice to listed companies on takeovers and  privatisations, corporate restructuring, corporate governance, internal control, anti-money laundering, information disclosure and ESG.

Tom was admitted as Fellow of The Hong Kong Chartered Governance Institute with the designations of Chartered Secretary and Chartered Governance Professional in 2020. 

Tom is qualified as Certified Anti-money Laundering Specialist.

Tom joined the Hong Kong office of international law firm  in 1997.  He was in the firm's London office in 2001.  Tom was promoted to partner in 2006.  Relocating to the firm's Beijing office in 2008, he has taken up the position of Chief Representative and Managing Partner of the firm's Beijing office, till his retirement in November 2022.

Tom is one the most senior lawyers in the H share market.  He has participated more than 40 Hong Kong IPOs, including SOEs (such as Huaneng Power, Shenhua Energy, Sinopec, CNOOC, CCB, ICBC, ABC, CMB, etc.) and red chip companies.

In the areas of post IPO fund raising and secondary offerings (both by way of equity and debts) , Tom participated in the unprecedented case of so called “lightning placing” of H shares (Sinopec), debt issuance by State Grid and China Huaneng Group, rights issues and spin-offs by listed companies.

On M&A side, during the course of 20 years plus practice, Tom has successfully led his team to assist the clients to complete a number of ground-breaking and landmark acquisitions and corporate restructuring (including major transactions, VSA and reserve takeovers under the Hong Kong listing rules), privatisations (Huaneng Renewables, Cangnan Instrument) , and various types of Hong Kong Takeover Code transactions.

One of Tom's strengths is to assist listed clients to handle compliance and regulatory issues relating to information disclosure and inside dealing.  His retainer clients include Huaneng Power, Shenhua Energy, COMEC, CMB, Sinopec, Datang, Linda, Honghua, Beijing Gas, etc.

Tom has based in Beijing for 15 years.  He is one of the few on the ground Hong Kong qualified lawyers in Beijing.  Tom is familiar with the Chinese traditional culture and the needs of clients.  People’s Daily remarked that Tom is “not just a lawyer who solely provides legal advice to corporate clients, he is used to consider his clients positions and provide concrete strategic advice."

Tom is regarded as a “Recognised Person”  (China Capital Market, international firms) by Chambers in 2019.

Tom was an adjunct associate professor of the Master of Finance at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.  He has long been assisting The Hong Kong Chartered Governance Institute provide trainings on compliance and regulatory matters to the directors and senior management of listed companies.  Currently, Tom is a council member of The Hong Kong Chartered Governance Institute.

He was elected as council member of the Institute, and re-elected in 2024. Currently, Tom is the Vice President of the Institute.

In addition, Tom was also admitted to the Panel of Arbitrators of Beijing Arbitration Commission/Beijing International Arbitration Center in 2024.

Tom graduated from the University of Hong Kong and has obtained an Bachelor of Arts (Hons) and Professional Certificate in Laws (PCLL).

Chinese and English