Teresa Ko
Partner – China Chairman
Take advice by all means, but you need to be absolutely certain that a career as an international lawyer in China is what you want
There is a glamorous side – deals in the headlines and rubbing shoulders with people you never imagined you’d meet. But then there’s the hard work that goes with it. It worked out for me; but you need to want it, commit to doing it and do it for yourself – not to please others.
I found out the hard way that you need to work for success
I was educated in the UK and on leaving school I discovered that I didn’t have good enough grades to get into my university of choice. I managed to redeem myself by getting a first at the university I did attend, and I then got a scholarship to Cambridge University to do a MA in law, for which I was awarded a distinction. But it was a painful way of learning that you get out what you put in and there is no shortcut to hard work.
Life at Freshfields was tough but I enjoyed the intellectual rigour
After four years doing the daily commute on the underground in London, I decided to go back to Hong Kong in 1993. I chose Freshfields because I wanted to help establish it in Asia. At the time, the firm had only three partners in Hong Kong and no other offices in mainland China. It had no Chinese clients and Mandarin was not my strong suit in those days so you can imagine how challenging it was.
To begin with, life wasn’t easy. In fact, on my first day the only Chinese associate in the office resigned. I worked mostly on aircraft financing where one change could lead to 10 other amendments in 12 other related documents. Although it was tough, I enjoyed the intellectual rigour, learned a lot and decided to make the most of every opportunity that came along.
It was history in the making
In 1993, the Chinese government wanted to list its state-owned companies on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and I was involved in the first dual Hong Kong and New York listing of Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical. The learning curve was steep, the hours were long and speaking Mandarin became essential. But the experience was very exciting, as we all knew that it was history in the making.
After the success of Shanghai Petrochemical, it was clear that there were opportunities for us to advise on more listing work. We soon picked up another one, and then another, until the US$4.2bn listing of what is now called China Mobile in 1997 (the most that any listing had raised) put us firmly on the map.
Since then, we’ve built a formidable corporate practice advising not just on IPOs but also on headline-grabbing mergers and acquisitions, finance, disputes, antitrust, financial services and IP/IT matters for a growing list of high-profile, state-owned and privately owned Chinese businesses and financial institutions.
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