Legal Development and Training Empowering Tomorrow's Cross-Border Transactional Lawyers: A Panel Discussion on Training Lawyers for Transactional Practice

Raphael is the Chair of the Legal Development and Training Committee of the IPBA, and the Head of the Corporate, Commercial and M&A practice at LAW Partnership, a relationship firm of the global firm Eversheds Sutherland. Having been in practice for 37 years, encompassing both cross-border and domestic work, he has extensive experience in various areas notably mergers & acquisitions and corporate and commercial matters.

Raphael also has academic roles in institutions/organisations such as the College of Law (Australia) and the Faculty of Law at Chulalongkorn University (Thailand). He has been Chair of the Moot Standing Committee of LAWASIA since 2008. He also organised the inaugural ASEAN Moot Competition held in Kuala Lumpur in 2023. Raphael has also been recognised as one of the Top 15 M&A Lawyers in Asia (ALB Asia 2022).

James is an IPBA Officer and Chair of the IPBA's Publications Committee.

James is the Director of International Relations & Development and lecturer at The College of Law Australia in Sydney, Australia.

James is also a Special Counsel at H & H Lawyers, a commercial law firm with offices in Sydney and Melbourne. He advises on various international and corporate clients on cross-border transactions.

Prior to these roles, James worked as a lawyer at the New Zealand’s Financial Markets Authority, where his role included advising on the development and implementation of new financial markets (securities) law. He also taught law as an adjunct lecturer at AUT University in Auckland and College of Law New Zealand.

Chuyen Hong Huu Le is a partner in the corporate and commercial group of Tilleke & Gibbins’ Ho Chi Minh City office. Chuyen frequently handles matters related to labor and employment, foreign investment, corporate services, hospitality, and commercial transactions and M&A. Chuyen has particular expertise in the sectors of healthcare (including pharmaceuticals, medtech and consumer health) and consumer products, where she has advised many top multinational companies on doing business in Vietnam. She also has extensive experience in the aviation sector, and assists clients with aircraft leasing/financing, aircraft-related interest registrations, and repossession.

Chuyen is a Certified Compliance and Ethics Professional – International (CCEP-I) and is regularly engaged by companies to conduct compliance investigations and audits, as well as to provide compliance training sessions for staff and business partners. She also handles anti-corruption and competition matters. Chuyen has built extensive in-house experience through secondments as chief legal counsel in Vietnam for the world’s largest three-sector healthcare company, and as an in-house counsel for Vietnam at a world-leading medical device company operating in orthodontics.

In 2023, Chuyen was named to the inaugural Asian Legal Business “Vietnam Rising Stars” list, highlighting outstanding lawyers under the age of 40. In 2021, she was recognized in Euromoney’s Rising Stars Awards Asia-Pacific. She is a member of the Ho Chi Minh City Bar Association and serves as a guest lecturer for Vietnam’s Judicial Academy, training recent law-school graduates pursuing professional legal careers.

Ms. Rene YANG graduated from Zhejiang University and Sun Yat-sen University successively, after which she participated in the one-year UK Lord Chancellor’s Training Scheme for Young Chinese Lawyers in London from 2004 to 2005. She started her practice in Mainland China in 1999, and registered as a foreign lawyer with the Law Society of Hong Kong since 2007. She now acts as the chief partner of SGLA Law Firm (Guangzhou office), the director of the Belt and Road Legal Service Research Centre of Guangdong Lawyers Association, and the deputy director of the Guangzhou Rep. Office of Belt and Road International Lawyers Association. Rene has been deeply involved in local law societies’ training work for cross-border lawyers and young lawyers in the past two decades.

As a practicing lawyer, Ms. Yang expertise in investment and financing, dispute resolution, and compliance. She has extensive experience in supporting international, HK, Macau, Taiwan and Mainland China clients for their contentious and non-contentious legal service needs.

She has also served or is serving as independent director of a number of high-profile public companies. Ms. Yang has won many awards such as Outstanding Committee Director, Outstanding Member, Top Ten Young Lawyers of Guangzhou, Leading Lawyer for cross-border Legal Service in Guangdong Province, Top Cross-border Lawyers of Guangzhou, etc.