Overview

Ropes & Gray’s Asia-based attorneys counsel global and Asian corporate clients, leading investment banks, and many of the world’s largest private equity funds on a wide range of complex legal matters that span industries and geographies. These matters include:

Strategic M&A transactions and joint ventures
Leveraged buyouts
Fund formations
Public offerings
Capital markets issues
Global intellectual property litigation, licensing and counseling
Enforcement strategies
Governmental investigations
Securities litigation and counseling

The firm’s partners in Asia have collectively spent over 100 years practicing in the region, with experience that encompasses Japan, China, Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, India, Australia, Cambodia and Indonesia, among others. During this time, they have developed strong client relationships, as well as an impressive track record that includes work on many hallmark merger and acquisition, fund formation, debt financing, life sciences, intellectual property, capital markets and real estate transactions, and on representation of regional and global clients with regard to FCPA, internal investigations, and securities enforcement and litigation.

There’s one more important component to our team’s success in Asia: our ability to simultaneously offer clients in-depth local market knowledge and global perspective, enabling our Asia team to advise to a global standard in some of the most highly complex matters in the regional markets.

Awards

Ropes & Gray’s work in Asia has quickly garnered recognition by clients and independent reviewers, including:

Chambers Asia-Pacific, Chambers Greater China, Chambers Global, The Legal 500 Asia Pacific, IFLR 1000: Ranked year after year in the Asia-Pacific region as leaders within Greater China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, and India in:
- Banking and Finance
- Capital Markets
- Corporate/M&A
- Disputes/Anti-Corruption & Compliance
- Intellectual Property
- Investment Funds
- Healthcare and Life Sciences
- Private Equity/Venture Capital
- Regulatory/Compliance
India Business Law Journal 2024 – “Top Foreign Firms 2024” list.
China Business Law Journal’s 2024 China Business Law Awards – recognized for Healthcare, pharma & life sciences, IP (Patent), Private Equity & Venture Capital, Pro-bono.
Asian Legal Business’ 2024 Asia IP Rankings:
- Patents – Tier 1 in South Korea and Tier 2 for China, Hong Kong and Japan.
- Copyright/Trademarks – Tier 2 in China, Hong Kong and South Korea.
China Business Law Journal’s Deals of the Year 2023 Awards:
- HUTCHMED’s Worldwide License Agreement with Takeda Pharmaceutical
- Vistra and Tricor’s $6.5 billion merger
Asia Business Law Journal’s 2023 Korea Law Firm Awards – recognized as among Korea’s Best Foreign Law Firms.
India Business Law Journal 2023 – “Top Foreign Firms 2023” list.
China Business Law Journal’s 2023 China Business Law Awards – recognized for Asset management, IP (Patent), Healthcare, pharma & life sciences, and Pro-Bono.
Asian Legal Business’ ALB Japan Law Awards 2023, for Bain Capital’s $7.5 billion leveraged tender offer for Hitachi Metals (now Proterial), named winner of:
- Debt Market Deal of the Year
- Technology, Media and Telecommunications Deal of the Year
China Law & Practice Awards 2022 – “Equity Securities Deal of the Year” for LianBio IPO.
India Business Law Journal 2022 – “Top Foreign Firms 2022” list.
The Asia Legal Awards 2022:
- “M&A Deal of the Year: South and South East Asia” for advising Altimeter Growth Corp in Grab Holdings' US$40 billion SPAC deal and listing.
- “Private Equity Deal of the Year”- for advising MBK Partners in the US$1.5 billion sale of Apex Logistics to global logistics firm Kuehne & Nagel.
China Business Law Journal Awards 2022: recognized for Pro-Bono, Asset management, IP (Patents), Private Equity & Venture Capital, Healthcare, pharma & life sciences.
Asian Legal Business’ 2022 Asia IP Rankings: Patents, Tier 1 among international firms in China, Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea; Trademarks and Copyright, Tier 1 among international firms in China; Trademarks and Copyright, Tier 2 among international firms in Hong Kong and South Korea.
Refinitiv’s Global Mergers & Acquisitions Review 2021 – ranked among the top 10 legal advisers for M&A across the Asia Pacific.
Asia Business Law Journal 2021 – “Top Asia-Related SPAC Legal Advisers of 2020-21” - ranked among the top 10 legal advisers to Asia-related SPACs for underwriters ranked by deal value and deal count.
Mergermarket Asia Pacific M&A Legal Advisers, 1H 2021 -– ranked third in league tables for Asia Pacific mergers & acquisitions legal advisers by value, excluding Japan, in 1H 2021.
Asian Legal Business’ 2021 IP Rankings: Patents, Tier 1 among international firms in China, Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea; Trademark and Copyright, Tier 1 in China; Trademark and Copyright, Tier 2 in Hong Kong and South Korea.
Asian Legal Business’ 2020 IP Rankings – Patents, Tier 1 among international firms in China, Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong.
China Business Law Journals’ 2020 China Business Law Awards:
- Practice Groups recognized: asset management, health care, pharmaceuticals & life sciences intellectual property matters, including patents.
Mergermarket Japan M&A Awards 2020 – named “Private Equity Legal Adviser of the Year.”
Asian Legal Business’ ALB Japan Law Awards 2019 – M&A Deal of the Year (Midsize): Baring Private Equity Asia’s Acquisition of Pioneer Corporation.
Private Equity International 2020 Awards – named among Asia’s top three law firms in for fund formation and secondaries transactions.
Financial Times Asia-Pacific Innovative Lawyers 2019 – praised for innovation in Enabling Business Growth and Transformation for:
- Designing the governance structure for a joint venture between Alibaba Group and Switzerland-based luxury goods company Richemont.
- Advising Bain Capital on its simultaneous acquisition of U.S.-based packaging company World Wide Packaging and a leading Chinese cosmetics packaging manufacturer in advance of merging the two companies.
IFLR Asia-Pacific Awards 2019 – “Private Equity Deal of the Year” for Bain Capital-led consortium’s $18 billion buyout of Toshiba Memory Corporation.
IFLR Asia-Pacific Awards 2019 – “Private Equity Team of the Year”
China Law & Practice 2019 Awards – “Outbound Deal of the Year” for advising Harbin Pharmaceutical’s $300 million investment in GNC Holdings.
China Business Law Journal’s 2019 China Business Law Awards – recognized for mergers & acquisitions, restructuring & insolvency and intellectual property, including patents.
Asian Legal Business’ 2019 IP Rankings – Patents, Tier 1 among international firms in China, Japan and South Korea.
Financial Times Asia-Pacific Innovative Lawyers 2018 – Winner for “Innovation in Legal Expertise: Managing Complexity and Scale” for Toshiba’s US$18 billion sale of its memory chip business.
Asian Legal Business Japan Law Awards 2018 – “M&A Deal of the Year (Premium)”, “Technology, Media and Telecommunications Deal of the Year” and “Japan Deal of the Year” for Toshiba's US$18 billion sale of its memory chip business.
Private Equity International 2018 Awards – named among Asia’s top three law firms for fund formation, transactions, and secondaries.