Dr George Woodman, director of Teng Hoi Conservation Organization, presents the case for carbon trading as a way of cutting greenhouse gas emissions and explains how a simple game is helping spread the word.
This month’s tragic events in Japan, triggered by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami, have shocked people around the world. The sheer scale of the catastrophe and loss of life cannot fail to have moved even the most hardened of observers, and countless organisations and individuals have been busy raising funds for the relief effort. Japanese officials have estimated it will cost as much as 25 trillion yen (US$309bn) to rebuild the country after the disaster.
As fears of a nuclear fallout from the stricken Fukushima Daiichi plant spread in the days following the quake, residents and workers fled Tokyo in their thousands, many expatriates returning to the safety of their home countries.
But as many international lawyers were fleeing the Japanese capital, one English barrister was heading into the danger zone on a mission to reach his family and get them out. Matthew Seligman, of London based Steel & Shamash Solicitors, didn’t hesitate to make the daunting journey to Tsunami-hit Sendai - the city closest to the earthquake’s epicentre - to be with his wife, Hiromi, nine year old daughter Daisy, and ‘Shark’ and ‘Dolphin’, their two cats.
Matthew, who is also an internationally acclaimed musician, kept his Facebook friends updated with his progress, and has kindly allowed ASIAN-MENA COUNSEL to share abridged highlights of his courageous journey with the in-house community.
Spurred by growing investor confidence, Asia and MENA enjoyed stellar mergers and acquisitions activity in 2010 against a backdrop of record-breaking activity in the capital markets. According to Citigroup, total M&A volume climbed by almost 50 percent to a staggering US$470.5 billion. The Financial Times, quoting Dealogic, reported that US$163.2 billion was raised through 768 Asian initial public offerings last year, a dramatic increase from just US$ 70.2 billion in 354 listings in 2009. The size of Asian deals has been steadily increasing too, with transactions worth more than US$1 billion up sharply from the previous year. These trends are reflected in our winning Deals of the Year ...
With demand growing for lawyers with the right skill-set, now is a good time to explore new in-house opportunities, according to Ben Cooper, vice president, Asia-Pacific at CML Recruitment. He takes a look at the latest trends in hiring legal talent
In this month’s Special Report on dispute resolution, we take a look at how Asia Pacific’s role as an international centre for dispute resolution, particularly arbitration, has grown against a backdrop of increasing cross-border transactions. As demand has grown exponentially, so Asia’s leading arbitration centres – including HKIAC, KCAB and SIAC – have moved with the times to maximise the services they provide in a constantly evolving legal framework. We examine some of the key new laws which have shaped dispute resolution in 2010 and outline some of the challenges in pursuing justice through both litigation and arbitration.
Matthias Schroeder, former head of Beiten Burkhardt’s Asia desk in Munich, explains the concept of “guanxi” and how to stay the right side of the PRC’s increasingly stringent corruption laws when conducting business there
In this month’s Special Report on India, we take a look at how the country’s robust economy has helped Asia survive the global financial crisis and ask whether its legal sector is likely to follow the example of its markets and open up to foreign players. We examine new developments in tax and takeover legislation and how these will affect both domestic and foreign private equity investments in India. Plus, find out how a new Reserve Bank of India circular has cleared up some uncertainties surrounding the regulation of core investment companies (CICs).
