Our Expertise
Our mission to provide high quality advice to clients across the commercial spectrum both in Malaysia and throughout our region.
Our team of highly motivated lawyers are totally committed to understanding our clients’ needs and business objectives.
We are committed to working seamlessly and collaboratively across practice areas and we endeavour to provide innovative tailor-made solutions.
So whichever of the following practice areas is most relevant to your immediate needs, your business will benefit from our collective experience and expertise.
Practice Areas
Antitrust & Competition
Responsiveness, knowledgeable and commercially astute, these are the key attributes that make our team a force in this highly specialised area. With the benefit of drawing on a wealth of regional and International experience, we give our clients a competitive advantage and practical commercial solutions. We offer legal support on all aspects of this highly specialized area of legal practice including issues such as price fixing, abuse of dominance and merger control.
Banking & Finance
Our banking and finance practice lawyers have a wealth of knowledge and understanding of the transactional and regulatory frameworks necessary to undertake both domestic and regional deals. Our strength lies in offering thoughtful and comprehensive legal advice to banks and other financial institutions, as well as their clients on a wide variety of instruments and cross-border transactions.
Our practice includes corporate banking, trade finance, debt capital markets, project finance and structured finance.
Capital Markets
We are able to offer a comprehensive range of services for transactions involving equity, debt and hybrid instruments. Our lawyers also advise on IPOs and other capital market transactions and we have also acted as legal adviser on Malaysian law for listings outside Malaysia.
Corporate Governance & Ethics
There is an increasing awareness that fraud and other economic crimes have far reaching effects, resulting in costly consequences for businesses, whether in terms of loss of revenue, liability or an erosion of shareholder value and confidence.
Our Corporate Governance & Ethics team can help you meet these challenges by assisting you in navigating your compliance obligations under the law, carrying out internal investigations and providing appropriate risk mitigation strategies. Our team is experienced in guiding clients in laying a strong foundation to prevent and contain any crisis by conceiving and implementing tailor-made compliance and risk programs, coupled with regular training sessions to promote a culture of compliance. Whether this involves accounting fraud, asset misappropriation, bribery and corruption, money laundering, insider trading or other areas of regulatory compliance, we have the know how to provide you value add services that can be designed to suit the needs of your business.
Being part of the Rajah & Tann Asia Network also allows us to tap on the expertise of our regional Fraud, Asset Recovery, Investigations & Crisis Management (FICM) team to assist clients in undertaking cross-border matters. Keeping all of these skill sets ‘in-house’ means that we always have the resources to put together the right legal team for any project, in any Asian city.
Commercial Litigation
Our lawyers are the natural choice for clients facing any kind of complex litigation.
Whatever the issue, we have the skills, resources and experience to see you through every step of your dispute resolution process. Our close working partnerships with an extensive network of forensic accountants, commercial investigators, offshore law firms and other professionals enable us to deliver customised solutions that transcend international and industrial boundaries.
With a focus on delivering a full range of services, we work closely with other practices within the firm such as our Corporate and Capital Markets, International Arbitration, and Shipping & International Trade Groups, to provide our clients with 360° solutions to every problem.
Employment
Our lawyers are familiar with the drafting and review of employment contracts and employment handbooks as well as advising on employment related issues including those arising from acquisitions and divestments.
Fintech & Financial Services Regulatory
Our team of Fintech & Financial Services Regulatory lawyers have been at the forefront of advising on Fintech and FinReg matters in Malaysia since the industry’s inception, providing expert guidance to clients from a wide range of industries.
We understand the legal, compliance and regulatory complexities and uncertainties within which FinTech operates. Leveraging on our legal expertise in both technology and financial services, our lawyers are able to offer innovative and creative solutions tailored to our clients’ specific needs.
CLO’s FinTech Practice is well-equipped to advise clients on regulatory compliance, commercial contracts, and corporate commercial matters, among others. Our service offerings extend to advising on blockchain, crowdfunding, cryptocurrencies, cybersecurity, data privacy, commerce & payment services, financial services regulation, peer-to-peer (P2P) debt and equity financing, securities regulations, RegTech, and technology development.
Being part of the Rajah & Tann Asia Network also allows us to tap on the expertise of our regional Fintech & FinReg team to assist clients on matters across the regional jurisdictions, based on the most up-to-date developments in the local markets.
Insurance & Reinsurance
Our Insurance & Reinsurance practice provides comprehensive legal services to clients across the insurance industry.
We assist clients in resolving disputes arising from insurance contracts, such as coverage disputes, claims handling issues, and policy interpretation. We also help insurers navigate complex regulatory frameworks and ensure compliance with applicable laws and regulations.
Our team also advises on matters involving Reinsurance. Among our services include reinsurance disputes, contract negotiations, and regulatory issues related to reinsurance arrangements.
Our experienced lawyers have a deep understanding of the insurance industry and the legal issues that arise within it. We are committed to providing practical and effective legal solutions to help our clients achieve their business objectives.
Intellectual Property & Intangible Assets
Our Intellectual Property & Intangible Assets Practice Group advises clients on a range of intellectual property matters, from registration, litigation and enforcement to transactional and regulatory advice. The firm represents statutory bodies and clients from a wide range of industry sectors.
Our practice includes the following areas:
- Trade Marks
- Industrial Design
- Patents and Utility Innovations
- Confidential Information and Trade Secrets
- Copyright
- Layout design of an Integrated Circuit
- Geographical Indications
- IP litigation / Dispute Resolution
- Enforcement of IP rights, including designing anti-piracy and anti-counterfeiting programmes
- Domain Names
- Advertising law and regulations
- Injunctions and Anton Piller
- Commercial Exploitation of IP rights, including licensing and franchising.
- IP Valuation
- IP management, due diligence and audit
- Regulatory Advice on product registration; food, drug and labelling laws; and registration of medical devices
Mergers & Acquisitions
Our M&A Practice Group works closely with the team of lawyers within the regional network with enormous in-depth experience in many significant, challenging and complex M&A transactions. We are able to tap on this collective regional expertise and formulate innovative strategies and solutions to meet our client’s objectives. Our services include conducting legal due diligence on Malaysian companies and businesses across a wide range of industry sectors and assist in determining key legal issues for investors.
Projects, Infrastructure & Energy
We support our clients from inception to the final close out of construction projects. With the best possible legal advice from a team with long and wide experience and cutting edge knowledge of the key issues affecting the industry, clients are assured of minimizing project risk. Should a dispute be unavoidable, our clients are also backed by a professional team, which has a strong reputation for resolving complex high-end disputes.
Foreign Investment Approvals
Our lawyers are well-versed with the local requirements and able to advise on the appropriate structure of the investment and form of the investment vehicle, taking into account the investor’s specific objectives and at the same time assist on licensing and regulatory approvals and advising on exchange control and stamp duty issues.
General Corporate Commercial
We advise on all aspects of corporate and commercial laws including mergers and takeovers of listed companies, privatisations, advising on investments in Malaysia in a wide range of sectors and advising on corporate governance and compliance issues. We also advise on a wide spectrum of Malaysian laws including on the sale of interests other than shares, interpretation of contracts, consumer protection laws, insurance laws, Labuan companies, financial services and securities, trust and other laws, negotiating and preparing commercial contracts ranging from joint ventures, agency, distribution, franchise and licence agreements to procurement, marketing, supply, service and management and manufacturing contracts.
International Arbitration
Our arbitration team works closely with Rajah & Tann Singapore, which has been consistently recognised and ranked as a top international arbitration practice by leading publications.
Real Estate & Construction
Our team handles all aspects of property transactions ranging from acquisitions and disposals, leasing (residential, commercial and industrial), financing (individuals and corporations) and development, through all the various stages including negotiations and preparation of sale and purchase agreements and lease/tenancy agreements, security documentation and advising on risk . We also provide property due diligence and advisory services on all property issues including applications to the relevant governmental and statutory authorities. Our wide base of clientele includes developers, fund managers, local and foreign investors, both individual and corporate and financial institutions (conventional and Islamic).
We support our clients from inception to the final close out of construction projects. With the best possible legal advice from a team with long and wide experience and cutting edge knowledge of the key issues affecting the industry, clients are assured of minimizing project risk. Should a dispute be unavoidable, our clients are also backed by a professional team, which has a strong reputation for resolving complex high-end disputes.
Regulatory & Trade
Our Regulatory & Trade Practice offers comprehensive legal services across a wide range of industry sectors, providing tailored solutions to address your specific needs. Our experienced team assists on both international and domestic trade matters, advising clients on key regulatory issues impacting businesses.
We assist on international trade matters from international trade treaties, to working with foreign counsels to navigate cross-border trade laws, to seeking middle ground with regulators where local laws conflict with international laws. This includes advising on navigating sanctions, US Anti-Boycott rules, local currency restrictions, and prohibited and restricted end user lists.
Our domestic trade experience involves import and export controls, import relief actions, anti-dumping, countervailing duties and safeguards, customs classifications, applicable trade sanctions and permit requirements, valuation and rules of origin matters. This includes advising on various local regulatory licensing requirements, including registration for franchise licences, travel agency licences, direct sales licences, catalogue-based distance selling businesses.
The regional arm of our Trade practice group extends across ASEAN, where members of our network regularly advise large conglomerates and multinational corporations located across ASEAN nations, China, European Union countries, India, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, United Kingdom, and United States.
Shipping & Maritime
We are able to manage complex portfolios of high-end shipping work throughout the region. Clients can access a wide range of world class maritime legal services in relation to contentious and non-contentious matters. We also manage all aspects of ship financing.
Sustainability
CLO’s Sustainability & ESG Practice is committed to helping businesses thrive in a sustainable future. We provide comprehensive legal advice on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) matters, guiding clients through the complexities of sustainable business transition and transformation.
We engage clients from various industries advising on matters ranging from corporate governance frameworks and disclosures, to legislation and regulation updates and business compliance supply chain management, and more. Through our Rajah & Tann Asia network, we are able to call upon leading practitioners to support clients whose policy objectives extend into multiple jurisdictions throughout Southeast Asia, providing them with an integrated and seamless regional coverage.
Our clients not only get a dedicated team of lawyers who will act as their business partner, but a team ready to assist clients in meeting their ESG needs and challenges to create their sustainable growth.
Technology, Media & Telecommunications and Data Protection
Our Technology and Telecommunications practice is one of the most established and respected practices in its field in the Asia Pacific region. With clients ranging from state governments and statutory boards to multinational corporations in the telecommunications, computer hardware and software sectors, we have been involved in many of the largest and most complex IT and telecommunications projects in recent years.
Other specialist practices
Christopher & Lee Ong can also advise on various specialist practice areas such as medical law, insurance, sports & entertainment and financial services.
