On December 31, 2024, renowned legal directory LegalOne announced its "Stellar Accolade 2024" to recognize lawyers who have achieved outstanding success in their respective practice areas. Six Han Kun partners were named to the list, Ms. Lin Gui, Mr. Aaron Gu, Ms. Dongni Jiang, Ms. Gloria Xu, Mr. Yao Zhang, and Mr. Aaron Zhou.
Lin Gui: Private Equity and Venture Capital
Ms. Gui mainly advises on venture capital and private equity investment, mergers and acquisitions, domestic and overseas listings and reorganizations, and general corporate matters. She has represented a number of international and local funds in equity investment and M&A projects and advised numerous businesses through financing transactions or restructuring and public listings. Her work focuses on transaction structure design, drafting and amending transaction documents, and negotiating and dealing with PRC legal issues related to the transactions. Ms. Gui has extensive experience in industries including TMT, consumer retail, agriculture, advanced manufacturing, and clean energy industries. She is particularly experienced in handling complex investment, financing, and M&A transactions.
Aaron Gu: Pharmaceuticals and Life Sciences
Aaron Gu specialises in corporate, regulatory compliance, and transactional services for life sciences, biopharmaceutical, medical and healthcare industries, including biosecurity and human genetic resource issues, clinical trial matters, product marketing authorisations, GxP compliance, spinoffs, drug licensing and collaboration, as well as regulatory issues involved in venture capital and private equity investments, mergers and acquisitions, and foreign and outbound investments in the life sciences industries. He has also provided clients with analysis on the exposure drafts of laws and regulations promulgated by the National Medical Products Administration and other government authorities, and drafted the relevant proposal letters. Specifically, his services cover a full range of products including drugs (biologics and chemical drugs), medical devices, IVDs, cosmetics, general foods, special foods (health foods, foods for special medical purposes, and infant formulas), animal drugs, and animal foods.
Dongni Jiang: Taxation
Ms. Jiang specializes in tax advisory and planning. Ms. Jiang was a tax partner with one of the Big 4 accounting firms and worked at the international tax service center of a Big 4 accounting firm in New York. She has extensive experience in tax advisory services in China and the United States involving areas such as investment and financing, IPOs, and high-net-worth individuals. Ms. Jiang holds a PRC Bar qualification, PRC CPA qualification and PRC tax agent qualification, as well as a U.S. CPA license in the State of New York. Ms. Jiang is adept at providing tax planning, tax restructuring, and implementation for M&As, international operations, tax due diligence, tax preference applications, and tax risk management and tax-related dispute resolution. Ms. Jiang also focuses on private client tax advisory services. She has long provided founders and senior management with individual income tax planning services related to family trust designs, stock incentives, and personal wealth management.
Gloria Xu: Private Equity and Venture Capital
Specialising in navigating complex domestic and cross-border transactions, Gloria Xu possesses extensive expertise in private equity investments and financings, mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructurings, and IPOs. Her client portfolio spans diverse industries, including telecommunications, media, technology, healthcare, biotechnology, transportation, manufacturing, and retail. Ms. Xu has successfully represented numerous private equity funds and companies in their domestic and cross-border investments, providing strategic counsel for start-ups, fast-growing enterprises, and well-established corporations during private equity financings. She possesses substantial experience in orchestrating cross-border and domestic M&A transactions, offering guidance to a multitude of multinational and domestic firms engaged in large-scale M&A activities. Additionally, Ms. Xu has played a pivotal role in representing several PRC companies in their IPOs on prominent securities exchanges in the U.S. and Hong Kong.
Yao Zhang: Restructuring and Insolvency
Mr. Zhang graduated with a Master of Laws degree from the School of Law at the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom. For nearly two decades, Mr. Zhang has specialised in the bankruptcy reorganisation and restructuring of large and medium-sized enterprises, covering industries of real estate, chemical, manufacturing, agricultural products, photovoltaic, steel, coal and food, etc. He has extensive experience particularly in the areas of bankruptcy reorganisation of listed companies, debt restructuring, asset restructuring and reorganization, investment and acquisition of large enterprise groups, and has successfully managed several reorganisation projects that have been recognised as typical cases at the national and provincial levels. Mr. Zhang's rich experience in restructuring and reorgnisation allows him to fully understand the concerns and demands of all parties to a bankruptcy proceeding. In reorganisation and restructuring projects, Mr. Zhang balances the interests of all parties while protecting the rights and interests of his clients. He customises his bankruptcy plan designs for each case, and is often innovative, with many cases being recognised by the industry as pioneering and without precedent. Throughout his career, Mr. Zhang's professional capabilities, diligence, and professional ethics have been widely acknowledged and praised.
Aaron Zhou: Pharmaceuticals and Life Sciences
With over 20 years' legal experience, Aaron Zhou's practice focuses on pharmaceutical/healthcare-related (BD) transactions, private equity investment, venture capital investment, cross-border and domestic mergers and acquisitions, foreign direct investment (FDI), and joint ventures. Mr. Zhou has helped many multinational and PRC pharmaceutical and medical device companies in out-license/in-license for the commercialization, development and manufacturing of pharmaceutical products and medical devices, NewCo transactions, sale and purchase of healthcare-related assets and businesses, research collaboration and manufacturing services agreements, supply agreements, distribution transactions as well as material transfer agreements (MTA). Mr. Zhou has represented many renowned multinational and PRC companies in their cross-border and domestic merger and acquisition transactions and has acted for many foreign and domestic funds and companies in their private equity financing and venture capital investment projects. He provides a full range of legal services in these transactions and projects, including deal structuring, legal due diligence, drafting and reviewing transaction documents, and leading negotiations. Mr. Zhou is a member of the PRC Bar and the New York State Bar.
LegalOne is an independent global research company that provides evaluations and exclusive reviews of commercial deals, dispute cases, and intellectual property matters submitted by legal and business professionals worldwide, as well as honors individual experts based on their ability and experience in solving real-world problems. The LegalOne Stellar Accolade is an esteemed annual award that focuses on the practical abilities and real-world experiences of legal professionals. The accolade is conferred by the LegalOne research team independently upon individuals who demonstrate exceptional practical skills in their submitted deals or cases, following a comprehensive analysis of various factors, including industry and client feedback, pertinent information, and data that LegalOne possesses or has access to.