Edmund Ma

Edmund Ma

Special Counsel
Baker & McKenzie

Biography

Edmund Ma is a special counsel in Baker McKenzie's Hong Kong office and a member of the Firm's Dispute Resolution Practice Group.

Prior to joining the Firm, Edmund was a senior government counsel at the Department of Justice in Hong Kong responsible for policy matters relating to corporate insolvency law. In his posting to the Secretariat of the Law Reform Commission, he served as the secretary to its Sub-committee on Cybercrime. Before entering the public sector, he was an insolvency litigator at an international law firm.

Edmund serves on the Insolvency Law Committee of the Law Society of Hong Kong.

Practice Focus

Edmund has over 15 years of solid experience advising creditors, debtors and insolvency officeholders in high-profile and cross-border restructuring and insolvency cases, including the liquidation of Lehman Brothers.

His practice focuses on representing corporate clients, financial institutions and insolvency practitioners in a wide range of restructuring and insolvency matters, ranging from corporate restructuring, compulsory and voluntary liquidations, to commercial disputes and shareholders' rights and remedies.

Representative Legal Matters

  • Advised a corporate client owing an uncontested debt in successfully resisting the creditor’s application for the appointment of provisional liquidators, and securing dismissal of the winding-up petition based on a commercial settlement, by reliance on argument founded on Mainland Chinese law.
  • Advised the liquidators of an insurer in Hong Kong with the largest share of a niche market on the transfer of an insurance portfolio, including the related court applications.
  • Advised a creditor in Mainland China on Hong Kong Airlines’ applications to the Hong Kong and English courts to restructure its debt of over HKD 40 billion.
  • Advised a globally known enterprise (creditor) on the restructure of debt of over USD 100 million, by a Hong Kong subsidiary of an enterprise in the media industry headquartered in Mainland China, by means of a scheme of arrangement.
  • Advised the Asian board of a global manufacturing and trading business on intercompany claims and post-sale arrangement in the context of an English pre-pack administration.34-o0
  • Advised the Hong Kong-based receivers over shareholding in a Hong Kong company and land at a prime location in Kuala Lumpur, appointed by a leading asset management company in Mainland China, to recover loan with principal amount USD 150 million.
  • Obtained the Hong Kong court’s order recognizing and assisting the Cayman-appointed provisional liquidators (now liquidators) of a company with asset deficiency exceeding USD 100 million, and advising the liquidators on potential recovery actions.
  • Advised a global timepiece brand on the reorganization and downsizing of its retail business in Hong Kong.

Professional Associations and Memberships

  • Law Society of Hong Kong - Member
  • Restructuring and Insolvency Faculty of the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants - Member
  • International Association of Restructuring, Insolvency & Bankruptcy Professionals (INSOL International) - Member

Admissions

  • Hong Kong
  • Australia
  • England & Wales

Education

  • University of Hong Kong (BBA (Law))
  • University of Hong Kong (LL.B.)
  • University of Hong Kong (P.C.LL.)

Languages

  • Cantonese
  • English
  • Mandarin
  • Panelist, “Strengthening Insolvency Systems in Asia and the Pacific,” co-organised by Asian Development Bank, Singapore Management University, Singapore Global Restructuring Initiative, University of Chicago Law School’s Center on Law and Finance, University of Cambridge’s Centre for Corporate and Commercial Law, and INSOL International, December 2022
  • Contributor (as secretary to the Cybercrime Sub-committee of the Law Reform Commission of Hong Kong), Consultation paper on Cyber-Dependent Crimes and Jurisdictional Issues, 20 July 2022
  • Panelist, INSOL Asia Webinar: “Bridges to Harmonisation, or a Complex Labyrinth? Recent developments in cross-border restructuring," February 2022 
  • Contributor, Updated Chapter 4: “Winding-Up by the Court” in the textbook “Company Law in Hong Kong: Insolvency 2017,” Sweet & Maxwell, 2017