One Day of Leading a Global Legal Team

April 2010

Abstract

Looking back to when I first set up the Hutchison-Whampoa Ltd (HWL) legal department 14 years ago, I was a one-woman band. Initially, there was considerable resistance from subsidiary companies towards the notion of requiring legal clearance for specific commercial actions and activities. However, considering a group of our size, it is paramount that proper accounting and oversight of legal risks is in place. With the support of senior management, our subsidiaries and subgroups began to see the benefit of legal input. Within a few years, at their request I set up legal departments in all the subgroups, with a dual reporting line to the subsidiary chief executive and to me at Group head office. This was in accordance with a legal policy that was set up since day one.

Author

Edith Shih

Head Group General Counsel and Company Secretary, CK Hutchison Holdings Limited, Hong Kong

Edith Shih is Head Group General Counsel and Company Secretary of CK Hutchison Holdings Limited (CKHH). Edith leads an in-house legal team of more than 230 lawyers spread globally and is also a director and/or company secretary of various HWL subsidiaries. Trained as a musician and teacher with a stint in investment banking, Edith has undergraduate and graduate degrees in Arts and Science from the University of the Philippines as well as graduate degrees in Arts and Education from Columbia University. She is qualified to practise law in Hong Kong, England and Wales, and Victoria, Australia. She is also a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators and the Hong Kong Institute of Chartered Secretaries.

Company

CK Hutchison Holdings Limited

CK Hutchison Holdings Limited (CKHH), a Fortune 500 company based in Hong Kong with a market capitalisation of about US$50 billion, CKHH operates in 52 countries and has around 290,000 employees worldwide. Core businesses include ports, retail, infrastructure, energy and telecommunications, generating annual group turnover of about US$50 billion.

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