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February 1, 2012

Tilleke & Gibbins Elevates Michael K. Lee to Partner

Tilleke & Gibbins is proud to announce the appointment of Michael K. Lee as a Partner of the firm, effective January 1, 2012.

Michael counsels clients and manages cases on a wide range of corporate matters, including mergers and acquisitions, licensing, commercial transactions, real estate, regulatory affairs (particularly for the life sciences and high-technology industries), FCPA compliance, and labor. In 2011, he was identified as a leading lawyer in Vietnam in the areas of Corporate and M&A (by Chambers Asia-Pacific) and Real Estate (by Asialaw Leading Lawyers).

In addition to his role as a Partner, Michael will continue to serve as Department Head – Corporate/Commercial for the firm’s Vietnam offices, a position he has held since 2010.

“Over the past two years, Tilleke & Gibbins has seen tremendous growth of our corporate and commercial practice in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi,” said Tiziana Sucharitkul, the firm’s Co-Managing Partner. “Michael’s leadership has been invaluable to our continued development of this key practice area.”

Michael received a B.A. in Anthropology from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1991 and a J.D. from McGeorge School of Law, University of the Pacific in 1995. In December 2006, he completed his LL.M. in International Legal Studies at the American University, Washington College of Law.

Based in the firm’s Ho Chi Minh City office, Michael is a Registered Foreign Lawyer in Vietnam. Also a licensed lawyer in California (1996), Texas (1997), and Colorado (1998), Michael has extensive experience litigating civil and criminal matters in the United States. He is fluent in English and Korean.

“Michael is a talented lawyer who works hard to understand his clients’ needs and provide excellent service,” added Darani Vachanavuttivong, Co-Managing Partner of Tilleke & Gibbins. “We are confident that our clients will benefit from Michael’s addition to our partnership.”

Michael can be contacted at +84 8 3936 2069 or [email protected].

RELATED INSIGHTS​ 

November 18, 2021
On November 17, Tilleke & Gibbins conducted another joint TMT webinar with Clyde & Co. The event provided a multijurisdictional view in a session titled “Data Privacy and Protection in COVID-19 Times.” Lawyers from Tilleke & Gibbins covered the legal and regulatory environments in Thailand and Vietnam, while lawyers from Clyde & Co spoke on Australia, China, and Singapore. Atthachai Homhuan, director of the regulatory affairs department at Tilleke & Gibbins, explained emergency use authorization of drugs and vaccines in Thailand, as well as data privacy and protection issues related to employers, employees, and vaccinations. Waewpen Piemwichai, a senior associate in Tilleke & Gibbins corporate and commercial group in Hanoi, followed the Thailand session with a look at the evolving pandemic situation in Vietnam and noted how the processing of COVID-19-related data will change when the draft Decree on Personal Data Protection takes effect.
November 15, 2021
Tiziana Sucharitkul, co-managing partner of Tilleke & Gibbins and director of the firm’s dispute resolution department, spoke in two International Bar Association (IBA) webinars on law firm management and strategic direction. Tiziana appeared in her capacity as a member of the IBA Law Firm Management Committee, first in an IBA Global Showcase session on October 28, 2021, and then again at an IBA Officers’ Briefing on November 9. The first event brought together two panels of law firm managing partners from around the world to discuss the matters of greatest concern to the legal industry in a session titled “What is the Future of our Law Firms?” Together, the panelists discussed issued such as the return to physical offices, how best to serve clients, how to encourage and support collaboration among lawyers, and what pricing strategies will look like in the future. This session formed part of the week-long IBA Global Showcase—a global conference sharing knowledge and celebrating successes in law firm policy and practice. In the second session, open only to officers of the IBA, Tiziana was one of three guests interviewed about law firm transitions and strategy. Alongside managing partners from leading firms in India and the USA, Tiziana discussed how established family-run firms can evolve into regional powerhouses, taking examples from her own experience with Tilleke & Gibbins’ regionalization and growth over the past two decades. For more details on the IBA and the 2021 Global Showcase, please visit the IBA website.
October 14, 2021
On October 13, Alan Adcock, partner and deputy director of the firm’s intellectual property and regulatory affairs groups in Bangkok, and Thomas J. Treutler, managing director of Tilleke & Gibbins’ offices in Vietnam, represented the firm in the virtual IP Life Sciences Conference 2021. Life sciences specialists from around the world attended the conference, which was organized to provide patent owners in the life sciences industry with pertinent information and updates relating to patent disputes and litigation in key jurisdictions. During their presentations on local Thai and Vietnamese legal regulations, Alan and Thomas offered insights on policies and risks relating to injunctions in patent disputes, the most successful patent litigation strategies in each respective country, and the cost of litigation versus the practical business benefits of patent protection.
September 17, 2021
Andrew Stoutley, chief operating officer of Tilleke & Gibbins, provided a lengthy quote to Asian Legal Business (ALB) for a recent feature on how law firms in Southeast Asia are increasingly using data analytics and information to drive their business strategy. The article featured contributions from a number of partners and executives from firms across Southeast Asia on the different ways that their firms are applying data to their operations and incorporating information and analytics into their strategic decision-making processes. In his contribution, Andrew explained that as technology has become central to virtually all operations at Tilleke & Gibbins, metrics and data have been harnessed to inform decisions at all levels. To illustrate this, he gave the example of a broad strategic planning process that the firm has undertaken to lay out strategy for the coming years. Identifying and gathering key quantitative and qualitative data points was crucial to the process, which considers every element of the firm’s planned operations for the next several years. Andrew went on to discuss the importance of determining how best to share the data with the relevant stakeholders, such as through visualizations or dashboards that allow staff to monitor the progress of operations. The other informants for the article reported a similar uptick in reliance on data—such as in competitive intelligence, billing, and matter management—and emphasized the necessity for firms to recognize the value of data as a resource that must be protected and used wisely. The full article is available on page 4 of the September 2021 issue of ALB.