We differentiate our practice by, among others, the concept of demystification of legal processes. In the past, legal processes were often mystified to hide trade secrets or create an aurora of professionalism that facilitates the settlement of professional charges.

As society progresses, the values of transparency, integrity and fair dealing increasingly gather recognition.

The following are a few ways we seek to demystify legal processes by an open practice culture:

Telescopic Search for Microscopic Spin

See the macro multiverse in a grain of sand, and the sand in its micro multiverse.

It is dangerous to think that one already knows the process thoroughly when embarking upon it. Nowadays, relevant methodologies are more likely to be in the public domain than, say, five to ten years ago. Thus, we should always be alert to looking for better ways to provide and execute our legal services. For instance, we may go for a better checklist, find a better precedent, or study a more updated announcement.  Look as wide and as deep as one reasonably can. For instance, applying this concept, our Financial Services Regulatory Updates (See our Services | Publications) survey and identify regulatory insights developed by financial markets worldwide, and show them to the local industry to facilitate comparative analysis and review for adaptive changes.

The Power of Analyzed Statistics

Changes in the world are exponentially fueled by a data revolution. Life’s journey can be hyper-visioned with the aid of tactful data analytics. While statistics (with smart use) are powerful, we are not advocating the use of statistics for securities investment or the like. By our proprietary tools such as Statistics Unwoven Deal Points Analysis (SUDPA) and our SUDPA App (See our Services | Publications), we seek to showcase the “clever” use of statistics to generate deal point findings for constructive transaction design and transaction terms fine-tuning. Before the advent of AI SUDPA, we are driving non-AI SUDPA by way of unleashing the imaginative and creative power of the human brain. Still, a lot can be achieved, with lateral or multi-way non-AI thinking. The more we exhibit the potential of non-AI thinking, the more we marvel at the inequality of data usage between states, institutions and individuals, and the more we awe at the tininess of the contribution, if any, we can make to human linguistic wisdom and well-being.

Core Standards for Progress

Be versatile, flexible and keep your awareness. Focus on priorities – life is too short for useless idling. No matter the realms, whether risk management, internal control or practice enhancement, one would benefit by asking oneself what is the most important task at the current moment. There could be millions of things one could do at any moment. Identifying the right thing to tackle right now is the key issue. Think about the most important things you need to do at the moment, and choose the thing you most critically need to do. There are millions of ways to do something wrong, but only a few to do it right. We remind ourselves to stay wide awake: know what exactly we are doing every moment and imagine in our mind how we are going to do it right, and complete the action in a clean, swift manner every time (like the inch-punch in Jeet Kune Do).

During execution, we have three guiding principles WRAPS:

Word by Word checking of regulatory requirements (by filling up in minute detail relevant checklists or worksheet, ensuring compliance with each word of requirements, rules and guidance letters, annotating margins, comparing relevant precedents)

Regular Adherence to deadlines and timelines – constantly monitoring and ensuring that work is prepared well in advance (especially applying tools like project timelines, protocols and tabular reminders)

Publication Standard – attention to consistency, substance, logic flow, grammar, and other details when drafting/editing/proofreading, whether for publication or not (aided by grammar and spell checks, and methods in our proprietary system)

The AA Methodology (Focus on Legal Purpose) 

Ask: Focus on the following recurring questions behind each requirement concerned – What is the importance behind it? What values are to be enhanced by compliance with the requirement?

Aim: When reviewing a document in our work, we pursue the aim of each relevant requirement or practice concerning its identified importance.

We seek to apply this methodology to foster a culture of value creation through legal solutions and compliance. We devise various checklists, procedural guides and tools to help us achieve this.

Team Spirit

Every organization should have protocols to promote team spirit. To cultivate a collegial workplace atmosphere, (1) we encourage our people to support a colleague if one feels he/she may be in a low spirit. If one finds himself or herself in a low spirit, one should challenge that low spirit by responding from an enlightened spirit instead. We should strive hard to guide ourselves to overcome our low spirit and focus overwhelmingly on our enlightened spirit; (2) each colleague should open himself or herself to others’ support by listening, paying fair attention, and responding with positive energy; and (3) our workplace should be filled with mutual support underpinned by individuals’ efforts to promote sharing of accolades and mistakes (treated as our collective honors and treasures respectively) and refrain from judging, finger-pointing or mutual-blaming. Please also refer to our “TREE” values elucidated above.

Bit by bit, and every bit added together, we hope to establish the M+ Standard. “M” stands for “market” and “mile”. Imagine one day a market standard is recognized by all the people in the corporate finance industry around the world. And everyone is ready and willing to go the extra mile or two to achieve this.