Asha has been a partner at Reed Smith Richards Butler since 1999. She qualified as a solicitor in Hong Kong in 1993 and in England and Wales in 1994. She is also a qualified legal executive in Hong Kong. Asha joined Richards Butler in 1991 as a trainee solicitor. Prior to starting her traineeship, she worked for the Companies Judge in the Supreme Court of Hong Kong for 10 years, during which time she gained extensive experience in bankruptcy and winding-up matters as well as a variety of company-related matters brought before the Companies Court. With her length of service in the Judiciary, Asha is very familiar with court rules and procedures.
Asha has extensive experience in commercial litigation. She specialises in a wide range of company-related and contractual disputes, including shareholder and boardroom disputes, bankruptcy and winding up, minority shareholders’ petitions, employment and labour disputes, debt recovery actions against borrowers and guarantors, property-related litigation, banking litigation, defending discrimination claims before the Equal Opportunities Commission, and handling reports and complaints made to the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data. She is experienced in handling complex and substantial claims involving loans, convertible bonds, and other financing instruments, as well as highly contested enforcement actions concerning the appointment of receivers and the sale of secured assets. She also advises on compulsory and voluntary liquidations, debt restructuring, and schemes of arrangement for private and listed companies.
Her areas of practice also include arbitration, agency disputes, immigration, insurance-related litigation (including employees’ compensation claims), personal injury (including medical negligence, traffic accident claims, and professional indemnity), defamation, and matrimonial disputes. She advises on investigations by the Commercial Crime Bureau and the Independent Commission Against Corruption, as well as compliance and regulatory matters relating to the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Securities and Futures Commission, and the insurance sector. She has been a legal advisor to a self-regulatory insurance intermediary body for more than 18 years and regularly advises on insurance-related matters, including the preparation of compliance manuals for brokers and agents for the purposes of the new licensing and regulatory regime introduced in 2019 for insurance intermediaries. In recent years, she has also given talks and advised on the Competition Ordinance.
Asha has been recognised and ranked by legal directories, including Chambers and IFRL1000, for consecutive years. Clients have said: “She doesn’t just give you an answer to placate you, but goes in depth and makes sure she covers every base”. She was also an In-House Community Commended External Counsel of the Year in 2019.
