Press Release

China Business Law Journal recently published its 2022 list of Rising Stars in China's legal market ("Rising Stars 2022"). The 80 elite lawyers listed, aged 40 or under, comprise 60 practitioners from PRC law firms and 20 from international law firms engaged in China-related practice. These early-achieving lawyers have already impressed their clients and peers with their precise legal expertise, astute business acumen, professionalism, and strong sense of ethics. It is especially impressive for a generation of young lawyers to be not just surviving, but thriving in their respective areas of expertise. Han Kun partners Sean Li, Lu Ran, and Horace Ye, and Han Kun's Hong Kong associated firm partner Charles Wu were selected for their excellence and contributions.

Sean Li specializes in venture capital and private equity investment, M&A, foreign direct investment, and general corporate work. He has represented numerous venture capital funds, private equity funds, strategic investors, and entrepreneurs in various industry sectors in their investment and financing projects, assisting in forming deal structures, drafting legal documents, and participating in negotiations. He has also advised foreign companies on their foreign direct investments, M&A, and local compliance issues in the PRC. The businesses of the clients represented by Mr. Li cover a wide variety of industry sectors including telecommunications, the internet, media, technology, insurance, manufacturing, new energy, consumer goods, education and logistics. Mr. Li is well-known for his excellent professional skills in the fields of venture capital and private equity investment, M&A, domestic and foreign capital markets and foreign investment, as well as his in-depth knowledge of various regulatory policies and procedures. His clients include many leading PE and VC firms, internet giants and start-ups. Mr. Li has an excellent reputation with those clients.

Lu Ran has advised local and overseas clients in a variety of private equity-related transactions, including the formation, management and operation of various types of fund entities and fund management entities. Her comprehensive legal services include the formation and operation of RMB and USD funds, QFLPs, QDIIs, QDLPs and QDIEs, the investment of insurance funds and management team incentive plans.

Charles Wu specializes in cross-border venture capital and private equity, mergers and acquisitions, and general corporate matters. Mr. Wu also represents domestic clients in pre-IPO cross-border venture capital financing, M&A, joint ventures and strategic alliances, follow-on financings of companies listed on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong or the NYSE and Nasdaq, public and private secondary disposals, Hong Kong transactional and compliance matters and outbound investments in non-PRC jurisdictions. Recently, he has served as a point of contact for domestic clients in connection with CFIUS, US export controls and US sanctions matters, as well as US legislative, regulatory, and political developments.

Horace Ye excels at providing all-round solutions for dispute cases and has a profound legal theoretical foundation and extensive practice experience. Mr. Ye specializes in dealing with complicated disputed cases, mainly in the advertising media industry, intellectual property rights protection and finance and asset management cases. Mr. Ye has represented a number of well-known foreign and domestic enterprises including the WPP Group, Citic Bank, Zhong An Insurance, the Exide Group, the Yuewen Group, the Parkson Group and the Jinjiang International Hotel Management Company, and has dealt with their litigation and arbitration cases.

The rising stars were carefully selected from a pool of over 2,000 nominations for excellent lawyers in China Business Law Journal's extensive market survey. Nominators included business leaders, corporate managers, in-house counsel, and lawyers whose recommendations were restricted to members of other firms.