One Day of Leading a Global Legal Team

Edith Shih, General Counsel, Hutchison Whampoa Limited (HWL), Hong Kong

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.

Edith Shih is Head Group General Counsel and Company Secretary of Hutchison Whampoa Limited (HWL). Edith leads an in-house legal team of more than 200 lawyers spread globally and is also a director or company secretory 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.

Hutchison Whampoa Limited (HWL). Based in Hong Kong, HWL operates in 56 countries and has around 250,000 employees worldwide. Core businesses include ports, property. retail, energy and telecommunications, generating annual group turnover of about US$40 billion.