China Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (“CVCA”) and China Real Estate Developers and Investors Association (“CREDIA”) recently co-hosted a seminar on the management of public crisis and the related issues. Han Yi partner Linda He was invited as a special guest to give a lecture on this topic from the legal perspective. The seminar aimed to provide a platform for members of CVCA and CREDIA to communicate the most relevant experience in dealing with crisis events that may be easily encountered by business entities in today's ever changing new media environment. Most participants in the seminar are mid-to-senior level executives from leading private equity and venture capital funds, companies, senior legal practitioners and media professionals.

During this seminar, Ms. He, based on her rich professional experience, shared professional views and analyses on several cases involving enterprise public crisis management and offered some practical legal advice on how to properly handle public crisis events from the aspects of ex ante precaution, in-process solutions and after effect improvements. According to Ms. He, business entities should all tighten up their internal management during their daily operation process and be serious with such matters as entry and management of internal confidentiality agreements and adoption and implementation of internal limits of authorities and business process management in order to reasonably prevent the occurrence of public crisis events. When a crisis does happen, business entities should take proper legal actions in a timely manner to protect their legal rights and interests and minimize the negative impacts, including but not limited to sorting out and protecting relevant evidences, closely and effectively monitoring all employees involved and preventing the spread of negative news to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law. For institutional investors such as PE and VC funds, Ms. He also shared some practical solutions to figure out and mitigate risks that may lead to a public crisis event in a typical private equity investment deal. Ms. He’s wonderful speech was warmly received by the audience at the seminar.

Ms. He is one of Han Yi’s senior partners focusing on the practice areas of private equity and venture capital investments, M&A, securities, banking and finance, and general corporate matters. She is particularly experienced with private equity and M&A deals involving complicated cross-border investment and financing structures and multiple transaction parties. As a well-known PRC boutique firm, Han Yi has firmly maintained its leading position in the area of private equity and venture capital investments for over a decade and been recognized and highly recommended by clients and industry peers for its lawyers’ professional capabilities and service quality.