Joanne Wu

/My focus

I focus my practice on three main areas:

Commercial and Shareholder disputes

I have a strong focus on commercial and shareholder disputes and serve my clients by handling complex commercial disputes arising from shareholders disputes, joint ventures, breach of trust, corporate and commercial transactions involving multi-national parties, and lawsuits, both by court proceedings and arbitration.

General Commercial Litigation

I litigate complex commercial litigation matters in a variety of industries including insurance, entertainment and securities. I have extensive experience in handling entertainment and media-related lawsuits, insurance-related disputes, contracts disputes, debt recovery actions, employment, property-related disputes, big-money matrimonial proceedings, contentious probate matters, celebrity defamation lawsuits, securities enforcement, etc.

Intellectual Property Law

I handle both contentious and non-contentious intellectual property matters in Hong Kong and mainland China, including enforcement and disputes matters.

/Representative experience

• Represented Wahaha Group Company, the largest beverage producer in mainland China, in its Hong Kong litigation with Danone Group, parts of the worldwide multi-national lawsuits, and assisted in negotiating and successfully reaching a global settlement agreement between the two leading famous beverage companies
• Represented a famous Hong Kong comic superstar in his artiste management contract dispute with TVB, the largest television broadcasting company in Hong Kong
• Represented a Hong Kong film production company in a series of High Court proceedings in relation to contractual dispute over the joint venture production of a famous Hong Kong film entitled Shaolin Soccer and dispute over the respective intellectual property rights as well as other ancillary rights of the film
• Represented a well-known artiste management company in Hong Kong in its various contractual disputes with its famous artistes and successfully assisted client in recovering reasonable monetary compensation and damages from time to time
• Represented a famous Hong Kong superstar in instituting a defamation action against a widely circulated magazine in Hong Kong and succeeded in obtaining formal court declaration and reasonable damages
• Represented a PRC-based petroleum exploration company in shareholder dispute litigations in Hong Kong against its joint venture partner over the crude oil and petroleum exploration and production business in Africa involving sizeable corporate assets of over USD2.2 billion
• Represented a PRC-based government-subsidized entertainment company in an arbitration proceeding in Hong Kong in respect of disputes over a joint venture agreement involving a film production fund of USD25 million
• Represented clients in high-value matrimonial lawsuits and a wide range of family disputes involving issues arising from divorce, child custody, ancillary relief and big money financial claims
• Represented client in contentious probate matters involving worldwide assets worth more than HK$300 million

/Looking ahead

Dispute resolution has nowadays grown from local litigation to multinational and global litigation and arbitration. I see now all clients need one thing from their litigators—a detailed but realistic analysis of how to pursue their cases toward efficient and satisfactory resolution.