Cedric Chou is the Chair of Kaye Scholer's Greater China Practice - Los Angeles, and focuses his practice on cross-border and Greater China matters. Mr. Chou represents financial institutions, public and privately held corporations, high net-worth individuals, and high-tech and media companies. He assists clients in a broad range of matters, including corporate and finance, white collar investigation, litigation management and regulatory issues. Mr. Chou represented clients in the first SEC registration of a Taiwanese company and in one of the first insider trading investigations by the SEC on a China-based public company's senior executive. In recent years, he also assisted U.S. and Chinese companies in renewable energy investment.
Mr. Chou's experience working in Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong and Taipei, in addition to California, allows him to bring clients a greater understanding of Pacific Rim legal, business, government affairs and cultural issues. He helped establish the Hong Kong office of a major Wall Street law firm, and successfully assisted in developing its Greater China strategy. In addition, Mr. Chou is a well-known Chinese writer and the author of a critically acclaimed book on the rule of law. When he was based in China, he taught at the Guanghua School of Management at Peking University and the School of Law at Fudan University.
Prior to joining Kaye Scholer, Mr. Chou was a partner at a major law firm.
Representative Transactions
· Representation of XEMC New Energy in its investment into wind projects of Alta Mesa Finance, LLC, located in Southern California.
· Representation of Apex Wind Energy in connection with its portfolio of wind projects throughout the U.S. and its dealings with Chinese investors.
· Representation of CIT and a number of other U.S. companies, on the establishment of representative offices, wholly-owned subsidiaries or joint ventures in China as well as related matters.
· Representation of Fuqi, a Chinese company then publicly listed on the Nasdaq, on financial restatement, class action and derivative action issues.
· Representation of high net-worth Taiwanese or Chinese clients and public companies regarding investigation by the SEC or securities litigations.
· Representation of Shanghai Yongpu on its reverse merger transaction with a California corporation.
· Representation of a prestigious Taiwanese weekly magazine on its selling of shares and restructuring.
· Representation of NuCom on Citi Venture Capital's US$40 million equity financing and restructuring of a PRC cable TV company.
· Representation of a Taiwanese commercial bank, as creditor, on its US$80 million claims in factored accounts receivable against retailers Wal-Mart, Hitachi, Target and Circuit City, as well as against a bankruptcy debtor in California.
· Representation of Eastern Communications, a public PRC corporation, in its strategic alliance with a U.S. company.
· Representation of California high-tech corporations in venture capital financing.
· Representation of a real estate fund in its investment into projects, with a public PRC property development company.
· Representation of a major U.S. chemical company on the establishment of a foreign trading company in Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone in Shanghai.
· Representation of Winbond Electronics on the issue of US$200 million convertible bonds.
· Representation of Merrill Lynch on the registration at the SEC of American Depositary Receipts (and an intended NYSE listing) by Far Eastern Textile, the first from Taiwan.
· Representation of Merrill Lynch, Lehman Commercial Paper and J.P. Morgan on a US$500 million commercial paper program of The Korea Development Bank.
· Representation of Korea Exchange Bank on its US$1 billion commercial paper program.
· Representation of Merrill Lynch on the issue of mortgage backed floating rate notes of Dragon MBS Ltd. The mortgage originators are affiliates of Cheung Kong.
· Representation of Merrill Lynch on the private placement of the PRC land bank of New World, a Hong Kong development company.
· Representation of Bank of Taiwan on its establishment of a wholesale branch in Los Angeles.
· Representation of Bank of Taiwan, Taipei Bank together with two other Taipei-based banks in obtaining approval by Federal Reserve System of the U.S. of the banking comprehensive supervision issues of Taiwan, the first to meet the requirements under the Foreign Bank Supervision Enhancement Act of 1991.
Awards and Recognitions
· Southern California Monte Jade Science and Technology Association, Certificate, in appreciation of outstanding services, March 6, 2004.
· California State Assembly, Certificate of Recognition, in honor of the leadership and inspiration provided towards promoting new technology in business and community partnerships, February 7, 2003.
· California State Board of Equalization, Resolution, in honor for service and commitment to the Asian American community, February 7, 2003.
· Southern California Monte Jade Science and Technology Association, Award of Appreciation, Founding Ceremony, February 23, 2002.
Publications
· Author, "CFIUS: A Unique Challenge for Chinese Energy Investors," Overview of US Wind Energy Industry and Market, Chinese Wind Energy Association (Beijing: Central Party Literature Press, 2011).
· Author, "An Ideal State of Law: A Virtual Dialogue between Socrates and Mencius" Taipei: Commonwealth, 1998; Beijing: Commercial Press, 1999 (critically acclaimed and cited in law textbooks and used for law and other courses, also widely acknowledged in all three parts of Greater China).
· Regular columnist or occasional contributor from 1999 to 2005 for China Youth Daily (Beijing) (weekly column in 2001), Global Views Monthly (Shanghai) (monthly column in 2002), Cai Jing Monthly (Beijing), China Times (Taipei) and Yazhou Zhoukan (Hong Kong).
· Editor, "Financial Market English-Chinese and Chinese-English Dictionary" (Beijing: San Lian, 2003).
Speaking Engagements
· Moderator, US - China Wind Summit 2011: Building Strategic Cooperation.
· Co-Presenter, US China Wind Summit 2010: Building Strategic Cooperation.
· TV guest, KSCI, Los Angeles, frequently from 1999 to 2004.
· Panelist, The 20th Modern Engineering & Technology Seminar, Taiwan, 2004.
· Panelist, The 2004 Biennial Taiwan-USA Business Conference, 2004.
· Panelist, Cal State Northridge, Center for China Finance and Business Research, 2003.
· Speaker, Impact Roundtable, Century City, 2003.
· Speaker and Chair, Southern California Monte Jade Science and Technology Association, 2003 M&A Conference.
· Panelist, Industry City Manufacturers Council, 2002.
· Panelist, Southern California Monte Jade Science and Technology Association, 2002.
· Speaker, Shanghai Society of International Affairs, Shanghai, 2001.
· Speaker, Rand Corporation, 1999.
Community Involvement
· Board Member, Los Angeles Philanthropic Committee for the Arts, 2010.
· Milestone Contributor of the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles.
· Conductor, Chamber Orchestra of Tzu-Chi Buddhist Philanthropy Foundation, 2004.
· Host on behalf of Asia Society, welcoming luncheon in honor of Consul General Zhong Jianhua of China, November 2002.
Membership(s)
Board Member, Los Angeles Philanthropic Committee for the Arts, 2010
Advisory Board Member, Cal State Northridge, Center for China Finance and Business Research, 2002-2008
Executive Board Director, Southern California Monte Jade Science & Technology Association, 2003-2004
Publications
Author, "CFIUS: A Unique Challenge for Chinese Energy Investors," Overview of US Wind Energy Industry and Market, Chinese Wind Energy Association (Beijing: 2011)
