Thomas Man is a partner in Morrison & Foerster's Beijing office. He has extensive experience representing both foreign investors in China and Chinese enterprises investing abroad. His practice focuses on complex cross-border transactions involving mergers and acquisitions, strategic alliances, joint ventures and other corporate and commercial transactions. He advises international clients on their mergers and acquisitions, greenfield investment, joint ventures, corporate finance, private equity, regulatory compliance (including anti-trust and FCPA investigations) and other general commercial matters in the PRC. He also acts for Chinese companies on their offshore investments, acquisitions as well as resolution of disputes in foreign jurisdictions or international arbitral tribunals.
Mr. Man has advised clients in the energy (including oil, gas and renewable energy), technology, manufacturing, life science, financial services, real estate, chemical and services industries.
Mr. Man is listed in IFLR 1000, 2011, as a "leading lawyer" in "Mergers and Acquisitions" and "Project Finance" categories in China. He currently serves as one of the two foreign legal advisors appointed to the drafting committee of China's Institute of Evidence Law and Forensic Science, a committee that was commissioned by the Supreme People's Court to draft the first uniform Rules of Evidence for all Chinese courts. He is an Adjunct Professor of Law at the China University of Politics and Law (Beijing) and also serves on the Board of Directors of ZhongGuanCun Hi-Tech Park Legal Service Company.
Prior to joining Morrison & Foerster, Mr. Man was a partner in other international law firms in the US (Chicago) and China (Shanghai and Beijing).
Mr. Man received his B.A. from Shandong Normal University and M.A. from Peking University in 1981 and 1984 respectively. He also holds a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University (1994) and a J.D. from Indiana University School of Law - Bloomington (1997). Mr. Man is admitted to practice in Illinois and Indiana. He is a native Chinese speaker and fluent in English.
Representative Matters
- Represented Texas Instruments in its acquisition of a state-owned enterprise and establishment of its first wafer production facility in Chengdu, China (awarded Deal of the Year in M&A category by China Business Law Journal, April 2011).
- Represented a major Chinese national chemical company in its bid for rationpharm GmbH and Mepha in an auction sale.
- Represented a major Chinese national petroleum company in its long-term natural gas purchase and transportation transaction with Gazprom.
- Represented a major U.S. chemical company in its US$120 million acquisition of a privately held Chinese company.
- Represented a leading US solar energy company in its investment and marketing activities in China through joint ventures and strategic alliances with Chinese partners.
- Represented a consortium of Chinese companies in a real estate development project in St. Petersburg, Russia (initial investment totaling US$1.25 billion).
- Represented a major U.S. private equity fund in its US$150 million acquisition of a PRC listed company.
- Represented a major Chinese state-owned oil company in its proposed acquisition of an oil exploration technology company headquartered in Europe with operations in more than 20 jurisdictions.
- Represented a Chinese privately held company in its acquisition of a London-listed Dutch company with metal mining assets in Kazakhstan.
- Represented several multinational companies in the retail, pharmaceutical and construction industries in administrative and criminal investigations arising from alleged violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and anti-bribery regulations of the PRC. Represented a leading listed PRC trade company in its commercial dispute with a US party in a US state court proceeding or in US state court proceedings.