About Ka Lam Karen Kong

Karen is an associate in the Dispute Resolution team based in the Tokyo office.

Karen focuses her practice on dispute resolution, including global investigations and international arbitrations. She has experience in international arbitration, regulatory investigations, corporate governance and compliance matters. Karen has represented a range of clients including international financial institutions, public and private companies and oil and gas companies.

Karen speaks English, Japanese (JLPT N1), Mandarin and Cantonese.

Prior to joining Freshfields' Tokyo office, Karen worked for a leading US law firm in Hong Kong. Karen is admitted to practice in New York and Hong Kong.

Recent work

• Advising a major Asian trading house in an UNCITRAL investment-treaty arbitration against an Asian State relating to a tax demand imposed on the client’s investment in the mining sector
• Advising a major Japanese oil and gas company in a dispute and potential arbitration arising out of the construction of a major Asia-Pacific LNG project
• Advising an Asian oil and gas company in its investment treaty claim against a national government relating to the export of natural gas
• Advising an international oil and gas supermajor in a series of disputes arising from its crude trading activities
• Advising a trading house in an international arbitration relating to its coal mining investments in an Asian jurisdiction
• Advising a Japanese energy investor before the ICSID in an Energy Charter Treaty arbitration against Spain
• Advising a contractor consortium in the ICC arbitration proceedings brought against a project owner in connection with the design and construction of an ammonia and urea plant in Algeria
• Conducting an investigation and advising a Japanese client in response to OFAC inquiries into sanctions
• Conducting an internal compliance and ethics investigation of a leading accounting and audit service provider in the Republic of Korea affiliated with an international services provider
• Establishing global and local compliance policies and procedures (including training) for a major Japanese company and its pan-Asian subsidiaries, including in Indonesia
• Advising a global investment bank in relation to its hiring practices in Asia-Pacific in response to anti-corruption inquiries from multiple U.S. regulators*
• Advising a global bank in response to U.S. regulatory inquiries into sanctions*
• Conducting an internal investigation on behalf of a global investment bank in relation to its tax reporting system in the U.S.*
• Conducting an internal investigation on behalf of a major global bank in relation to employees’ professional misconduct in Hong Kong in response to inquiries from Hong Kong regulators*
• Assisting employees from a major global bank in their interviews with Hong Kong regulators on their client’s compliance issues*
• Advising Hong Kong-listed companies in the oil and gas industry on compliance laws and regulations*
• Advising the sponsors of Meituan Dianping’s $4.22 billion Hong Kong IPO and global offering*
• Advising CNOOC’s $1.45 billion SEC-registered guaranteed notes offering*

*Prior to joining Freshfields.