Cheah Yee Lynn Karen

PRACTICE FOCUS

Banking and finance, mergers & acquisition, corporate & commercial, real estate, aircraft financing, information technology / data privacy and regulatory compliance. 

EXPERIENCE AND CREDENTIALS

Karen joined Chooi & Company as a partner on 1 March 2016.

Karen has advised on many notable corporate transactions and merger & acquisition transactions over the years, including: 

• advising a fast growing local oil and gas / shipping company for the sale and subscription of shares with one of the world’s largest port development companies in Hong Kong for a ship-to-ship transfer hubs project worth USD650 million;
• advising joint venture companies held between the most profitable oil & gas company in the world with the largest local oil & gas producer;
• advising a leading Hong Kong logistics and container public listed company for the sale of shares by its founding member in a Malaysian subsidiary to a Malaysian listed company by way of a share swap;
• advising a European company on the share sale of their majority stake in a joint venture company based in Thailand in the automotive industry;
• advising a German-based company which is a leading global supplier of cosmetics products on its acquisition of a majority stake in a local cosmetics manufacturing company;

She provides legal advisory to many foreign banks and investment banks, as well as private companies seeking to venture into financial services within the local framework.

Karen is passionate in her quest for knowledge, commitment to clients, the betterment of the Bar and the legal profession, and has an ardent interest in public interest issues. She is a current Malaysian Bar Council member, and was the past Honorary Secretary and Treasurer of the Malaysian Bar. She was awarded the ATC Outstanding Alumni Award in 2016.

Karen is also the Chairperson of the Constitutional Law Committee, and the Ad Hoc Committee for Amendments to the Legal Professional Act and a member of the Institutional and Law Reform Committee, Child Rights Committee, Trades in Liberalisation of Services, and Finance Committee; of the Malaysian Bar Council.

Karen was a panellist speaker at the University of London Alumni Debate on the topic ‘Arbitration is not about just settlement, it is just about settlement’ in 2017. She also spoke at the Trilateral Regulatory Exchange Programme 2017 organised by Bank Negara Malaysia on the topic of how lawyers comply with AML/CFT regulatory requirements, challenges and compliances. In 2016, she was a presenter on the topic of ‘Technology & the Legal Profession’ at the International Malaysian Law Conference. She regularly speaks at seminars, forums and conferences domestically and on international platforms.

Karen is also the author / contributor of the LexisNexis: Practice Guide on Corporate: Financing.

More recently, she was recognised in the Asia Pacific Legal 500 as a name to note for Corporate and Mergers & Acquisition in 2019, with a definitive mention for aircraft financing.

QUALIFICATIONS

Karen graduated with a degree in law from the University of London in 1993, and thereafter obtained the Malaysian Certificate in Legal Practice in 1994. She was admitted as an advocate & solicitor of the High Court of Malaya in October 1995.

Hours: