Chen Yongchang (Joseph)

Areas of Practice

Joseph Chen specialises in commercial dispute resolution, particularly in domestic commercial litigation and arbitration involving finance, corporate, and real estate. He also excels in administrative litigation. He has over 19 years of experience in dispute resolution.

Mr. Chen advises on corporate disputes relating to equity transfer, anonymous shareholder, valuation adjustment mechanism (VAM), shareholder qualification, company control, etc. He also represents large e-commerce companies in online copyright infringement disputes. His representative corporate matters include:

• Advised a domestic leading enterprise in the fashion clothing industry on its pre-IPO crisis and successful listing.
• Represented a large NASDAQ-listed e-commerce company in a dispute over the right to reputation with a media company and a social media platform, with a success in the second instance, specifically the claims of the other parties rejected.
• Represented a small shareholder of a well-known private chemical company in a dispute involving the internal division of tort liability among the shareholders. Despite limited relevant regulations, no similar precedents and failure in the first instance, he finally helped win the dispute in the second instance, minimising the client’s liability and saving the client from huge losses.
• Represented a subordinate company of a central state-owned enterprise in a dispute over the control of a target company. By employing combined tactics such as litigation, negotiation and on-site intervention, he finally helped the client obtain the control of that company.
• Represented many well-known foreign funds, city investment funds, and insurance companies in VAM and equity repurchase disputes. He provided solid legal support for the clients to withdraw effectively and recover the investments from the target companies, through a comprehensive strategy of application of the existing laws and regulations, reference to typical cases and practical experience.

Mr. Chen also advises on financial disputes arising from loan contracts, trust contracts, letters of credit, negotiable instruments, corporate bonds transactions or funds. In particular, he has a proven track record in new types of financial disputes. Mr. Chen has ample experience in enforcing debts for banks, financial leasing companies and funds. He is highly skilled at adopting combined measures, including property preservation and exit ban on its actual controller, to exert high pressure on the other party. After securing favourable judgements or mediation agreements, he is able to maximise the enforcement of the effective instruments. In addition, Mr. Chen has substantial expertise in complex financial disputes involving criminal crimes and administrative penalties to seek the best interests for clients. His representative financial matters include:

• Represented a policy insurance company in a credit insurance contract dispute, achieving maximum benefits for the client in comparison with the outcomes of cases of the same type during the same period.
• Represented a securities company in a dispute over margin financing and securities lending transactions, which was the very first case involving “circumvention” in the transaction in Shanghai.
• Represented a financial leasing company in a dispute arising from a financial leasing contract, which involved the application of rules under the newly effective Civil Code governing the priority of a lessor’s claims on the leased property and the legal issues arising from the lessee’s bankruptcy. Due to its innovation and challenging aspects, the dispute was selected as one of the top 10 typical cases of the Shanghai Financial Court in 2021.
• Represented a well-known wealth management company in a high-profile approximately RMB 5 billion dispute involving forgery of supply chain related accounts receivable and a repurchase contract in 2019, in multiple criminal and civil proceedings. He had the defendant’s properties first seized on behalf of the client.
• Represented a well-known multinational telecommunication company in an independent guarantee dispute involving complex legal issues such as the identification of guarantee fraud and the recognition and enforcement of a foreign arbitration award. He helped the client successfully prevent the issuer of the guarantee from making the payment in the end.

In addition, Mr. Chen has extensive experience in real estate disputes arising in connection with land transactions, cooperative development, construction project, real estate sales, leasing, property management, investment and operation of large shopping malls. He represents owners, contractors, material suppliers, designers and other parties in litigation and arbitration proceedings. His representative real estate matters include:

• Represented a real estate developer in Shanghai in a construction contract dispute a contractor, involving complex factual and legal issues such as judicial appraisal of the construction cost, suspected forgery of instructions, and inconsistent settlement standards of the project payments. The dispute was resolved with the project payments lowered.
• Represented a project company of a HKEX-listed real estate developer in a construction cost dispute with a consulting firm, with a success for the client by analysing the contractual terms and construction cost practices.
• Represented a listed real estate developer in a construction contract dispute with owners of small properties in a large residential area in Shanghai. Mr. Chen clarified the original intent of those owners in entering into contracts with the client through a meticulous and objective interpretation of the contract’s wordings and purpose and in light of market transaction practices. Despite the judicial appraisal of the cost of the fit-out works, he persuaded the court into settling the amounts under the contract based on a closed price, thus saving the client from huge losses from lawsuits potentially brought by the group of small property owners.
• Represented a listed real estate developer in a construction contract dispute with the signing contractor and the actual contractor. The actual contractor improperly slowed down or suspended the construction in order to claim additional costs. Coupled with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was highly likely that the project involved would not be completed as scheduled and the client may also be held responsible for breach due to delay in delivery of the properties to over 1,000 small property owners. Mr. Chen rapidly resolved the dispute through a combined strategy of litigation and negotiations, limiting the client’s losses and preventing a potential mass action for rights protection.

Mr. Chen has secured success for Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce in administrative lawsuits filed by different entities. He also advises the Commission regularly, protecting the client from a variety of disputes and conflicts.

Work Experience

Before joining the Shanghai office of King & Wood Mallesons in 2012, Mr. Chen worked in a well-known law firm in the city.

He obtained his LL.B. degree from East China University of Political Science and Law and was admitted to practise law in China in 2005.

His working languages are Chinese and English.