Speaker > Biography

Frederick R. Burke

Principal
Baker & McKenzie LLP
Ho Chi Minh City

Practice Areas:

Mergers and Acquisitions, Project Finance, Foreign Investment & Securities, Financial Services, Real Estate, Construction/Projects, Taxation, International Trade & WTO, International Employment, Intellectual Property & Technology Transfer, Dispute Resolution.

Practice Description:

Frederick Burke has twenty years’ experience in the planning, negotiation and operation of foreign invested projects as well as in the related issues of securities law, finance, construction, taxation, regulatory compliance, labor, intellectual property and technology transfer.

Representative Clients, Cases or Matters

Advised strategic Investors in Equitizations of Bao Viet Insurance, Vietcombank.
Dung Quat Refinery: Project Financing (largest project-related financing in Vietnam in 2007).
Asia Pacific Breweries: Acquisition of Fosters Vietnam assets (largest M&A deal in Vietnam in 2007)
Advised Nam Mo Project Development Company on its proposed Off-take Agreement with Electricity of Vietnam (2006).
Phu My 3: Advised on EPC Contract for 750 MW Gas Fired Combined Cycle Power Plant (first successful power BOT in Vietnam).
Phu My 2.2: Advised on financing of 750 MW Gas Fired Combined Cycle Power Plant (second successful BOT power plant in Vietnam).
Mr. Burke has served as the legal advisor to the USAID-Funded "STAR" (Support for Trade Adjustment and Reform) Project in Vietnam for the past five years. As such, he has been providing technical legal assistance and training to the Vietnamese Government (through 42 counterpart ministries and agencies) on adoption of WTO-standards and international best practices into domestic legislation, including among other things Vietnam's new Build-Operate-and-Transfer Decree, its draft Law on Expropriation, the recent Enterprise Law, Investment Law, Competition Law, and Law on Credit Institutions, etc.

Distinctions:

Recommended in more categories than any other lawyer in Vietnam by the Practical Law Company in its 2007 Survey. (www.practicallaw.com/whichlawyer 2007 edition).
Awarded Certificate of recognition by the Ministry of Justice of the Socialist republic of Vietnam for “Outstanding Contributions in the Field of International Legal Cooperation (2003).

Professional Positions:

Co-Chairman, Executive Committee, Vietnam Business Forum (2001 – date) and Chairman, Manufacturing & Distribution Working Group (2005 – date).
Senior Advisor, former Chairman, and Chairman of Legal Committee, American Chamber of Commerce, HCMC, 2003 – to date.
Vice Chairman of Executive Committee, Hong Kong Business Association in Vietnam 2000-to date.
Board of Governors Member, Vice Chairman and Chairman, American Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City, 1995-2003.

Bar Admittance and Education:

Admitted to practice in New York (1987) and Washington, D.C. (1988). Registered foreign lawyer in Vietnam

Columbia University School of Law: Juris Doctor, 1987

Columbia University School of International Affairs: Master of International and Public Affairs, 1986

Stanford University: Bachelor of Arts Degree, 1981 (with honors)

Parker School of Foreign & Comparative Law: Certification, 1987

East China Institute of Politics & Law: Certification, 1984

Selected Publications

Co-Author: Business Operations in Vietnam (2006, BNA Tax Management Portfolios)
Editor: Indochina Law Quarterly (since 1991)
Editor: CCH Vietnam Business Law Guide (1995-2004)
Author: Guide to Banking and Finance Law in Vietnam (2000)

Languages

English, Chinese (Mandarin), Vietnamese.