Joy Lam
Biography
Joy Lam is a registered foreign lawyer in Baker McKenzie’s Hong Kong office and a member of the Firm's Financial Services Group. Joy's practice focuses on advising clients within the virtual assets ecosystem in relation to virtual asset funds, tokenized funds, non-fund tokenized offerings, and the complex and rapidly evolving regulatory requirements for providing infrastructure that services the virtual assets ecosystem.
Joy’s representative experience includes advising on Asia’s first open ended tokenized fund, Asia’s first closed ended tokenized fund and securing the first approval from Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission for a 100% virtual assets fund that permits subscriptions and redemptions to be effected in the form of virtual assets.
She also advises on a wide range of traditional fund formation transactions, including real estate funds, private equity funds and hedge funds and advises on fund related corporate matters including upstream management and seeding arrangements.
Representative Legal Matters
Fintech and Blockchain*
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Advised Knight Dragon Investments Limited and its subsidiary KD Tokens Limited on the GBP 140 million tokenization of economic interests in Building 4 in Upper Riverside Development. The project is the first tokenization of prime real estate in Central London. The Knight Dragon building tokenization is a ground-breaking transaction that transforms a traditionally illiquid asset into an efficient and transparent investment product that is accessible to a broad base of investors.
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Advised MaiCapital Limited on securing SFC approval to manage portfolios that comprise up to 100% virtual assets and on the formation and offer of Asia’s first tokenized bitcoin-themed quantitative fund. It was the first actively managed fund to be offered by an SFC-licensed fund manager with a focus on cryptocurrencies and was also the first tokenized fund in Asia to feature cryptocurrencies as an asset class.
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Advised Animoca Ventures on the establishment of a crossover digital assets fund investing in private digital tokens and equity-related instruments with a focus on the metaverse and Web3.
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Advised Symphony Digital on the establishment of Symphony Digital Opportunities Fund I which provides investors with access to digital assets through yield generating strategies within decentralized finance.
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Advised Axion Global Asset Management Limited on securing regulatory approval from the SFC to manage 100% virtual asset portfolios and on establishing the Smart Beta Fund which provides diversified exposure to large cap cryptocurrencies.
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Advised Huobi Asset Management (Hong Kong) Limited on several fund launches, including two passive cryptocurrency tracker funds, one actively managed multi-strategy virtual assets fund and one multi-asset fund investing in virtual assets alongside traditional assets such as equities and fixed income. Huobi AM’s virtual assets funds are Asia’s first regulated, 100% virtual assets funds in which interests are tokenized.
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Advised Huobi Asset Management (Hong Kong) Limited on securing regulatory approval from the SFC to manage 100% virtual asset portfolios, the first to permit redemptions and subscriptions in the form of cryptocurrency.
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Advised a fund manager on the establishment of a tokenized, closed-end fund investing in illiquid assets. The fund was the first tokenized fund in Asia.
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Advised a fund manager on the establishment of a closed ended cryptocurrency mining fund and related joint venture arrangements.
Traditional Investment Funds*
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Advised a Hong Kong-based manager on the formation of a USD 500 million joint venture co-investment platform with an international investment bank to acquire logistics assets, including forming the platform, establishing a joint venture manager to manage investments and the sale of three seed assets to the platform.
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Advised one of China’s largest property developers on the formation, structuring, acquisition financing (including mezzanine and senior notes) and security arrangements of multiple real estate funds to acquire real estate assets in Hong Kong with an aggregate acquisition value in excess of HKD 27 billion.
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Advised C.H.M.T. Peaceful Development Hong Kong Fund Management Limited (C.H.M.T.) on its USD 5.2 billion acquisition of The Center, a 73-story landmark office tower in Hong Kong. C.H.M.T., backed by a Chinese-led consortium, is a special purpose vehicle set up for the acquisition.
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Advised a Hong Kong and China-based real estate private equity fund sponsor on the structuring and documenting of an offshore USD private equity fund targeting real estate investments in the US. The fund incorporated an innovative, first of its kind, feeder fund structure involving the establishment of an RMB-denominated feeder fund in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone which aggregated high net worth wealth management product investors from Mainland China to invest in the offshore fund.
* Includes matters handled prior to joining Baker McKenzie.
Professional Honors
- Leading Lawyer (Fintech Legal, China) - Chambers Fintech (2023)
- Rising Star (International Law Firms, Hong Kong) – China Business Law Journal (2022)
- Leading Lawyer (Investment Funds, China) – Chambers Greater China (2022-2023)
- Up and Coming Lawyer (Investment Funds, China) – Chambers Asia Pacific (2021)
- Rising Stars (Investment Funds) – Expert Guides (2020)
- Notable Practitioner (Investment Funds, Hong Kong) – IFLR1000 (2019-2020)
- Rising Star – Law360 (2018)
Professional Associations and Memberships
- Founding Committee Member - Asia Security Token Alliance
Admissions
- New South Wales~Australia (2006)
Education
- Macquarie University (B.A. and LL.B) (2005)
Languages
- English