Description

Synopsis

Ever wondered what the life of a lawyer is like at a rapidly growing tech company like Grab? The Grab Legal Team will introduce you to Grab, the work they do, and what an internship with the Grab legal team will involve.

About the Speakers

Christopher Betts
General Counsel

Chris is the General Counsel at Grab, based in Singapore. Prior to joining Grab earlier this year, Chris was a partner in the Hong Kong office of Skadden, where he worked on a variety of equity and debt offerings, mergers and acquisitions and other matters for companies including Xiaomi, Meituan, Baidu and JD.com. He was also the office hiring partner for many years and led Skadden’s attorney training and development efforts. From mid-2006 to early 2010 he was associate general counsel for McKinsey & Company, where he covered legal and risk management across the Asia Pacific region. Originally from Australia, he spent two and a half years studying in Beijing in the 1990s before beginning his career with Freshfields in Hong Kong in early 2000. In his spare time, Chris enjoys getting into the outdoors, riding his mountain bike, reading and spending time with his wife and three kids.

John A Cordova
Deputy General Counsel

John leads Grab’s corporate finance legal team which supports our Corporate
Finance team on fund raising, M&A deals and strategic partnerships. John is
also Head of Countries and provides guidance and support to Grab’s country legal heads who deal with day-to-day operational and regulatory issues. As Deputy General Counsel, John actively balances the need for the Legal team to be commercially relevant with its role as stewards of corporate conscience and reputation.

Before joining Grab, John trained and practiced as a corporate commercial and capital markets lawyer at Freshfields in London, Hong Kong, Singapore and Bangkok for over 10 years. He then joined Clifford Chance as Counsel and was a partner at Rajah & Tann working on ASEAN-based transactions. John also worked for a US private equity firm with a focus in the healthcare and education sector.

At Grab, John strives to cultivate and preserve a “trusted advisor” relationship with his stakeholders and business leaders. This involves (1) enabling them to achieve Grab’s consumer-centric goals, spur continuous innovation and maintain real-world relevance and (2) flagging legal risks to help them form commercially sound and responsible decisions that contribute to Grab’s sustainable growth.

A Thai-Filipino, John is fluent in Thai and speaks broken Mandarin thanks to spending 10 months in Beijing’s Language and Cultural University.

Avril Cheong
Regional Competition Counsel, Legal

Avril leads the Competition & Antitrust practice group in the Grab Legal team,
and is based in Singapore. She began her career in Allen & Gledhill LLP where she practiced Competition & Antitrust law for four years, before moving inhouse to Grab in 2019. Avril provides advice to Grab’s business teams across all verticals locally as well as regionally, and has been central in safeguarding and championing antitrust compliance within Grab.

Outside of work, Avril enjoys dancing, baking, and soaking up the sun.

Joan Xue
Regional Legal Counsel

Joan is Regional Legal Counsel in Grab where she manages contentious matters, advises on employment law and provides legal support to Grab’s B2B verticals and regional support functions. She began her career as a litigator in Rodyk’s dispute resolution practice and was a Vice President in UOB’s legal department before joining Grab in 2019.

Rachel Liew
Legal Counsel

Rachel leads the Grab Singapore country legal team, providing support to various business verticals and internal functions in their day-to-day operations. She began her career in private legal practice (general corporate and M&A) and joined Grab in 2017.