Mr. An’s practice focuses on labor, employment, employee relation, compensation and benefits.
Assisted an MNC in successfully laying off about 1000 employees located in various cities in a recent high-profile case. With our assistance, all impacted employees eventually signed termination agreements. This outcome helps client avoid litigation risks and costs. Assisted an MNC in laying off about 6000 employees who were located in several cities. Assisted an MNC in successfully resolving a high-profile strike case triggered by a business acquisition. Assisted an MNC on a high-profile collective bargaining case dealing with an aggressive/almost independent labor union. Assisted with many other smaller employee mass layoff or strike cases.
Assisted an MNC in reviewing its irregular service outsourcing agreement and practice which involved thousands of vendor workers, identified the key legal issues/risks and assisted client on resolving the issues. Successfully obtained evidence (through creative means) about a former manager’s joining a business competitor in breach of his non-compete obligation to the client, laying a solid foundation for client to eventually win the lawsuit. Worked with US colleagues to assist client in resolving the legacy stock option cases which involved tens of former China employees. Assisted several MNCs in forming labor union in an orderly way when unionization cannot be avoided. Assisted with a few sexual harassment investigation cases, including one involving cross-border legal issues and victims in both US and China.

Johnny Choi heads the firm's China Employment practice. He has vast experience in complex and strategic employment advice for multinational clients, such as international human resources projects, large scale layoffs and restructurings, cross-border secondments, employee data privacy, HR investigations, litigious employment disputes, and contentious removal of company executives. Johnny also leads the firm's Greater Bay Area employment initiative.

Johnny is recognised consistently for his employment law expertise by leading legal directory Chambers and Partners since 2013. He is a "Leading Individual" and his China team is ranked Tier 1 by Legal 500. Johnny has recently been named into the Hall of Fame by Legal 500. Qualified in NSW, Australia and Hong Kong SAR, he has spent over 17 years in mainland China advising multinationals on their employment law issues. Given his international background, Johnny also regularly advises Chinese clients on the people issues they encounter in their overseas investments and operations, including restrictive covenants, incentives and equity plans.Chambers Asia Pacific (2022) highlight that "Johnny Choi is highly intelligent and provides highly responsive, practical advice".

Johnny supports international and regional clients across a range of industries, including technology, life sciences, financial and retail. Recently, Johnny has advised life science companies on investigations into serious misconduct or corruption by employees. He successfully defended a number of technology companies against IP theft by their staff. He also advises financial institutions and retail companies on the design and implementation of employee compensation and incentive schemes.

Mr. Shao is Managing Director - Consulting Greater China at Korn Ferry and leads Industrial Market advisory business in Asia Pacific, helping multinational and local companies to drive and sustain superior business performance through talent and organizational interventions.

Mr. Shao brings near 20 years global experience in both corporate and consulting to clients and the Firm. He used to be the Global Head of Leadership Development and Learning & Development at Caterpillar Inc, a US Fortune 100 industrial company. Prior to that, he was Practice Leader at Hewitt Associates, advising clients from various industries, such as: industrial, real estate, pharmaceutical, financials, Hi-Tech and etc.

Mr. Shao focuses on helping Chinese companies going global and multinational companies to succeed in China through leadership assessment and development, talent management, succession management, org design, HR transformation, executive coaching, M&A and etc.

Mr. Shao holds Master of Business Administration from Rotterdam School of Management at Erasmus University, the Netherlands and Bachelor of Economics from Shanghai University of Finance and Economics. He is accredited for several leadership assessment instruments and trained for executive coaching.