Amy L. Sommers’ strong skills in corporate structuring, governance and operations issues in China make her a valued resource to the clients she counsels. Her expertise includes advising on a variety of strategic business and commercial transactions such as real estate development and other investment projects in regulated sectors of the Chinese economy, mergers and acquisitions, and commercial financings. Clients seek her advice on various ongoing business matters such as distribution, manufacturing and intellectual property licensing arrangements, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and antibribery compliance, customs and other government investigations.

Ms. Sommers served as co-chair of the China Committee of the American Bar Association Section of International Law from 2004 to 2007; the China Committee received the Section’s “Best Overall Committee Award” for 2006-2007.She is currently a chair of the Section’s Cross-Border Real Estate Committee. From 2008 to 2010, she served as a chair of the Real Estate Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce – Shanghai, and from 2007 to 2008, she served as vice chair of the Chamber’s Legal Committee. In 2007, when the Shanghai Arbitration Commission formed a Shanghai Financial Arbitration Centre to handle resolution of banking- and finance-related commercial disputes, Ms. Sommers was asked to serve as one of 14 non-Chinese arbitrators available to decide disputes.

Ms. Sommers was awarded the Expatriate Professional Women’s Society of Shanghai’s 2007 Businesswomen Award in the category of Professional Excellence in part in recognition of her work in helping create stronger ties between the US legal profession and China’s growing profession.

Ms. Sommers is the author of the Real Estate chapter of West’s reference work Doing Business In China (3rd, 2010) and the co-author of articles in a variety of international scholarly journals including “A Tragedy of the Commons: Property Rights Issues in Shanghai Historic Residences,” Penn State International Law Review, vol. 28, 2010; “Planning for Conservation of Shanghai’s 20th Century Built Heritage,” Docomomo Italy – Conference on Preventive Conservation and Maintenance of Modern Movement Architecture, October 2009; “The Amended Law to the Company Law of the People’s Republic of China (PRC): Encouraging Foreign Investment, Strengthening Shareholder Protections,” which appeared in the Bloomberg Corporate Law Journal in 2006; and “A Toolkit for In-house Counsel on Mitigating IP Loss Exposure in an Emerging Market: China,” in Asian Briefings, a special supplement of ACC Docket, March 2010.

Ms. Sommers is a frequent speaker on various China-related topics and a member of the China Speakers Bureau. Ms. Sommers was a co-presenter for a workshop on “Overcoming Anti-Corruption Compliance Challenges in China” at the Third European Forum on Anti-Corruption in London in 2008. She was also a panelist at the 2008 Spring Meeting of the American Bar Association of the Section of International Law on a program titled “Hot Topics in Doing Business in China: Real Estate Investment in an Increasingly Strict Environment.”

Representative Experience

• Acting as China counsel to a leading global online travel services provider, advising on a range of strategic, operational and compliance issues.
• Counseling an Iceland-based private equity fund on potential investment in hospitality and entertainment-related projects such as a project to develop a mixed-use entertainment center on the North Bund in Shanghai.
• Representing a US-based company, the world’s market share leader in its technology field, in connection with a significant investigation by Shanghai Customs.
• Advising a global shipping and logistics company in its 1999 US$234.75 million securitization financing.
• Advising a global shipping and logistics company in its US capital markets commercial paper program (1997, 1998, 1999 and 2000).
• Advising a China-based bank on a complicated set of supply chain management and commercial factoring agreements to support and secure export letters of credit reimbursement guarantees extended to it by its national export credit agency.
• Advising a Europe-based development finance company on due diligence and regulatory analysis of potential private equity-type investments in various targets.
• Advising US-based companies and their non-US affiliates on antibribery, corporate governance and FCPA compliance, investigations and training.
• Representing and providing guidance to clients in structuring investment in PRC-regulated industry sectors including transportation, banking, education, food safety and e‑commerce.