Greg Burch

Greg Burch is Chair of the Firm's China Practice.

Greg counsels clients on domestic and international commercial, corporate and litigation matters in the energy, construction, maritime and foreign trade industries. His core practice is advising international companies on their business interests in China as well as advising Chinese companies on their international operations and outbound investments.

Greg has handled complex commercial and international litigation and arbitration, including disputes involving international trade, complex project disputes, large maritime disputes, class action, "mass action" and U.S. multidistrict litigation as well as litigating in the Hong Kong courts.

Greg offers Chinese clients a unique combination of his long connection with China, direct personal experience in international trade, mergers and acquisitions, transportation, and his extensive experience as a litigator in U.S. and international arbitration and as a commercial counselor in corporate transactions across a range of industry sectors.

Greg's representative experience includes:

Corporate Transactions

• Advised Changjiang Corporate Finance (HK) Limited, the sole sponsor, in the HK$219.9 million initial public offering and listing on the Main Board of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong by Persta Resources Inc., a company based in Alberta, Canada, and principally engaged in natural gas and crude oil exploration and production
• Representing a Hong Kong-listed Company in connection with its acquisition of the controlling interest in a privately held U.S. biotech company specializing in protein engineering
• Represented Beijing Cenway Bio-energy Technology Co., Ltd., in the acquisition of a biodiesel plant facility in Houston. Beijing Cenway has developed a new technology using genetically engineered bacteria to process used cooking oil into uniform stock feed
• Advised a major Chinese state-owned petroleum energy and chemicals company in China in connection with the purchase of a jack-up offshore drilling rig out of a yard in Singapore
• Advising on recent trends in the energy business, including wind and other renewable energy projects, LNG, alternative fuels, retail energy in deregulated markets and energy trading markets
• Advising on exploration and production, gathering/processing/storage, natural gas, oil and product storage and pipeline transmission, oilfield services, liquefied natural gas (LNG), refining, power generation, commodity marketing and trading and all parts in between

International Litigation

• Advised a leading U.S.-based operator of offshore service vessels in a dispute resolution matter regarding the default/anticipated default by a PRC shipbuilder in the delivery of 12 vessels. The client had entered into various ship building contracts with a Chinese shipyard in excess of US$100 million. We reached settlement in the disputes with respect to all 12 vessels for the client, including a refund of many tens of millions USD.
• Advises SOE's including Sinopec, COFCO, CNOOC, CNPC and the Sinochem Group in connection with corporate, energy and dispute resolution matters
• Defended a major Chinese state-owned petrochemical company in U.S. Federal Court against a US$2 billion claim arising from a commercial relationship
• Advising on wire fraud for companies across a range of industries; obtaining freezing orders, judgments and awards and recovering substantial monies for victims of on-line frauds
• Advised Hong Jing Company Limited, a Macanese company in its claims against the defendant, Zhuhai Kwok Yuen Company Limited, a state-owned company. The matter, HCA 156/2006, was brought to settlement in January 2016
• Advising the State Bank of India in its claim against a Hong Kong company for an unpaid shipment of diamonds. The State Bank of India acquired this rights of claim from Jewel America Inc. (liquidated in the United States). Parties are finalizing pleadings

Greg has been involved with U.S.-China relations for over 35 years. In January 1979, he was chosen to be in the first group of U.S. students to travel and study in China and was present in the Great Hall of the People when the first U.S. Ambassador to China celebrated the normalization of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Before embarking on his career in law, he worked for five years in the ocean transportation business, dealing first hand with a key element of the growing trade between the U.S. and China.