New Law Firm Bowers Opens in Hong Kong; Experienced Team Offers Innovative Fixed-Fee Charging Structure, Eliminates Hourly Billing
HONG KONG, April 1, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- New, independent law firm Bowers, which will be branded bowers.law, today opened for business in Hong Kong. Founded by Hong Kong Solicitor Advocate Kevin Bowers, bowers.law will implement a new, value-based charging model for legal services. The firm will eliminate traditional hourly rate billing even for contentious dispute resolution legal work.
Kevin Bowers is a dual-qualified lawyer in England & Wales and Hong Kong and has practiced as a commercial dispute resolution lawyer and partner with three leading Hong Kong law firms since 1997. He specialises in commercial, insurance, employment and property dispute resolution as well as crisis management, fraud, and media law both in Hong Kong and internationally. The bowers.law team will also advise on a wide range of corporate and commercial matters, including transactional corporate finance and intellectual property cases.
bowers.law will open for business with a team of consultants and associates experienced across a wide range of practice areas, allowing the firm to advise companies and individuals in numerous industries and professions. The firm's primary practice areas will initially include dispute resolution, employment, insurance, fraud, crisis management, property, family, media, business formation, tax, corporate and commercial cases.
"We are a team of legal and reputational problem solvers. Experience, proactivity, creativity and most of all tenacity are what we promise our clients. As a new, independent Hong Kong law firm, we have minimal conflicts of interests and can advise corporate and individual clients across the spectrum of transactional and dispute resolution work," said Kevin Bowers in Hong Kong today.
The firm will calculate fees based on the agreed value clients place on their legal services and the desired end-result, not on the length of time it will take their lawyers to do the work. Client fee structures will be based on fixed, staged and retainer arrangements, which will deliver corporate and individual clients increased value for money, certainty and shared risk.
"We believe our charging structure to be unique in Hong Kong. It means it is in both our clients' and our firm's mutual best interests for us to advise and work as quickly, efficiently and effectively as possible. At the end of the day, this is what all clients want from their legal advisers," added Bowers.
Under the fixed fee model, a set price is agreed for a piece of work. Under the staged fee model, a set price is agreed for each stage of a project, transaction or case. Under the retainer fee model, a set price is agreed for repeat work.
For dispute resolution cases, bowers.law's objective is to keep their clients out of court or arbitration and always to work towards achieving a realistic, cost-effective commercial settlement. This is achieved through negotiation, mediation or other alternative dispute resolution methods which are in the best financial and other interests of their clients.
For corporate and commercial matters, the firm takes a results-orientated stance and advises creatively and practically to overcome and work around the technical and other challenges that arise during every transaction.
"As an independent Hong Kong law firm with deep roots in the city, we also understand and appreciate our corporate social responsibility to the wider community. We will therefore be using our time and experience to take on selected pro bono work. We look forward to welcoming new clients, colleagues and partners as we rewrite the law firm rulebook in Hong Kong and build a firm for the future that is based on value, results and partnership," concluded Bowers.
Note to Editors:
Kevin Bowers is a Solicitor Advocate in Hong Kong, and an Accredited Mediator with the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (HKIAC) and The Law Society of Hong Kong, Founder and Senior Partner of independent law firm bowers.law and Director of business consultancy Alinea (Hong Kong) Limited. He has also appeared as an expert witness (on Hong Kong corporate law) in the BVI High Court.
Throughout his career, Kevin has been consistently recognised as a leading commercial dispute resolution, insurance and employment lawyer by Asia Pacific Legal 500, Chambers Asia Pacific, Global Law Experts, Asialaw Leading Lawyers and Euromoney's Legal Who's Who Hong Kong.
He handles complex multi-jurisdictional commercial cases involving debt recovery, sale of goods, trade finance, media law, fraud, shareholder, joint venture, employment, property (including land rights disputes and building management/tenancy issues) and franchise disputes, contentious family/probate/trusts, asset tracing, injunction proceedings, jurisdictional challenges, public inquiries and judicial reviews.
Kevin acts for both employers and employees in contentious and advisory employment matters and is experienced in advising upon and handling internal disciplinary investigations and proceedings. Kevin acts for a wide range of commercial and residential landlords and tenants, as well as asset and building managers in high value property rights disputes and has successfully defended a claim for HK$300 million arising from the competing uses of commercial properties in Hong Kong. He is also experienced in professional indemnity, Directors & Officers liability and other general insurance and reinsurance-related claims. He served as a panel solicitor for the Hong Kong Solicitors Professional Indemnity Scheme from 1997 to 2018. Kevin has considerable experience advising on legal issues arising from crisis management situations, including employee fraud, market manipulation, data breaches and industrial relations. His experience extends to defamation-related litigation and pre/post-publication advice to both printed and new media-based publications in Hong Kong and abroad and regularly advises on broadcast and telecommunications matters.
Kevin has acted on behalf of Hong Kong's main cargo handler in The Commission of Inquiry into the Opening of the Hong Kong International Airport and for appellant insurers to the Privy Council in England. Kevin was also successful in obtaining one of the most far-reaching restraining orders worldwide from the Court of First Instance in Hong Kong and in representing a professional regulatory body before the Court of Final Appeal in Hong Kong in judicial review proceedings.
Memberships/Qualifications
- Solicitor Advocate, Hong Kong
- Accredited Mediator, Prosecutor and Member, The Law Society of Hong Kong
- Accredited Mediator, Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (HKIAC)
- Accredited Mediator, The Insurance Complaints Bureau
- Member, HKIAC Mediation Council
- Examiner, University of Hong Kong (1998)
- Member, Professional Indemnity Advisory Committee, The Law Society of Hong Kong
- Member, Hong Kong Insurers Club
- Member, Hong Kong Insurance Law Association
- Member, The Professional Negligence Lawyers' Association
- Associate Member, Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE)
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