Katherine Liu

Partner

Katherine Liu is a partner in the regulatory team in Stephenson Harwood, with a focus on the financial services sector. She has over 13 years of experience in advising clients on a wide range of issues in the financial services industry, including compliance with financial services laws and regulations, employment and personal data laws. In recent years, she has worked with a number of fintech startups and established financial institutions in establishing their online businesses. In advising financial institutions on the legal implications arising from the development of their websites and mobile apps to facilitate online investment trading or online lending, she has developed her expertise in cybersecurity and personal data issues specific to the financial services industry.

Katherine is known to be responsive and is recommended by clients as a lawyer who “maintains a great balance between legal advice and commercial realities”. She is recognised in The Legal 500 Asia Pacific 2021 as a "Next Generation Partner (Regulatory)" and was also listed in ALB's "40 under 40" most outstanding lawyers in Asia  in 2020.

  • Advised a financial institution in Hong Kong on a data breach incident allegedly caused by the negligence of a third party service provider. Our scope of advice covered, amongst other things, whether the client is obliged to report such incident to the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data in Hong Kong, post-data breach response work and the possible causes of action against the service provider.
  • Advised several financial services institutions on the launch of their online investment / lending businesses. Assisted with various data protection compliance issues related to new technologies including data analytics, direct marketing, intra-group data transfer and consumer credit data.
  • Reviewed internal privacy policies of several financial services institutions. Prepared privacy notices and other related-documentation for them.