Biography
Serene Kan is a partner in the Intellectual Property & Technology Practice Group of Wong & Partners, a member firm of Baker & McKenzie International in Kuala Lumpur.
Practice Focus
Serene’s portfolio of work covers technology and media transactions, technology and licensing agreements, data privacy and protection, e payments and e commerce.
Serene also advises and assists clients on a full spectrum of regulatory issues involving entities within the technology and telecommunications space and financial services industry. Her practice is complemented by her commercial contracting experience across a wide range of areas including in respect of outsourcing, distribution arrangements, O&M and build to suit agreements.
Additionally Serene has extensive experience in advising multinational corporations and financial institutions on data protection issues and has assisted companies in among others, developing internal policies and procedures, managing their data protection compliance programmes, data protection training programmes, developing data breach management plans, and dealing with data breaches and cybersecurity incidents.
Serene is an IAPP Certified International Privacy Professional (CIPP (E)) and a member of the Technology, Cyber and Privacy Laws Committee of the Malaysian Bar Council FY23/24.
Serene is also named as a Next Generation Partner by Legal 500 Asia Pacific in its 2024 guide.
Representative Legal Matters
- Advising global technology companies and platform operators on among others, roll-out of e-commerce capabilities, their cross-border data privacy rights, platform liability and regulatory licensing requirements.
- Advised a Chinese multinational internet technology company regarding payments regulatory and consumer protection framework in Malaysia. This has enabled the company to be compliant with local laws to enable the client’s expansion into the fintech and technology space and to scale its business within Malaysia.
- Advised a leading worldwide payment-processing corporation on its proposed enhancements of its current Stand-In Authorization service in Malaysia, which includes an AI-based solution that imitates the issuer's decision as closely as possible and can operate alongside existing parameters within the client’s Stand-In Authorization service.
- Acted as lead counsel for an American multinational technology company in relation to the multijurisdictional advice on the release of its web-based AI chatbot across five Southeast Asia countries, namely Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines.
- Provided an American multinational internet technology company with an overview of the payment regulatory regime in Malaysia, ranging from the issuance of designated payment instruments to merchant acquiring business and remittance business. We also acted as standing counsel advising the company on its compliance framework as an e-money licensee.
- Assisted a Chinese multinational company with a regulatory assessment on the offering of a new card wallet mobile application in Malaysia, specifically covering market entry pre-conditions, licensing, content moderation, consumer protection as well as a payment regulatory framework in Malaysia.
- Advising a leading Malaysian telecommunications industry player on the roll-out of insurance products for its enterprise and consumer customers on its platform. This entailed a full spectrum of regulatory advisories for compliance with the Financial Services Act 2013, the General Insurance Agents Requirement Regulations (GIARR) and various other policy documents and guidelines promulgated by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) as well as the drafting, reviewing and negotiation of key contracts and agreements that later acted as foundational documents for the project.
- Assisting a Malaysian universal bank to review and negotiate cloud service outsourcing agreements with a global cloud computing service provider (including the identification of and incorporation of key regulatory compliance gaps pursuant to the Policy Documents on Outsourcing, Risk Management in Technology (RMiT) and Management of Customer Information and Permitted Disclosures as issued by the Central Bank of Malaysia (BNM)).
- Advised a German automobile manufacturer specializing in high-performance sports cars on its video streaming feature from the perspective of telecommunications law, media law and broadcasting law in Malaysia. More broadly, we have also advised the client on data protection in Malaysia by responding to a comprehensive survey which covers various aspects such as applicability, international data transfers, data protection contracts and legal bases for processing.
- Advised AIA Group Limited in relation to the USD 1.8 billion acquisition of ING Group N.V's Malaysian insurance and takaful business and on the merger between AIA Malaysia’s and ING Malaysia’s life insurance and takaful businesses under Part XI of the Insurance Act. The acquisition resulted in the merger of ING’s Malaysian life insurance operations and AIA’s existing Malaysian life insurance business, currently the third and the fourth largest in Malaysia respectively, to create the largest life insurance firm in the country. This transaction was awarded “SE Asia M&A Deal of the Year 2013” by ALB in May 2013. The work included advice on insurance regulatory issues.
Professional Honors
- Named as a Next Generation Partner by Legal 500 Asia Pacific 2024
Professional Associations and Memberships
Malaysian Bar
Kuala Lumpur Bar
Admissions
Malaysia (2010)
Education
University of Reading, UK, LLB (2008)
Certificate of Legal Practice (2009)
Languages
English
Bahasa Malaysia