Overview

Vanessa Lo is an associate in the Employment & Benefits practice in JSM's Hong Kong office.

Vanessa advises on all aspects of employment law, including recruitment and termination issues, compliance with the Employment Ordinance, and anti-discrimination legislations. She also handles employment disputes and discrimination complaints, including large-scale internal investigations, and has experience in conducting proceedings in the Labour Tribunal and courts in Hong Kong.

Vanessa also has experience in handling retirement scheme matters.

Vanessa speaks English, Cantonese and Mandarin.

Experience

  • Acted for a large online food delivery company in relation to en-masse claims by riders including claims under the Employment Ordinance and the Employees’ Compensation Ordinance in the Labour Tribunal and District Court.
  • Assisted clients in handling discrimination complaints at the Equal Opportunities Commission and internal investigations on discrimination or harassment complaints.
  • Conducted internal investigation for global financial institution into allegations of race discrimination spanning APAC, EMEA and Americas.
  • Acted for a major charitable non-governmental organisation in an internal appeal proceedings in relation to various complaints made by an employee against staff members.
  • Advised clients on large profile redundancy exercise, termination of senior employees, managing sick and pregnant employees, protection of confidential information, enforcement of restrictive covenants and variation of terms of employment.
  • Advised a large multinational insurance company in dealing with various employment-related claims, including wrongful termination, bonus claims and victimisation complaints by former employees.

  • Assisted clients in dealing with MPFA investigations in relation to ORSO / MPF schemes, as well as advising on the restructuring of ORSO / MPF products and onboarding to eMPF platform.
  • Assisted a Hong Kong-based airline with the ground work for its recruitment campaign (including drafting a wide range of employment documentation including contracts and various HR/data privacy/compliance related policies).
  • Assisted a large power business in Hong Kong in successfully defending an appeal lodged by a complainant against the Privacy Commissioner before the Appeals Administration Board in relation to a decision on data-privacy related breaches under the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance.
  • Assisted a global bank in responding to the investigation by the Privacy Commissioner into a complaint made by a former employee for non-compliance with a data access request and complying with an enforcement notice issued by the PCO, including to provide training on how to handle data access requests.
  • Assisted a European bank with complying with a data access request made by a former disgruntled employee, which involved reviewing a large amount of data and advising strategically how to manage the request.
  • Assisted a Hong Kong-based airline in defending a claim in the High Court (transferred from the Labour Tribunal) by a former cabin crew for wrongful termination.
  • Assisted a major Bank in Hong Kong in defending a claim in the Labour Tribunal by a former employee whose employment was terminated for misconduct.
  • Assisted large healthcare and dental company in Hong Kong in successfully defending a Labour Tribunal claim commenced by a former independent contractor (specifically, a visiting dentist) of the Company for wrongful termination and claimed damages.
  • Assisted a global audit and accounting firm in managing a deadlock between relevant stakeholders of the client’s retirement scheme, including communications between them and dealing with enquiries from the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority.
  • Assisted a global audit and accounting firm in an internal investigation into a sexual harassment complaint made by an employee against one of the most senior employees of our client.
  • Assisted a social welfare organisation to deal with a challenging situation where an employee accused the senior management team of unfair treatment including biased performance assessment, unjustified disciplinary action as well as daily management of the employee’s work.
  • Assisted a multinational financial services company in a multi-region investigation into diversity, equality and inclusion issues with a focus on race which were raised by an employee of the bank based on his own investigation findings and observations in the past years.
  • Assisted a multinational insurance company in defending a claim of constructive dismissal in Labour Tribunal.