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Daniel F. Roules
Partner
Dan Roules is an APAC lead of our Chemicals Group and Automotive & Transportation Group, and a partner in our Shanghai office. During his 35-year career at the firm, Dan has led teams of lawyers on numerous cross-border M&A transactions of all kinds in Asia, Europe and the US. Resident in China for nearly 25 years, he has also led teams of lawyers on compliance investigations and advised offshore companies on a wide range of regulatory issues.
Dan has an intimate understanding of the business challenges faced by executives and in-house counsel. He has acted as the Asia Pacific counsel for a US-based global chemical company for more than five years, gaining experience in integrating local operations teams and counselling management to attain business success, as well as resolving legal issues.
In recent years, Dan has counselled some of China’s leading companies on international regulatory and policy matters, helping to advise them on offshore trade compliance, sanctions matters, public policy and media defamation management. More and more, he helps Chinese companies to navigate the increasingly complicated and challenging US and EU regulatory risks.
Prior to moving to Shanghai, Dan spent four years in the firm’s Beijing office and three years with the firm in Taipei, where he counselled manufacturing, technology and venture companies on a wide range of matters both there and in mainland China.
During the 1990s, Dan worked for the firm in several emerging markets, including the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, advising multinational companies on acquisitions, joint ventures and commercial matters, and counselling multilateral financing organisations and government agencies on privatisation and foreign investment matters.
Corporate (Including M&A and Joint Ventures)
- Coordinating the closing of a US$3 billion transaction that involved more than 50 separate transactions in 45 jurisdictions globally.
- Counselling a leading US drinks company with regard to its expansion into China, Thailand, Cambodia and Myanmar.
Anti-corruption and Investigations
- Assisting a US-based multinational chemical company with e-discovery and reviewing electronic data, interviewed the implicated employees and sanctioned those employees found to have engaged in wrongdoing.
- Acting as the compliance counsel for a US-based manufacturing company’s subsidiary in China and guiding the client with respect to the review and analysis of emails and WeChat histories and interviews with whistleblowers and the accused employees, then negotiating the separation of each wrongdoer.
- Developing entertainment and gift policies for use by multiple US publicly traded companies in China for use with government officials and executives of state-owned enterprises.
Data Privacy and Cybersecurity
- Representing a world-recognised developer of beauty products, technology-driven skin care, makeup and perfumes on data privacy/data protection issues in China.
- Advising and analysing the compliance issues for the software product of a leading UK consulting company for marketing analysis to be launched in China, including advising on PRC regulatory issues related to map data and data privacy.
Operational Regulatory
- Coordinating internal investigations at a multinational automotive sector company based in China into various alleged acts of wrongful conduct, including vendor price-rigging.
- Advising a leading global producer of consumer goods on price-fixing issues.
- Representing a US IT company in responding to nationwide complaints by customers and legal counsel in China on alleged product defect and demands for recall.
- Advising a US-headquartered producer of beauty products on PRC labelling regulations and risks of fraudulent or misleading advertisement.
Education
- University of Iowa, J.D., cum laude, 1986
- University of Iowa, B.A., magna cum laude, 1983
Admissions
- Ohio, 1986
Languages
- English
- Mandarin
- Shortlisted as the International Dealmaker of the Year by China Law & Practice in 2021
- Recognised in China Business Law Journal’s A-List of China’s Elite 100 Lawyers for 2019
- Recognised as one of the Client Choice Top 20 Lawyers in China by Asian Legal Business Magazine for 2015 and 2016