GC Spotlight: Victor Chan combines legal expertise and aviation insight to shape in-house law.

Featured in our GC Spotlight series this month is Victor Chan, a technically focused and trilingual lawyer dual-specialised in banking and finance and corporate finance. Victor joined PAObank (previously known as Ping An OneConnect Bank (Hong Kong) Limited) in 2021 as Head of Legal and was promoted in 2023 to Head of Legal and Compliance, now overseeing Legal and Governance, Compliance, and AML Quality Assurance functions. Victor is passionate about growing with the organisations he works with and driving business success from strategic, legal, and compliance perspectives. Under his leadership, PAObank’s Legal and Governance team was awarded the Technology, Media and Telecommunications In-house Legal Team of the Year in 2023 and the FinTech In-house Legal Team of the Year in 2024, winning at Asian Legal Business (ALB) Hong Kong for two consecutive years.

Victor has extensive in-house legal experience in banking and finance (particularly asset financing) and corporate finance with major organisations including BOC Aviation, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, China Huarong International Holdings Limited, and Hong Kong Airlines. He began his career as a corporate lawyer at Allen & Overy and Ashurst, and later re-specialised in banking and finance at the tier-1 asset financing firm Stephenson Harwood, focusing on aircraft financing and syndicated loans.

Victor contributed to Halsbury’s Laws of Hong Kong – Civil Aviation (2019) and is currently a contributor to the Hong Kong Encyclopaedia of Forms and Precedents (Logistics – Aviation). Both are leading Hong Kong legal reference collections published by LexisNexis. He has also been a speaker at various legal seminars. Victor holds two bachelor’s degrees in law and aviation management, and two master’s degrees in law and finance from City University of Hong Kong, Coventry University, and The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is now pursuing a PhD in law at City University of Hong Kong, specialising in asset financing.

1. Hi Victor , can you tell us a little about your role and journey into law? What excites you outside of work? 

I’m the Head of Legal and Compliance at PAObank, leading the Legal and Governance, Regulatory Compliance, and Quality Assurance teams, which together comprise 10 legal and compliance professionals. My path into law was a happy surprise. Law was not my first choice in high school - in fact, I originally planned to study music. I was accepted into City University of Hong Kong School of Law largely by chance. Before beginning my legal career, I also applied for a cadet pilot position with Cathay Pacific, withdrawing my application halfway through the process on my parents’ advice. I later realised that law was the love of my life, and am now pursuing a part-time PhD at CityU purely out of passion for the subject. Outside of work, running and flying are the two activities that excite me the most.

2. As a Head of Legal and Compliance, what are some of the challenges that keep you up at night? How are you addressing them? 

Compliance, the Bank’s business development, and my team are the three things that can give me both sweet dreams and the occasional nightmare. The most important of these is my team. With a strong and stable team, we’re able to identify the most critical compliance risks, and managing those risks begins with making informed and intelligent decisions. A strong team also means we can propel business forward, not only by executing effective plans, but by contributing to and even creating out-of-the-box solutions. Personally, my secret to dealing with things is to remain emotionally steady. Stay calm and carry on.

3. What do you think about the use of LegalTech, data analytics and process optimisation to improve your legal department's value? 

The adoption of technology has become inevitable in the age of FinTech and generative AI. GenAI has transformed knowledge acquisition, enabling non-lawyers to obtain legal information comparable to that usually provided by a junior lawyer, in just a few seconds, and at no cost. Traditional skills such as minute-taking for Board meetings, may soon become redundant as AI becomes sufficiently trained for those tasks. Legal research that once took hours may soon take a fraction of the time, and an acceptable first draft of legal advice may be created almost instantly. A significant portion of routine work previously performed by my team may soon be handled by AI, leaving room for more sophisticated analytical work, which requires legal judgment and experience. Our department will be well positioned to provide meaningful, tailored advice, while technology takes over proofreading, translation, and preliminary drafting tasks. 

4. What trends do you expect to see in the legal services industry in the next 5 years? 

I expect the legal services industry to undergo a period of contraction in the coming five years. During this time, highly specialised, top-calibre lawyers will stand out, while IPO-trained general corporate lawyers who lack additional specialised knowledge may face market saturation. Clients will no longer budget for low-value legal work, such as translation and basic research, and expectations regarding the quality of legal services will increase significantly. The need for electronic documentation will increase, though five years may not be enough time to implement meaningful reforms in court proceedings. Litigation may take longer to become fully digital. Legal education may face challenges due to an oversupply of underprepared graduates, while law schools that embrace change are likely to thrive. As often quoted: “It is the season of Light, it is the season of Darkness.” May this be the season of light for everyone who embraces change. 

5. Where do you see NewLaw/ALSP fitting in the matrix of your legal department? 

I believe NewLaw and ALSPs answer a market need for short-term, temporary, or highly specialised project-based legal support - a need my department may well experience in the future. I appreciate the broad pool of talent readily available from NewLaw/ALSPs. Turnover, medical leave, and maternity leave are inevitable, and flexibility in engagement periods, rapid deployment, and access to highly skilled and experienced practitioners clearly differentiate NewLaw/ALSPs from traditional law-firm secondments. Then there are temporary needs requiring deep expertise: in M&A, major financings, or investment projects involving complex structures, for example. In such situations, adding a permanent headcount may not be justified, and this is precisely where NewLaw/ALSPs can play a valuable role. 

6. What’s your favourite tune and why?  

I’m musically trained and play the piano, so classical piano works, especially those by Chopin, are close to my heart. Frédéric Chopin’s Fantaisie-Impromptu in C-sharp minor, Op. posth. 66 (WN 46) is my all-time favourite. I first listened to this piece when I was 17 (not that long ago), and I was immediately struck by its brilliance, imagination, and optimism. It quickly became the most listened to track on my Walkman (Google it if you’re curious). I won’t say how long it took me to master it - quite some time - but it remains a deep source of energy and inspiration for me to this day.