Mayer Brown CEO and Leadership

Cecil Leong is the Regional Director, Trade Consulting at K&L Gates Straits Law and oversees the International Trade/WTO consulting operations in the Asia Pacific. He is part of K&L Gates' Policy & Regulatory practice, which groups together professionals with specialty practice areas within international trade in Asia, North America, Europe and Latin America.

Cecil assists clients in matters pertaining to customs valuation, classification, post-entry audits, transfer pricing, wholesale/distribution/dealer contracts and advocacy with customs authorities, and has been involved in many important cases before customs authorities in China and Singapore. In China, he has been involved in several significant customs valuation cases over the past decade. He has also handled customs, import regulatory and compliance matters in Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan and India.

Cecil also advises companies on optimising their regional supply chains with a focus on Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), including the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), etc.

He is actively engaged in Indonesia, Myanmar, and the Philippines where he has brought together foreign investors and leading local businesses to undertake joint ventures in the areas of infrastructure development.

Cecil is the chair of the Singapore steering committee to the ASEAN Japan Business Meeting for the last 10 years. In Oct 2015, he served as chair of the 40th ASEAN Japan Business Meeting which was held in Singapore. Mayer Brown, Accenture, Tan Chong, SMBC Bank, Ascendas-Singbridge and IM Holdings as sponsors. Singapore Business Federation and Kezai Doyukai were co-organizers with Mayer Brown with support from JETRO and JCCI.

Chambers Global and Chambers Asia Pacific have ranked Cecil in Band 1 for International Trade/WTO in 2018 & 2019