Patricia Woo

Patricia Woo is co-head of the firm’s Family Office cross-practice team.

She is a fund, trust and tax lawyer noted for her practice in helping global ultra-high-net-worth families set up, restructure and operate investment-centric, service-centric, and comprehensive value-centric family offices.

Her expertise spans structuring of single family offices and multi-family offices, regulatory licensing and exemption, family investment guidelines, internal control and compliance manual, family constitutions, family council, hiring and compensation, internal hedge fund and private equity fund formation and restructuring (including corporate funds, segregated portfolio funds, partnership funds and unit trust funds and bespoke family funds under family trust structures), management and administration, negotiations with private bankers, prime brokers, global custodians, execution brokers and administrators and such charitable and philanthropic ventures as establishing and restructuring of charities.

She also handles matters arising at different stages of a trust’s lifecycle, namely, creation of trusts and private trust companies, their management, restructuring and termination, and loan and acquisition transactions. She drafts complicated wills, enduring powers of attorney and handles other cross-border succession and tax issues and provides advice and various legal and regulatory services to listed and private companies, private banks and/or trust companies with respect to employee incentive plans and trusts and the launch of new products and services that target ultra-high-net-worth families. She has also taken up projects involving family stress and conflicts, has received training in transformative mediation and is combining techniques drawn from marriage and family therapy theories, Bowen family systems therapy, emotion focused therapy, intuitive inquiry, heuristic inquiry and conflict prevention and resolutions to find fundamental and transformative solutions.

Patricia is a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst, Chartered Tax Advisor, member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners Academy Community, Certified Islamic Finance Executive and member of the Centre for Understanding in Conflict. She holds a STEP Certificate and Diploma in International Trust Management, STEP Advanced Certificate in Trust Disputes and Advanced Certificate and Diploma in Fund Administration. She also holds a BA in Philosophy and Economics (summa cum laude) from the University of Pittsburgh, MSc in Financial Economics from the University of London, LLB from the University of London, PCLL from the University of Hong Kong and MSc in Consciousness, Spirituality and Transpersonal Psychology at Liverpool John Moore University/Alef Trust and MA in Marriage and Family Therapy at Touro University Worldwide. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Human Services with a focus on Family Studies and Intervention at Walden University. She has completed Certified Emotion-Focused (individual) Therapy Level A training (and is undergoing Level B supervision training) and received training in Bowen Family Systems Therapy and Psychosynthesis.

Patricia publishes widely and is a frequent speaker and press interviewee on the topic of “family office”. She is recognized in CityWealth International Powerwomen Top 100 in both years 2024 and 2025, and is the Winner of CityWealth Powerwomen Awards (Career Initiative Silver Award) 2023, Finalist of 2021 “Private Client Lawyer of The Year” at the China Law & Practice Awards. She is also recognized in Who’s Who Legal: Thought Leaders – Private Client (1st Edition) 2020 and is a recipient of the 2021 Global Law Experts Annual Awards (Private Client Lawyer of the Year in Hong Kong 2021, Trust Lawyer of the Year in Hong Kong 2021 and Tax Lawyer of the Year in Hong Kong 2021), the Corporate INTL Magazine 2021 Global Awards (Private Client Lawyer of the Year in Hong Kong and Trust Lawyer of the Year in Hong Kong) and the High Net Worth Award Winner in Hong Kong of the 2020 International Advisory Experts Award. She is listed in the Euromoney Women in Business Law Expert Guide 2020-2022, CityWealth Leaders List Top 10 China & Hong Kong 2019, Legal 500 Asia Pacific 2021, Who’s Who Legal: Private Client Global Leader 2020 and CityWealth Leaders List 2020. She is also ranked in Chambers HNW 2021-2022 and recognized in CityWealth 2019 International Powerwomen Top 100 and CityWealth 2017 IFC Powerwomen Top 200.

She was adjunct associate professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Hong Kong, and lecturer of a trust training certificate course offered by Hong Kong Trustees’ Association in partnership with Hong Kong Securities and Investment Institute. She is adjunct assistant professor at the College of Law of the National Chengchi University of Taiwan. She is also honorary fellow of the Asian Institute of International Financial Law and an attorney-author with LexisNexis (where she is also on the editorial board for private wealth contents). She will teach two courses for the MSc in Family Office and Family Business Program at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

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