Ian Cheng

Chun Man Ian Cheng
  1. People /

Ian Cheng

Ian Cheng

Senior Associate


Hong Kong SAR
Chun Man Ian Cheng
  1. People /

Ian Cheng

Ian Cheng

Senior Associate


Hong Kong SAR

Ian Cheng

Senior Associate

Hong Kong SAR

T: +852 3143 8455

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Biography

Ian is an Associate in the Hong Kong SAR office. He has experience in construction arbitrations and in advising clients on employment law matters. He also has experience in appearing before the High Court, the District Court, and conducting trials in the Magistrates Courts in Hong Kong SAR.

Ian is a prosecutor on fiat on the Department of Justice’s Magistrates Courts B List. Ian also is a member of the Appeal Panel (Housing), an independent statutory body established under section 7A of the Housing Ordinance (Cap. 283) to determine appeals lodged against the termination of lease agreements between the Housing Authority and its tenants.

Ian is a contributing author to Financial Regulation: Emerging Themes in 2020 - an extensive collection of articles around the themes of supervision, governance, financial crime and investigations and digital.

He was admitted as a Solicitor in Hong Kong SAR in 2017.

Spoken Languages

  • Chinese (Cantonese)
  • English
  • Chinese (Mandarin)

Admissions

  • Hong Kong

Related Practice Areas

  • Construction Disputes

  • Infrastructure

  • Energy Transition

  • Commercial Construction & Engineering

  • Commercial Real Estate

  • Investigations

  • Litigation & Dispute Resolution

  • Regulation, Compliance & Advisory

  • Cross-border Employment Issues

  • Employment Class & Collective Actions

  • Business & Commercial Disputes

  • Employment & Labor

  • Real Estate

Experience

  • Advising a Hong Kong SAR non-profit organisation on its entitlements to liquidated damages, extension of time assessments, retention of monies and termination issues concerning the construction of a new operations building.
  • Representing a major Korean contractor in disputes concerning the construction of a propane dehydration plant in Saudi Arabia.
  • Representing the sub-contractor in an arbitration concerning the E&M works for a major casino in Macau.
  • Representing the sub-contractor in arbitrations concerning the redevelopment of a landmark building in Hong Kong SAR.
  • Representing the sub-contractor in an arbitration and the related appeals to the Hong Kong SAR courts concerning a major railway project.
  • Representing the contractor in an arbitration concerning a JV dispute in Macau.
  • Representing the employer in an arbitration concerning a bridge dispute.

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Mar 06, 2025

Getting the ball rolling: sports disputes resolution in Hong Kong SAR

These are exciting times for sports in Hong Kong. With the Hong Kong team’s success at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics and Summer Paralympics, the opening of the Kai Tak Sports Park and the 15thNational Games (which Hong Kong is co-hosting together with Guangdong and Macao) in 2025, it is expected that interest in sports and the sports industry in Hong Kong will continue to grow. From the selection of athletes by sports clubs to the determination of the outcome of a game, anti-doping tests and sports-related commercial deals, disputes can arise at many stages along the sports industry chain. Some observers and commentators have suggested that Hong Kong would be assisted by having a comprehensive dispute resolution system to resolve the sports-related disputes which unavoidably arise from the growing sports industry.
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Government issues Model Adjudication Documents

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HK Security of Payment Ordinance: what difference might it make in practice?

In Wang & Lee Contracting Ltd v Young Kwong Pui Trading as In Tech Engineering [2025] HKDC 66 (Date of Decision: 3 January 2025), the District Court ordered the court proceedings to be stayed and that the plaintiff’s claims be referred to arbitration. The court’s decision to grant a stay in favour of arbitration is entirely unsurprising and is consistent with Hong Kong courts’ pro-arbitration stance. What this article will explore is how this dispute might have proceeded along a different trajectory if the newly enacted Construction Industry Security of Payment Ordinance (Cap 652) (“Ordinance”) had been in force and applied to this dispute and the facts leading up to it.
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Dec 20, 2024

Hong Kong Security of Payment Ordinance passed; goes into operation on 28 August 2025

The second and third reading of the Construction Industry Security of Payment Bill concluded at the Legislative Council on 18 December 2024. As an important milestone of the security of payment regime in Hong Kong, the Construction Industry Security of Payment Ordinance (“Ordinance”) will be published in the Government Gazette on 27 December 2024. According to section 1(3), the provisions on power of Secretary for Development for registration and administration of Adjudicator Nominating Bodies (“ANBs”) will take effect on the gazettal date, i.e. 27 December 2024. The remaining provisions of the Ordinance will come into operation on 28 August 2025. Construction contracts entered into on or after this date will be governed by the Ordinance.
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Oct 07, 2024

HK Security of Payment Bill: Government responds to submissions from the public

The Hong Kong Government received 37 submissions from the public in July 2024 regarding the Construction Industry Security of Payment Bill (“Bill”) and held discussions with deputations from different stakeholders at a LegCo meeting on 16 July 2024. On 2 October 2024, in a letter to the LegCo, the Government summarised some of the key points that had been made in the submissions from the public and gave its response to the submissions. While there is no indication from this letter that the Government would make any amendments to the wording of the Bill in relation to the submissions from the public, the letter raises some important points regarding the Bill and some follow-up actions that the Government said that it will undertake to deal with concerns raised by various stakeholders.
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Sep 27, 2024

Smart contracts and the use of arbitration to resolve related disputes

In recent years, technology advancement has introduced new methods for contract formation. In particular, the rise of blockchain technology has led to the emergence of “smart contracts”, which are digital contracts which automatically execute transactions when pre-determined conditions are met. This article provides a brief explanation as to what smart contracts are, and examines some of the potential issues that could arise under Hong Kong law when arbitration is used to resolve smart contract disputes.
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Sep 25, 2024

HK Security of Payment Bill: an insolvency exception to ban against “pay when paid” clauses?

On 16 July 2024, the Hong Kong LegCo Bills Committee which is considering the Construction Industry Security of Payment Bill (“Bill”) held a meeting to receive representations and submissions on the Bill from deputations sent by stakeholders in the construction industry. Some deputations suggested that the Government should consider specifying cases of non-payment caused by bankruptcy of contractual parties at upper tiers in the supply chain as an exception to the ban against “pay when paid” clauses. The deputations argued that this exception would “prevent series of bankruptcy of various contractual parties at lower tiers”.[1]  (Of course, there always will be one or more parties at the lowest levels that will bear the brunt of the bankruptcy further up the contractual chain.)

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These are exciting times for sports in Hong Kong. With the Hong Kong team’s success at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics and Summer Paralympics, the opening of the Kai Tak Sports Park and the 15thNational Games (which Hong Kong is co-hosting together with Guangdong and Macao) in 2025, it is expected that interest in sports and the sports industry in Hong Kong will continue to grow. From the selection of athletes by sports clubs to the determination of the outcome of a game, anti-doping tests and sports-related commercial deals, disputes can arise at many stages along the sports industry chain. Some observers and commentators have suggested that Hong Kong would be assisted by having a comprehensive dispute resolution system to resolve the sports-related disputes which unavoidably arise from the growing sports industry.
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Feb 27, 2025
Government issues Model Adjudication Documents
On 10 February 2025, the Development Bureau (“DEVB”) issued a suite of model adjudication documents (“Model Documents”), including a set of model adjudication rules (“Model Rules”). This suite of Model Documents is not issued so as to be binding or operative in their own right. Rather, they are issued as guidance (perhaps strong guidance) for the various entities who will apply to Government to be recognised as approved adjudicator nominating bodies, “ANBs”, for the purposes of the Construction Industry Security of Payment Ordinance (Cap. 652) (“Ordinance”). Although it remains uncertain to what extent the Model Documents will be adopted by nominating bodies, the Model Documents offer a preview of how the Ordinance might function when it comes into operation on 28 August 2025.
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Feb 27, 2025
HK Security of Payment Ordinance: what difference might it make in practice?
In Wang & Lee Contracting Ltd v Young Kwong Pui Trading as In Tech Engineering [2025] HKDC 66 (Date of Decision: 3 January 2025), the District Court ordered the court proceedings to be stayed and that the plaintiff’s claims be referred to arbitration. The court’s decision to grant a stay in favour of arbitration is entirely unsurprising and is consistent with Hong Kong courts’ pro-arbitration stance. What this article will explore is how this dispute might have proceeded along a different trajectory if the newly enacted Construction Industry Security of Payment Ordinance (Cap 652) (“Ordinance”) had been in force and applied to this dispute and the facts leading up to it.
Insights
Dec 20, 2024
Hong Kong Security of Payment Ordinance passed; goes into operation on 28 August 2025
The second and third reading of the Construction Industry Security of Payment Bill concluded at the Legislative Council on 18 December 2024. As an important milestone of the security of payment regime in Hong Kong, the Construction Industry Security of Payment Ordinance (“Ordinance”) will be published in the Government Gazette on 27 December 2024. According to section 1(3), the provisions on power of Secretary for Development for registration and administration of Adjudicator Nominating Bodies (“ANBs”) will take effect on the gazettal date, i.e. 27 December 2024. The remaining provisions of the Ordinance will come into operation on 28 August 2025. Construction contracts entered into on or after this date will be governed by the Ordinance.
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Oct 07, 2024
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The Hong Kong Government received 37 submissions from the public in July 2024 regarding the Construction Industry Security of Payment Bill (“Bill”) and held discussions with deputations from different stakeholders at a LegCo meeting on 16 July 2024. On 2 October 2024, in a letter to the LegCo, the Government summarised some of the key points that had been made in the submissions from the public and gave its response to the submissions. While there is no indication from this letter that the Government would make any amendments to the wording of the Bill in relation to the submissions from the public, the letter raises some important points regarding the Bill and some follow-up actions that the Government said that it will undertake to deal with concerns raised by various stakeholders.
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In recent years, technology advancement has introduced new methods for contract formation. In particular, the rise of blockchain technology has led to the emergence of “smart contracts”, which are digital contracts which automatically execute transactions when pre-determined conditions are met. This article provides a brief explanation as to what smart contracts are, and examines some of the potential issues that could arise under Hong Kong law when arbitration is used to resolve smart contract disputes.
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Sep 25, 2024
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On 16 July 2024, the Hong Kong LegCo Bills Committee which is considering the Construction Industry Security of Payment Bill (“Bill”) held a meeting to receive representations and submissions on the Bill from deputations sent by stakeholders in the construction industry. Some deputations suggested that the Government should consider specifying cases of non-payment caused by bankruptcy of contractual parties at upper tiers in the supply chain as an exception to the ban against “pay when paid” clauses. The deputations argued that this exception would “prevent series of bankruptcy of various contractual parties at lower tiers”.[1]  (Of course, there always will be one or more parties at the lowest levels that will bear the brunt of the bankruptcy further up the contractual chain.)