Global Legal Awards, Grand Prize Winner (Finance): Hitting the Big Time

Honorees: Alibaba Group; Fangda Partners; King & Wood Mallesons; Maples and Calder; Simpson Thacher & Bartlett; Sullivan & Cromwell

On March 25, 2014, Daniel Fertig, a corporate partner in the Beijing office of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, was working at his firm's Hong Kong office when he got a message telling him to travel to a private club on the south side of Hong Kong Island—and to be there within the hour. Elsewhere in Hong Kong, a carefully selected group of bankers, lawyers and other professional advisers were jumping into taxis after receiving the same message.