Gary Poon is a lawyer, business adviser, mediator, and arbitrator. He founded his own legal and business consulting practice to provide strategic advice to high net worth individuals, foreign companies, commercial enterprises, philanthropic foundations, and nonprofit organizations. “I help my clients find practical solutions to complex, multinational problems that involve a mix of legal, business, and regulatory issues,” he says. As a mediator, he provides international dispute resolution services to help parties settle difficult disputes. He is the author of The Corporate Counsel’s Guide to Mediation, published by the American Bar Association (ABA) in 2010. He serves as an arbitrator for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).
Mr. Poon began the early part of his legal career with the prestigious law firm of Arnold & Porter, representing national and international clients in a variety of corporate, litigation, and regulatory matters. He developed a particular expertise in banking law and corporate restructurings and was involved in a number of high-level cases, including the reorganization of several large bank holding companies and Continental Airlines. He successfully represented a major reinsurance company and helped obtain an important victory before the California Supreme Court on the right of setoff in insurance company insolvencies, an issue of first impression in California. Prudential Reinsurance Co. v. Superior Court, 3 Cal. 4th 1118 (Cal. 1992), affirming Prudential Reinsurance Co. v. Superior Court, 6 Cal. App. 4th 275 (Cal. Ct. App. 1989), as modified by Prudential Reinsurance Co. v. Superior Court, 1990 Cal. App. LEXIS 41 (Cal. Ct. App. 1990).
He later joined the General Counsel’s Office at the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), where he was responsible for a variety of in-house corporate and transactional matters, including formulating the legal and policy positions for PBS and its 340 member stations. He also represented PBS in regulatory filings before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and helped develop the legal strategy in the “must carry” case, which resulted in a major victory for broadcasters before the United States Supreme Court. Turner Broadcasting, Inc. v. FCC, 520 U.S. 180 (1997). Subsequently, he was appointed by PBS’s Chief Executive Officer to be the Executive Director of the Digital Strategic Planning Office, where he formulated what the New York Times described as a “clearly articulated plan” for digital and high definition television. See Joel Brinkley, “PBS Makes Digital Plans,” New York Times (Oct. 20, 1997).
Mr. Poon is a graduate of Williams College (B.A. 1981). He received his law degree from The Boston University School of Law (J.D. 1984) and Masters of Law from the Morin Center for Banking Law Studies at Boston University (LL.M. 1985). He is admitted to the District of Columbia and Florida Bars, and has served on the Board of Directors of several organizations. He speaks Cantonese fluently. In his spare time, he plays tennis, golf, and classical piano, and occasionally composes music and silly little rhymes.