Magic Circle firm seeks local joint venture as OC opens fledgling practice
Linklaters and Osborne Clarke (OC) are the latest Legal Business 100 firms to make moves in Shanghai, with the Magic Circle firm finally putting its plans in play to practise local law.
Last month it emerged Linklaters has pushed through plans to spin off part of its Shanghai office to practise local law under Shanghai Free-Trade Zone (FTZ) rules. Three partners and 16 lawyers will leave Linklaters’ China offices to join local firm Zhao Sheng after the two formed a ‘best friend’ relationship.
The Magic Circle firm’s senior consultant Eric Liu is now a partner at the Shanghai firm.
Chief operating officer of Linklaters China, Chris Holt, said: ‘Taking account of recent developments in the market, we have begun detailed discussions with an existing PRC law firm to enter into a best-friends relationship with a view at some point in the future to enter into a Shanghai FTZ joint operation. Once the detailed discussions have concluded we will officially launch the best-friends relationship. We hope to do this in the next two to three months.’
In the same month, Linklaters also bolstered its China practice with the hire of projects partner Andrew Ruff, who joins from Shearman & Sterling, and King & Wood Mallesons corporate partner Simon Meng.
‘China’s a massive place, but we’ve got the right partners to start us off and the next few years will be about growing that team.’
Simon Beswick, Osborne Clarke
Meanwhile, OC has also opened in Shanghai under the name Zhang Yu & Partners, bringing in two partners and six other lawyers.
Guohua Zhang and Steve Yu have joined OC to head up the office. Yu was previously Shanghai managing partner at Armstrong Teasdale.
Zhang was a consultant with Koh Vass & Co, an association firm of OC based in Hong Kong.
The pair will be joined by six lawyers trained in China, the UK and the US, who specialise in IT, data and employment law.
OC international chief executive Simon Beswick (pictured) told Legal Business: ‘We’ve started with a couple of partners. China’s a massive place, but we believe we’ve got the right partners to start us off and the next few years will be about growing that team.
‘The Asian markets are very much today orientated around lawyers promoting themselves via their different legal expertise. OC going to market by understanding the client’s sector and being able to provide advice in that context means we can attract people who want to work in a modern, forward-thinking environment.’
madeleine.farman@legalease.co.uk