Chinese Law Firms Branching Into U.S.

Small offices have opened and are slowly doing more actual legal work as opposed to “window dressing,” as one Chinese attorney characterized what Chinese firms have traditionally been doing in the United States. The norm has been for a few of the largest Chinese firms, including King & Wood Mallesons and 1,100-lawyer Zhong Lun Law Offices, to have just a handful of partners in a U.S. office, functioning largely to market and build relationships with U.S. firms. That paradigm is changing.