A report by legal editor Chris Merritt in the business section of the Weekend Australian asserts that Australian law firms

are one of the major beneficaries of China's desire for resources in the Asia region.

Merritt writes:

LAST week, after opening his firm's third office in China, Robert Milliner had no doubt about the importance of offshore work to the future of Mallesons Stephen Jaques.

He is certain that firms like his own with major investments offshore are likely to have the biggest share of the booming export market for legal services.

Mr Milliner, who is Mallesons' chief executive partner, said his firm now had 130 lawyers in China working from ofices in Beijing, Hong Kong and now Shanghai. About 100 of them speak Mandarin.

There is a simple business case to support such a large allocation of resources offshore:

"Over the past three years, the growth rates in the north Asian market have been higher than in the Australian market," Mr Milliner said.

Another factor driving the growth of offshore legal work was the globalisation of business.

More Australian companies are doing business offshore and Australian law firms are following them.

"The question, then, is what will the global legal market look like," he said.

"I suspect that over time the legal market will become more defined and firms will either be global, regional or local players."

Mallesons had always been clear that it wanted to be "at least a regional player, while keeping ourselves in the game for what happens more broadly", he said.

The firm has responded to the offshore boom by moving more lawyers to China, including Nicola Wakefield Evans, who is international managing partner.

Jim Dunstan from Allens Arthur Robinson shares Mr Milliner's optimistic view of the offshore market.

"The offshore branches of Australian law firms have grown astronomically," said Mr Dunstan, who is executive partner for Asia.

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