The Global Legal Post writes
China’s legal market is defying a slackened economy, with turnover on the up at most of the country’s elite law firms.
The latest revenue ranking of Chinese law firms from The American Lawyer has shown that China’s biggest firms are continuing to grow despite more turbulent economic times. Expanded this year from 25 to to 35 firms, the ranking found that while the number of Chinese firms with revenues in excess of $100m has remained the same year-on-year at nine, the number that have cracked the $200m mark doubled to six in 2015.
The big league
Meanwhile, two firms – global heavyweights Dentons and King & Wood Mallesons – saw Chinese revenues that would have been large enough to make the Am Law 100 league table last year had they qualified as US businesses. With more than 6,500 lawyers and an expansive global presence, Dentons logged gross Chinese revenues of $2.1 billion last year, while KWM had $1bn in turnover. Rounding out the ranking’s top five firms by revenue are Zhong Lun Law Firm with $315m, AllBright Law Offices with $207m and Grandall Law Firm, also with $207m. Yingke Law Firm, which with over 5,000 lawyers is China’s second-largest firm by headcount after Dentons, came in sixth with $202m. The latest ranking is based on gross revenue data for the 2015 calendar year.
