And Another US Firm Launches In Shanghai

US firm Blank Rome said yesterday? that it has now opened an office in Shanghai, and that the firm plans to serve Western clients with business there, as well as Chinese companies that want to do business in the United States.

Firm co-chairman Alan Hoffman said in a press release that the goal is for the new Shanghai office is? to help clients transact both outbound and inbound business, and that the Shanghai it would be linked closely with the firm’s office in Hong Kong, which opened in 2006.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports


http://www.philly.com/philly/business/121518314.html

A high priority will be Chinese companies seeking access to American capital markets, he said.

The office will be led by Blank Rome partner Henry Kuller, who currently is based in Hong Kong. Kuller will now split his time between the two offices.

“China has a robust economy and a growing consumer and industrial appetite for foreign products and technology, and we continue to see increasing investment and strategic alliances by Chinese companies in the U.S. and other foreign countries,” Kuller said.

The announcement tracks with the firm’s plan to leverage its expansion into the western United States, realized in 2009 with the opening of its Los Angeles office, with additional business generated in Pacific Rim nations.

The strategy in Southern California, and apparently now in Shanghai, is to capture legal work from long-standing clients who might have gone elsewhere had the firm not had a presence in the region.

Its lawyers in Southern California, for example, seek legal work not only from locally based companies, but also from clients that are headquartered elsewhere but have substantial interests in Los Angeles.

Hoffman said Shanghai was selected for the Blank Rome office, which is projected to have five lawyers by September, over the capital city Beijing because Shanghai is a commercial center.

“Blank Rome was basically a Philadelphia law firm in 2000 and since that time it has grown up and down the East Coast, and then to Cincinnati and Los Angeles and now Shanghai,” Hoffman said.

Most of the big Philadelphia firms have overseas offices, and the trend has been accelerating in recent years, especially in Asia, as American companies seek to take advantage of surging economic growth in China, and perhaps compensate for flagging or static revenue in the United States. Duane Morris has two offices in Vietnam, where the economy has been vibrant, and an office in Singapore. Both Dechert L.L.P. and Morgan, Lewis & Bockius L.L.P. have offices in Chin