A good post on China Law Blog about overseas law firms setting up and operating in China..
He writes in answer to questions posed…
– "I’ve noticed that the presence of foreign law firms is growing rapidly in the Chinese market." Yes, Andrew the presence of foreign law firms is growing rapidly in China, but I think much of this is a function of the time it takes to open an office in China, not some sudden onrush of firms seeking to go there. Yes, every time a new office opens, the law firm’s managing partner talks of how central Asia is to the firm’s practice and the importance of thinking long term. I do not buy it. Big law firms laying off hundreds of employees are not thinking long term. What is really going on is that it takes a large cash outlay, hundreds of hours of time, and years of waiting and schmoozing to get a law office open in China. After having incurred/undertaken all this and finally succeeded, virtually no firm would then back down.
–– "It seems that the scope of services –and expertise– that foreign firms can offer here must be quite limited as compared to their local counterparts. What kind of services can they hope to offer, now and in the future?" It depends on how you define "limited." Foreign lawyers in China cannot go to court and cannot physically register trademarks, copyrights or patents." They also are not supposed to give China legal advice without the assistance of Chinese attorneys. This leaves whole swaths of legal work that can be performed and it is mostly the sort of work foreign law firms wish to perform. For example, the typical foreign mega firms with offices in China might focus their practices on providing legal assistance in the following areas:
and more like this at http://www.chinalawblog.com/2009/02/the_business_side_of_china_law.html
