Milwaukee-based? Quarles & Brady announced Thursday that it has opened a Shanghai representative office, the firm’s eighth and its first outside the United States.
The press release reads thus
Chairman John Daniels described the move into Shanghai as building on the firm’s creation of a China law group in 2007 and the “latest milestone in our efforts to expand into markets where our clients need us.”
The release quotes managing partner Fred Lautz, who chairs the China law practice, as saying that Quarles hopes to serve U.S. companies entering the China market, as well as Chinese companies looking at opportunities in the United States.
The firm will not have any resident partners in Shanghai for now. Chicago-based partner Thomas Stiebel, an intellectual property specialist with international arbitration experience in China, will serve as the firm?s chief representative in China.
The move suggests that China remains a draw for regional U.S. firms, despite international firms and their surging Chinese counterparts finding the market extremely competitive. One of mainland China’s attractions is that it is a relatively inexpensive place for firms to operate, especially when compared to Europe and other Asian markets such as Tokyo and Hong Kong.
