Shanghai law firms expanding overseas

Shanghai law firms are expanding overseas in order to provide legal services for the growing number of Chinese companies going global, according to the Shanghai Bureau of Justice.

A total of 15 Shanghai law firms have established offices in 31 locations overseas with 13 of them opened after 2019, the bureau said, adding that seven offices are in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, six are in the United States, and the rest are in countries including the United Kingdom, Spain, Poland, Australia, Japan, Vietnam and Singapore.

"The expansion of the law firms grows with the need from Chinese enterprises to go global, especially in regions involved in the Belt and Road Initiative. Their international development also plays a boosting role in the level of foreign-related legal services and international competitiveness of this city," said Ye Bin, director of the law office at the Shanghai Bureau of Justice.

Domestically, in Shanghai there have been eight international joint ventures registered within the Shanghai Free Trade Zone since 2014, so that the city is able to provide legal services for foreign enterprises operating in China.

"The fields of business covered by the joint ventures are extensive, and Chinese and foreign parties can play a supplementary role to one another by utilizing their respective advantages in professional characteristics and resource networks," he said.

In terms of arbitration, a survey published in 2021 by Queen Mary University of London in partnership with law firm White & Case showed that Shanghai ranks eighth among the world's most preferred seats for arbitration. It was the first time that the city was ranked among the top 10.

From January 2020 to June this year, arbitration institutions in Shanghai accepted 820 foreign-related arbitration cases. Altogether more than 80 cases involved both parties from overseas, and foreign arbitrators participated in the hearings more than 110 times.

The laws of overseas jurisdictions and international conventions agreed by the parties to be applied in the cases have included those from more than 10 countries, regions and international organizations, such as those of Hong Kong, Germany, Thailand and the United Nations, according to the arbitration division at the Shanghai Bureau of Justice.