China’s Jingtian & Gongcheng has established a dedicated Hong Kong office after ending its three-year alliance with Mayer Brown last August.
The new office will be created through a merger with L&C Legal, which was set up by two former Mayer Brown partners — Elaine Lo and Nicholas Chan — after the Jingtian alliance ended. The two firms initially established a formal association in September last year.
“This merger represents a significant milestone for our firm,” said Zhao Yang, chairman of Jingtian, who added that the firm is focused on developing its overseas footprint to provide capital markets advice internationally.
“This is crucial to our success given the evolving needs of the many Chinese and foreign clients we work with, as well as increasing competition from other elite international law firms.”
The merged entity will operate as Jingtian & Gongcheng, effective April 30. The office will be staffed with six partners: Lo and Chan, as well as Li Fai and Alfred Li, former Mayer Brown associates, and Stephen Luo and Stella Yeung, previously associates at Shearman & Sterling.
Lo was previously a senior partner and Asia chair of Mayer Brown, in addition to serving as a member of its global management committee from January 2008 to May 2016.
“As a leading, Red Circle firm, Jingtian maintains an outstanding reputation and record of performance,” she said. “Nowhere is this clearer than in their ongoing involvement in a vast number of innovative, ground-breaking and complex deals.”
Jingtian is the latest of a wave of Chinese firms to set up their own Hong Kong offices in anticipation of a wave of initial public offerings by biotech companies keen to take advantage of the stock exchange’s decision to allow dual-class shares.
