Donald Trump famously embarrassed himself at last week's Republican presidential debate when he said that China would be the biggest beneficiary of the new Trans-Pacific Partnership. As Kentucky Senator Rand Paul quickly pointed out, China isn't part of the TPP.

Lawyers, however, have been watching the trade agreement much more closely over five years of negotiations, and by now they have a fairly good idea of what it will deliver—for both their clients and their firms.

“There's been nothing really like it before,” says Ashurst Singapore partner Ben Giaretta, who heads the firm's arbitration practice in Asia.