A major international merger involving a Chinese law firm wasn't supposed to happen so soon. The legal, financial, political, cultural, and logistical hurdles were just too great. Yet last year saw the Sino-Australian merger that produced King & Wood Mallesons. For King & Wood cofounder Wang Junfeng, now chairman of the combined firm, it was the logical next step in his long-held ambition to create the first international Chinese law firm.
Almost from its 1993 founding, Wang modeled King & Wood after the U.S. and U.K. firms he admires. Even the firm's Western-sounding name was designed to appeal to multinationals whose investments into China until recently generated the bulk of legal work in the country. To push King & Wood's internal culture toward international standards, Wang hired foreign lawyers, such as Handel Lee, who joined the firm from Vinson & Elkins; Mark Schaub from the former Taylor Wessing; Rupert Li from Clifford Chance; and Meg Utterback from Pillsbury Winthrop.
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