A group of 12 partners from several top Chinese law firms have joined forces to launch a new outfit in Beijing.

The new firm will be known as Anjie and will open in the Chinese capital next month with a total of approximately 60 lawyers.

The group of partners includes Zhan Hao, currently executive partner at China law firm Grandall; Michael Gu, an antitrust partner at Zhong Lun; and He Yu, managing partner and M&A specialist at Beijing Mingtai.

Hao, who is bringing a team of 40 lawyers to the new firm from his current antitrust and insurance teams, will be managing partner of the new outfit.

Gu told Legal Week: "The reason we wanted to set up the new firm was to learn from other jurisdictions, and particularly European firms. Most of these firms adopt a lockstep model, and we want to implement this system. Initially, a certain percentage of revenue will be shared equally. We will gradually increase the proportion of the common revenues."

Currently, many Chinese firms are run in much the same way as UK barristers' chambers, with partners working independently and competing for work in a bid to boost individual profits.

Gu added that the firm would also try to align its processes with European principles by ensuring that staff worked cooperatively.

"We want to integrate management, and encourage cooperation among partners and lawyers. We want them to contribute to the firm rather than make money for individuals."

Anjie will initially focus on antitrust, insurance, IP, private equity and dispute resolution work, with the aim of growing into a full-service law firm.

It currently has around 50 lawyers on the books, but is in the process of hiring a group of approximately 10 lawyers from another firm, including one or two partners. In the long term the aim is to grow to 100 lawyers, to compete with some of the largest firms in mainland China.

Partners are currently in talks with firms in the UK, Germany and the US about possible associations, in addition to relationships they have already secured with Japanese, Russian and Korean firms.

In the future, Anjie could also open offices in Shanghai, Shenzhen and Hong Kong, depending on how the markets develop, Gu said.