This January, around 30 partners from King & Wood Mallesons' (KWM's) pared-down European, Middle East and US offices travelled to Beijing for KWM China's partnership meeting. A weekend of team performances – from karaoke to flamenco – ensued. But also centre stage, and very much up for discussion, were the prospects for the firm's business outside Asia-Pacific.

The firm's Chinese management team did not shy away from discussing the collapse of the European business. But while what went wrong was discussed openly, the focus was on what is next for what is left of the once-proud legacy SJ Berwin business, with partners invited to sell their capabilities and value to their Chinese counterparts.

London partners present at the meeting say they appreciated this direct approach, as well as the sympathy they have received from management of the China arm of the firm, which bought a group off 180 lawyers and staff out of administration, without any involvement from the Australian arm.

London dispute resolution partner Darren Roiser, who was promoted in what transpired to be his former firm's final partner promotions round last year, says: "There was a palpable awareness that the European partnership has been through a difficult time and that we needed some TLC. Management appreciated what we had been through, and we hugely appreciated their support."

Top of the priority list now is to work out how KWM's new European operation can best service the wider firm's global client base.

Corporate counsel Barri Mendelsohn says: "We're promoting ourselves as having expertise across 'the three Ds' – deals, disputes and derivatives."

Roiser says the London international arbitration practice, which also includes partners Andrei Yakovlev and Dorothy Murray in addition to Roiser, is aiming to broaden its offering to include more international arbitration work for the firm's Australian and Chinese clients.

The group, which advises a range of financial institutions, governments, state-owned enterprises and oligarchs, will also look to do more investigatory work.

Roiser adds: "We've got three limbs to the global business, and we need to maximise contacts and referrals across that network." Mendelsohn says the firm has already seen an uptick in joint mandates and interest in the firm since the partnership meeting.

While there is no headcount target, the offices the firm has moved into on Cheapside provide room for growth. A junior litigation partner from the firm's China arm is joining as a secondee within the next few months, and more secondments are being arranged, in both directions. A decision on whether the London base will also start taking on trainees will be revisited later this year.

Everyone had choices – we chose to join the number one firm in Asia

There are no immediate plans to appoint leaders for the new business. At the time of the collapse, the firm was being led by  former European managing partner Tim Bednall – who has remained with the firm to assist with the administration process – and senior partner Michael Cziesla, who left to join McDermott Will & Emery two weeks before administration. Bednall is expected to eventually return to KWM's Australian partnership, his former home before his move to London in early 2015.

For now, European partners say they want to bed down and focus on acting as a partnership – instead opting to share responsibilities for matters ranging from building, insurance and staffing between them.

Corporate partner Greg Stonefield and Mendelsohn have taken on the responsibility of administering client files moving over from the former firm to comply with SRA requirements.

The partners, who have joined on an initial one-year contract, have been supported by KWM China in establishing the new operation, with the firm's Hong Kong COO and IT head both spending significant time in London throughout the process. Beijing corporate partner Rupert Li oversaw the discussions between KWM China, the administrator and the KWM Europe partners in December.

Roiser recalls the immediate period before Christmas as 'are you in or out?' time.

"Everyone had choices – we chose to join the number one firm in Asia," he says. Which begs the question: how will the relationship succeed this time around?

He seems clear on what he thinks went wrong last time, and why the new venture will be different.

"We're not recreating SJ Berwin. The previous firm failed because partners refused to contribute capital. There was a lack of faith in the business that was the result of fundamental issues. SJ Berwin was successful on its own, but the success of the merger relied on cross-pollination – and that didn't seem to always be partners' default position. There were bits of the business that were hugely independent and didn't do that."

The pair say that a number of clients have moved across live matters to the new operation, but they are also actively looking for further growth opportunities in corporate, finance and disputes, and potentially in the tax and financial regulatory spaces too.