The Chinese member law firm of Big Four accounting firm EY has launched in Shenzhen via a merger with a local firm.

Chen & Co. Law Firm has merged with Shenzhen-based Guangdong Allied Law Firm, which advises on corporate, foreign direct investment, real estate, government affairs and dispute resolution matters.

According to Allied's website, the firm has four partners: chief executive officer Wendy Sun, litigation and arbitration head Fan Yongqiang, investment and financing mergers and acquisitions head Que Lingyun, and litigation and intellectual property partner Shao Lei. EY declined to confirm the number of partners in the Shenzhen office.

Sun now serves as head of Chen & Co.'s Shenzhen office. She started Allied in 1999, a year after co-founding its predecessor firm Sun Luolei Law Firm.

Shanghai-based Chen & Co. also has offices in Beijing and Hong Kong. The firm was established in 1998 and joined EY's global legal network in 2014. Chen & Co. has also had an association with EY's Hong Kong member firm, LC Lawyers, since 2016.

Other global firms have been opening offices in Shenzhen, a Chinese technology hub home to the likes of internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. and telecoms giant Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. Last month, Simmons & Simmons opened an office in Shenzhen to focus on telecoms, media and technology. Intellectual property specialists Brinks Gilson & Lione and Fish & Richardson also launched there in 2017 and 2018, respectively.

Shenzhen is one of the 11 cities in southern China that is part of the Chinese government's Greater Bay Area economic project. The plan is to connect nine cities in mainland China, including Shenzhen, with the prosperous special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau to create an integrated region that HSBC estimates will double its gross domestic product to $2.8 trillion by 2025.

Sun said in a statement that Chen & Co.'s Shenzhen office will collaborate more with members of EY's global legal service and integrate Chinese and foreign law resources. She said cross-border legal offerings will help contribute to making Shenzhen a hub of legal services in the Greater Bay Area and "pave the way for the high-quality development of enterprises in the area".

EY also has been expanding its Hong Kong member firm, recruiting four former Am Law 100 partners since last year. Dmitry Tetiouchev, EY Law's Singapore-based Asia-Pacific leader, told Law.com's The Asian Lawyer in April that he is on the lookout to add a broad technology practice in LC Lawyers due to Hong Kong's proximity to Shenzhen.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tetiouchev said he is looking to launch new firms in Indonesia and Malaysia – both countries are among the five largest economies of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

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