KPMG Law Expands Into China With Shanghai Corporate Team
KPMG launches Shanghai SF Lawyers with a team from China's Grandall Law Firm, led by senior partner Paula Yu.
December 11, 2019 at 05:30 AM
3 minute read
Photo: Shutterstock.com/Isabelle OHara
Big Four accounting firm KPMG has expanded its legal services into China by launching an affiliated law firm in Shanghai.
The firm is called Shanghai Rui Wei and is in the process of registering Shanghai SF Lawyers as its English name. It currently has 13 legal professionals, including senior partner Paula Yu and partners Jiling Yang and Xuqing Wu, focusing on corporate, mergers and acquisitions, and foreign direct investments. Most of the team, including Yu, joined from Chinese firm Grandall Law Firm, which was ranked the seventh-largest firm in the Asia-Pacific region in this year's Asia 50. It had 2,000 lawyers in 2018.
Yu leaves Grandall after almost seven years with the firm. Previously, she was a partner at Chinese firm Jade & Fountain PRC Lawyers and an associate at legacy Kaye Scholer and Whiteford Taylor Preston.
Shanghai SF Lawyers plans to increase its headcount in the next year to 25 lawyers, including one or two more partners, and also will expand into other practice areas, including infrastructure, regulatory compliance, technology and intellectual property, and employment law.
Shanghai SF Lawyers will also explore plans to open offices in Beijing and southern China after a few years. Firms in China are not allowed to open branches until after at least three years of operation.
Several firms have been opening offices in the southern Chinese technology hub of Shenzhen in recent years. In July, Big Four rival EY's Chinese member law firm, Chen & Co Law Firm, launched in Shenzhen via a merger with local firm Guangdong Allied Law Firm. And Baker McKenzie Hong Kong-based global chair Milton Cheng told Law.com's The Asian Lawyer last month that its Shanghai Free Trade Zone partner firm, FenXun Partners, may apply for permission to open an office in Shenzhen.
The launch of Shanghai SF Lawyers in China comes less than a year after KPMG established an affiliated law firm, also called SF Lawyers, in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong firm, which launched in January, currently has about 10 lawyers, including four principals, but plans to grow to 20 lawyers by the third quarter of next year.
KPMG's Big Four rivals all have a presence in Hong Kong as well as Shanghai and Beijing. EY's Hong Kong firm is LC Lawyers and Chen & Co has offices in Shanghai and Beijing; Deloitte's Hong Kong firm Yang Chan & Jamison also launched in January and its Chinese firm, Qin Li Law Firm, has offices in Shanghai and Beijing; and PricewaterhouseCoopers' affiliated law firm, Tiang & Partners, is in Hong Kong, while another affiliated firm, Rui Bai Law Firm, is in Beijing and Xin Bai Law Firm is in Shanghai.
Elsewhere in the world, KPMG plans to expand its legal services offerings in Europe, the firm's Sydney-based global head of legal services Stuart Fuller recently told Law.com-International.
Related stories:
Big Four's KPMG Opens Hong Kong Law Firm, Plans Shanghai Launch
KPMG's New Global Legal Services Head Eyes Expansion
Law Firms Uneasy as the Big Four Make Their Big Push in Asia
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