8-Lawyer Team Jumps From Winston & Strawn's Chinese Alliance Firm to JunHe
YuandaWinston's compliance team exodus is the latest in a series of departures since the two firms entered into the alliance. Yuanda is known for its compliance and white-collar practice.
July 11, 2022 at 09:00 PM
3 minute read
The Shanghai skyline. Credit: Eugene/Adobe Stock
The eight-lawyer, white-collar and compliance group at YuandaWinston, the Chinese alliance firm of Winston & Strawn, has joined Chinese firm JunHe in Shanghai.
The team is led by compliance partners Leon Liu and Carol Sun, who will also be partners at JunHe.
Liu, a compliance and investigations specialist, has been a partner at YuandaWinston since 2007 when he and a group of other lawyers broke away from AllBright Law Offices and founded the Shanghai-based law firm now known as Yuanda. The Chinese firm is known for its compliance and white-collar practice.
From 2007 until June 2020, Yuanda was known to the international market as MWE China Offices, operating in a strategic alliance with Chicago-based McDermott Will & Emery. Ever since that strategic alliance, a first of its kind between a Western firm and a Chinese one, ended, the Chinese firm has been in a similar alliance with Winston & Strawn.
A former prosecutor, Liu has built a practice advising multinationals on white-collar defense matters, government enforcement actions and internal investigations. He has advised, among others, Airbus, Akzo Nobel, Danone, GSK, Herbalife, Halliburton, KPMG, Medtronic, Merck and Walmart on multijurisdictional government enforcement and crisis matters.
Sun joined Yuanda in 2017 from Dentons' Shanghai office, where she led the compliance practice. A cybersecurity and data privacy specialist, she has advised, among others, Ant Group, Citi Group, UnionPay International, ZTE, LVMH, BASF, GSK, Blizzard and Siemens Healthineers on complex data compliance challenges in both China and Western jurisdictions.
Liu and Sun's arrival will help strengthen JunHe's white-collar and regulatory compliance capability, particularly in the cross-border government enforcement, crisis management and data-related space.
Warren Hua, JunHe's managing partner, said the compliance addition in Shanghai helps elevate the firm to a new level of meeting market demand and providing sophisticated services to both Chinese and Western multinationals.
"JunHe formed a compliance practice group last year, teaming up over 30 partners. Now, we are so pleased to have Leon and Carol bringing their valuable practice to JunHe. We are eager and ready to introduce to our clients the integrated high-end service team with profound and market-leading experience," said Hua.
The compliance team exodus is the latest in a series of departures from YuandaWinston since the two firms entered into the alliance. In 2021, former partner Michelle Gon, who joined from McDermott when the alliance shifted, left for Chinese firm Han Kun Law Offices, while the former managing partner of Winston's legacy Shanghai office, Brinton Scott, left to join Holman Fenwick Willan in Shanghai.
No one from Yuanda or Winston & Strawn responded to requests for comments on the departures.
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View All
A&O Shearman To Lose Another Five Lawyers, Including Madrid Practice Head, to EY
3 minute read
Law Firms Mentioned
Trending Stories
- 1Uber Files RICO Suit Against Plaintiff-Side Firms Alleging Fraudulent Injury Claims
- 2The Law Firm Disrupted: Scrutinizing the Elephant More Than the Mouse
- 3Inherent Diminished Value Damages Unavailable to 3rd-Party Claimants, Court Says
- 4Pa. Defense Firm Sued by Client Over Ex-Eagles Player's $43.5M Med Mal Win
- 5Losses Mount at Morris Manning, but Departing Ex-Chair Stays Bullish About His Old Firm's Future
Who Got The Work
J. Brugh Lower of Gibbons has entered an appearance for industrial equipment supplier Devco Corporation in a pending trademark infringement lawsuit. The suit, accusing the defendant of selling knock-off Graco products, was filed Dec. 18 in New Jersey District Court by Rivkin Radler on behalf of Graco Inc. and Graco Minnesota. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Zahid N. Quraishi, is 3:24-cv-11294, Graco Inc. et al v. Devco Corporation.
Who Got The Work
Rebecca Maller-Stein and Kent A. Yalowitz of Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer have entered their appearances for Hanaco Venture Capital and its executives, Lior Prosor and David Frankel, in a pending securities lawsuit. The action, filed on Dec. 24 in New York Southern District Court by Zell, Aron & Co. on behalf of Goldeneye Advisors, accuses the defendants of negligently and fraudulently managing the plaintiff's $1 million investment. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Vernon S. Broderick, is 1:24-cv-09918, Goldeneye Advisors, LLC v. Hanaco Venture Capital, Ltd. et al.
Who Got The Work
Attorneys from A&O Shearman has stepped in as defense counsel for Toronto-Dominion Bank and other defendants in a pending securities class action. The suit, filed Dec. 11 in New York Southern District Court by Bleichmar Fonti & Auld, accuses the defendants of concealing the bank's 'pervasive' deficiencies in regards to its compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act and the quality of its anti-money laundering controls. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian, is 1:24-cv-09445, Gonzalez v. The Toronto-Dominion Bank et al.
Who Got The Work
Crown Castle International, a Pennsylvania company providing shared communications infrastructure, has turned to Luke D. Wolf of Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani to fend off a pending breach-of-contract lawsuit. The court action, filed Nov. 25 in Michigan Eastern District Court by Hooper Hathaway PC on behalf of The Town Residences LLC, accuses Crown Castle of failing to transfer approximately $30,000 in utility payments from T-Mobile in breach of a roof-top lease and assignment agreement. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Susan K. Declercq, is 2:24-cv-13131, The Town Residences LLC v. T-Mobile US, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Wilfred P. Coronato and Daniel M. Schwartz of McCarter & English have stepped in as defense counsel to Electrolux Home Products Inc. in a pending product liability lawsuit. The court action, filed Nov. 26 in New York Eastern District Court by Poulos Lopiccolo PC and Nagel Rice LLP on behalf of David Stern, alleges that the defendant's refrigerators’ drawers and shelving repeatedly break and fall apart within months after purchase. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Joan M. Azrack, is 2:24-cv-08204, Stern v. Electrolux Home Products, Inc.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250
