By now Dentons' breakup with Dacheng feels a bit like old news but I'd like to play devil's advocate and offer up a different perspective on how it might have played out so bear with me.

In a follow up feature, published just hours after we first broke the news, I focused on what the split between the two firms would mean for Dentons. I also wrote about how existing Sino-U.S. geopolitics and Chinese regulations might impact other foreign law firms that have entrenched practices on the mainland.