East & Concord Partners

The firm: The merger between the East Associates Law Firm and Concord & Partners in 2014 brought into being East & Concord Partners, one of the largest and most comprehensive law firms in China. Briefly, East Associates Law Firm and Concord & Partners were established in 1993 and 1995 respectively, are among the earliest established law firms in China and both have nationwide influence and reputation. It is headquartered in Beijing and has branches in Shanghai, Shenzhen, Wuhan, Hangzhou, Chengdu, Nanjing and Xi’an. The firm has nearly 400 professionals. In addition to experienced partners and consultants who have practiced law for more than 30 years, the firm comprises legal experts who have years of working experience in national ministries, courts, procuratorate, international arbitration institution and prestigious law firms. Most of its partners and attorneys have gained qualifications and hands-on experience in law schools and firms throughout Europe, the US, Australia, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Areas of practice: East & Concord is committed to providing professional legal assistance to its clients and with 20-plus years of experience has gained a leading position and earned clients’ trust and recognition and has been frequently recommended by well-known international legal media such as Chambers, The Legal 500 and IFLR1000 in the following practice areas: mergers and acquisitions, securities and capital markets, dispute resolution, criminal litigation, banking and finance, financial lease and commercial factoring, anti-dumping and countervailing, antitrust, intellectual property, foreign direct investment, overseas investment, entertainment and sports, infrastructure and project financing, real estate and construction, energy and natural resources.

Mergers and acquisitions: based on the client’s needs, the firm provides professional services including, but not limited to the following: direct investment or merger in a large variety of businesses, enterprise or company restructuring, equity acquisitions, transfer, corporate additional investments, asset and business acquisition and transfer, corporate division/merger, equity and debt financing, securities and capital markets; professional services that the firm provides mainly include: initial offering and listing of securities, establishment and sale of funds, issuance of corporate bonds and financial bonds and notes, listed companies’ reorganisation of major assets, listed companies’ re-financing.

Banking and finance: professional services that the firm provides in this field mainly involve: advising banks and other financial institutions on all types of domestic and international financing transactions, establishment and reorganisation of insurance companies, public or private funds,asset management companies, financial leasing companies/commercial factoring companies, advising on and assisting in designing structures of products or transactions for trust companies, public or private funds asset management companies and financial leasing/commercial factoring companies, due diligence on target projects, preparation of transaction documents, compliance and risk management for trust companies, insurance companies and public or private funds, various financial derivative products, margin trading, channel services for asset management and credit assets securitisation business, internet finance, P2P, and crowd-funding

Dispute resolution: in the field of commercial arbitration, the firm handles domestic and foreign cases related to: disputes regarding sales contracts, contract disputes regarding foreign investments, disputes regarding real estate development contracts.

Intellectual property: investment in patent and know-how, transfer and trading of patent licensing rights and know-how, investigation and administrative actions against infringements, patent review and dispute resolution regarding invalid patent claims, patent litigation, application for trade marks, contribution in trade marks, licence and transfer commercial licence and trade mark interest arrangement in franchise, administrative objection of trade mark dispute, civil and administrative litigation of trade mark dispute, trademark inquiries and trademark surveillance, customs administrative protection of trade mark rights.