Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP

The firm: Global law firm Morgan Lewis established an office in Shanghai in September 2016, representing a significant expansion of its services to clients with interests in China and markets throughout Asia and the world. The firm has 3 offices in China and *30 offices worldwide. Led by global corporate transactional lawyers Mitch Dudek, Todd Liao and Alex Wang the office offers clients a comprehensive range of legal services to fulfil their transactional, mergers and acquisitions, real estate, private equity, and fund formation and investment needs. Other services include advising on the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), the UK Bribery Act, technology licensing, intellectual property protection and enforcement, and labour and employment.

In January 2017, Morgan Lewis established an office in Hong Kong led by one of Hong Kong’s most respected corporate lawyers that has quickly grown to 23 lawyers. In 2015, Morgan Lewis secured a key base of operations in the thriving business centre of Singapore with the establishment of Morgan Lewis Stamford, and in late 2014, the firm significantly expanded its Tokyo office with the addition of lawyers from Bingham McCutchen. These offices joined the firm’s offices in Beijing, Almaty, and Astana in serving clients across Asia.

*Its Beijing and Shanghai offices operate as representative offices of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP. In Hong Kong, Morgan Lewis operates through Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, which is a separate Hong Kong general partnership registered with The Law Society of Hong Kong as a registered foreign law firm operating in Association with Luk & Partners

Areas of practice: Morgan Lewis offers more than 2,000 lawyers, patent agents, benefits advisers, regulatory scientists, and other specialists – in 30 offices across North America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. The firm provides comprehensive litigation, corporate, transactional, regulatory, intellectual property, and labour and employment legal services to clients of all sizes – from globally established industry leaders to just-conceived start-ups.

Its multinational lawyers – many of whom have practiced together in China for well over a decade – understand the issues that multinational clients encounter in China and that Chinese clients encounter abroad. Its experience strengthens its advice regarding corporate and business transactions, including mergers and acquisitions; joint ventures; real estate investments; cross-border finance; telecommunication, media, and technology matters; and technology licensing.

The firm’s local knowledge is particularly important to its regulatory services advice in respect to the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and to issues related to antitrust and competition and labour and employment. As the economic and regulatory landscapes in China are changing rapidly, its local knowledge helps Western clients understand and adapt to new laws and regulations, and identify business risks and opportunities.

The firm also has extensive experience assisting all sizes of state-owned and private Chinese companies as they invest across the globe. As Chinese companies merge with and acquire new companies abroad, they require not only sophisticated support in the areas of corporate and business transactions, but also with respect to regulatory advice and international dispute resolution.