Having celebrated a decade of success last year, Shanghai Kai-Rong Law Firm is anticipating further strength in the next decade to come. The founder of the firm, Mr Jin Yu-Lai, showed impressive intuition in focusing the firm on foreign-related economic and trade legal services. Back in 1998, international trade practices were virtually unheard of in Chinese law firms, but Mr Jin saw the Asian Financial Crisis as an indicator of the important role that China could play in the world trade market. “I noted from a range of international trade cases that China was less affected [during the 1997 crisis] than other outward economies, and was even gaining some benefits as many export competitors of those countries became bankrupt.” By developing this expertise early, Kai-Rong is well-placed to meet the current shortage in trade practice in China.

The speciality of Kai-Rong in international trade litigation and commercial arbitration has proven useful, as the movement towards trade liberalisation in China has given rise to more and more international disputes. “We compete with both domestic and international law firms (in arbitration) for trade clients, and many of them are top tier law firms domestically or internationally,” says Mr Jin. Kai-Rong provides high quality local expertise in a market where many Chinese enterprises are forced to rely upon international law firms for trade representation.

Kai-Rong has acted for some high profile clientele in international trade disputes, including Sri-Trang International and Minmax Resources. However, the firm is also reputed for its maritime, aviation, insurance and intellectual property practices.

“While keeping our attention on normal trade dispute settlements, we are aiming to play a more important role in commodity trade, to meet China’s growing needs for raw materials,” said Mr Jin. “We expect to keep growing this capacity.”

Recently, the firm has taken advantage of its Shanghai location, growing its practice as the city grows into a financial and shipping centre. Kai-Rong is now in cooperation with a range of banks, trading companies and warehouse supervising companies, domestic and overseas. The firm is also experiencing growth in its commodity finance practices, having represented several well-known international banks in 2008 on deals worth several hundreds of millions of US dollars.

Kai-Rong currently operates with five experienced partners, two consultants and nine attorneys. “In the short-term, we are hiring more professionals to strengthen our litigation and arbitration force, to meet our clients’ rising needs,” said Mr Jin. “In the long term, we are planning to expand our practice areas to finance and intellectual property rights, and we are also considering building our service network through cooperation with other law firms, both domestic and international, or even set up our own branch.”

The diversified practice of Kai-Rong has also been a blessing during the global financial crisis. The emphasis on trade and commodity financing has not prevented the firm from fortifying a range of other practice areas. “We strengthened our services in arbitration and litigation, and expanded our services in winding up and liquidation, which did help our firm withstand the current financial crisis,” said Mr Jin.

By working with a range of international partners, and targeting both domestic and international business, Kai-Rong has been remarkably resilient in during the global economic turmoil. The diversification of the practice of Kai-Rong across corporate management, finance, shipping and aviation, insurance and trade has contributed to this resilience. In addition, Kai-Rong has taken its significant experience in litigation and international trade disputes to develop an outstanding professional reputation, both within China and in the international legal market.