Seasoned corporate lawyer Blaine Turnacliff, the former manager of the international department in Lehman Lee & Xu's Shanghai office, has joined Shanghai firm J & F PRC Lawyers as a partner to facilitate the up-and-coming local firm's rapidly growing foreign-related corporate and M&A practice.

Turnacliff hails from Canada but has been working in Greater China for over 14 years, the past six in Shanghai. He has a broad range of corporate, M&A and commercial experience, including finance, joint ventures, corporate restructuring and foreign investment, and is fluent in English and Mandarin Chinese.

Aside from a more attractive financial offer, the main reason that has driven Turnacliff's recent move is J & F's strong platform for expanding into the international market. "One thing here that is better than the previous firm is that J & F has a much better access to and a wider range of expertise and practice areas," said Turnacliff. "The firm has an excellent team beginning to be in place now, but it needs a bit more focus on the international face. In some ways, I am the foreign face of the law firm to attract more business."

While foreign lawyers are not allowed to advise on PRC law or issue PRC legal opinion, Turnacliff is still able to contribute significantly to the firm's practice.

First, he has brought over all his existing clients with him to J & F. Secondly, under the resources of the firm, he is able to apply his expertise in areas of M&A and FDI, and better serve the existing clients as well as developing new clients through the new team.

"I am able to manage my own projects and work closely with local attorneys in the firm. The work will be done as a whole under the name of the firm, so there are no issues about a foreign lawyer issuing an opinion on PRC law. The legal service is a product of the firm and I may have a supervisory role in it," said Turnacliff.

Brought in as an equivalent to a ground-floor partner, Turnacliff will also be taking part in making management decisions on strategic growth for the firm.

"As the local firm's practice is increasingly internationally oriented, it is necessary to take some international lawyers on board to better serve our clients and develop our business," said Scott Guan, co-managing partner of J & F.

A few years ago, the legal community saw international firms hire a large number of local lawyers. In the next few years, more international lawyers will be joining local firms.

"I've talked to a lot of international lawyers in recent years, and some of them are considering making the jump over to a local firm. This is because local firms are where there is going to be the most growth here in the next few years," said Turnacliff. "The inevitable trend is that there is a much greater opportunity for aggressive local firms to take more of the market share."

Blaine Turnacliff is one of a handful of foreign lawyers that have made the jump across, but he is not the first. Seven years ago, Mark Schaub joined King & Wood as a partner in Shanghai.