Shanghai-based MWE China Law Offices, featured as one of the 10 firms to watch in 2009 in ALB China at the beginning of this year, has taken a major step towards expanding its partnership. The firm has appointed nine new partners - the first partner intake since it was established in 2007. Of the new partners, three are external hires and six are internal promotions.
The new lateral hire partners are Helen Zhang, Henry Chen and Joseph Zhou. Zhang and Chen are dual-qualified in China and the US, and all of them worked with leading international firms for many years before joining MWE China. Zhang joined from Singapore firm WongPartnership's Shanghai office, where she was a partner. Her practice focuses on insolvency, intellectual property, M&A, real estate and renewable energy. Chen joins from Baker & McKenzie's Shanghai office and has extensive experience in the areas of international arbitration, litigation, anti-trust, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) investigations and auditing, and risk management in the area of anti-commercial bribery. Zhou, previously a member of Heller Ehrman's IP litigation practice group based in Shanghai, will continue to focus his practice on patent prosecution and litigation at MWE China.
The six newly elected partners are Jacqueline Cai, David Dai, Ken Huang, Leon Liu, Jack Ma and Molly Qin. Their practices focus on various areas including M&A, IP, international and domestic dispute resolution, labour and banking & securities law.
"Given the current economic crisis, many law firms have had to lay off people due to a slow down in business. Fortunately, we have been able to buck that trend and - although the pace may have slowed - we are still hiring people," said John Huang (pictured), MWE China's founding and managing partner.
Huang attributes his firm's growth to its unique practice platform which aims to integrate MWE China's local knowledge and expertise with the global network and resources of its strategic alliance with US firm McDermott Will & Emery.
In addition, as a consequence of the crisis, many local firms have found more candidates from foreign law firms' representative offices in China knocking on their doors.