Early April was a celebration time at Run Ming Law Office, as it marked the firm's two-year anniversary.  It was also a time when the firm achieved a major expansion by appointing two new partners in Beijing, Charles Liang and Kathy Yang.

Liang, previously the general counsel for Alstom in China, has joined Run Ming as an executive partner. He has extensive experience in the areas of foreign direct investment, M&A, international technology transfer and commodity trade, dispute resolution, and other key areas of law related to the operations of multinational corporations in China.  

Liang started his legal career by working at the New York headquarters of Skadden in 1988. He then worked at Jun He and co-founded Jingtian & Gongcheng before moving to in-house roles in Motorola, Agilent Technologies, Intel, and Alstom.

"Based on my previous experience as a client, I've seen that there is great potential in the market for mid-sized law firms that can provide integrated legal services across a range of specialised practices and make all of their resources available to clients," said Liang. "It's fitting for me to join Run Ming, a new and rising firm that falls into this category."

Liang brings with him a good blend of expertise and understanding of corporate clients' legal issues and concerns, as well as an important set of skills he has developed in his in-house roles, including communication skills. "Quality legal advice doesn't translate into good solutions if it is not effectively delivered. Communication skills are crucial for good legal advice to be well-received by clients," said Liang.

With his in-house perspective, Liang, the new executive partner will work alongside the other two executive partners, Wang Yadong and Liu Yi, to continue improving the firm's branding, marketing, business development and management structure.

Kathy Yang, another valuable addition to Run Ming's partnership, joins from O'Melveny & Myers Beijing office, where she was a senior counsel in the firm's M&A practice. Her practice focuses on M&A, private equity, securities offerings, bonds issuance and foreign direct investment in China. Prior to joining O'Melveny, she worked in the Chicago office of another major international law firm.

Meanwhile, Run Ming has lost founding partner Qi Bin to his old firm, Shanghai Shimin. To reinforce its Japan practice capabilities, the firm has added two experienced lawyers to its Japan practice group, Li Hang and Li Quanhong, in its Beijing and Shanghai office respectively.