Anyone interested in buying the Brooklyn Bridge?
The press release proceeds to claim that the lawyer’s “specialty in mid-market deals will add a U.S. securities law offering to Stephenson Harwood’s greater China practice.” It then goes on to say, “Last year, the firm recruited a corporate partner from Cadwater, Wickersham & Taft which also closed offices in Hong Kong and Beijing. Since 2016, the U.K. firm has also had a formal association with a Chinese local law firm, founded by a group of ex-Stephenson Harwood lawyers.” Where in the West would anyone ever announce a relationship with a group of defectors from your law firm ) as a positive?
According to the firm’s press release, the new team will bring Stephenson Harwood’s Beijing head count to 21. ”This strategic move gives us an opportunity to better serve domestic and international clients conducting business across the region,” said Voon Keat Lai, Stephenson Harwood’s Greater China managing partner. “In particular, [the lawyer] ’s long track-record in capital markets transactions will bring a new dimension to our capabilities in the region.”
Troutman Sanders said in January when it announced it would close its offices in Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai that a strategic review led the firm to conclude that there was little overlap between the china practice’s focus on Hong Kong capital markets work and the rest of the firm’s emphasis on energy, insurance, life science, and finance.
I visited the Beijing law offices of Covington & Burlington in December 2017 in order to meet with long time China based lawyers Tim Stratford and James Zimmerman (Harvard law graduate and BYU graduate respectively!), of Sheppard Mullen. These American law offices in China inhabit some of the most expensive leasehold property in the world,yet are eerily quiet and empty. I joked with Tim and Jim, you could shoot a cannon off in here and not harm anyone, where is the practice? I got no reply.
In 2015, while traveling in London, David Greenwald, Chairman of major law firm Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson’s sent an email to everyone explaining the firm’s decision to “substantially downsize” its Hong Kong and Shanghai offices.
“Our growth potential in Asia was not sufficiently attractive,” Greenwald wrote, “… (Not) without significant additional investment.”