The merger is due to create a team of 6,600 lawyers - about 50% larger than Baker & McKenzie. Administrative issues are proving to be a real challenge says the FT, pointing to the need to translate and standardise the biographies of 4,000 Chinese lawyers. The combination is 'unlikely to be fully launched before the year-end', says the FT. 

Corruption in China

So complicated are some of the rules on protecting client data and conflicts of interest in China and the US that the combination 'could be undermined' by the very different approach taken in the diffierent jurisdictions. Peter Zeughauser of the Zeughauser Consultancy said that China's 'lack of western-style rule of law, lack of an independent judiciary . . . along with widespread corruption in government, the judiciary and business, makes the day-to-day experience and expectations of Chinese lawyers and clients and western lawyers and clients very different'. 

Common approach

Elliott Portnoy, chief executive of Dentons, said: 'Lawyers from both firms actually have a very common and shared approach to client service.' Source: Financial Times