US law firm Troutman Sanders is the latest US firm to announce it is winding down its Asian operations. It is closing its offices in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing after 20 years in the region. It said that after a strategic review it had concluded there was not sufficient business overlap with the rest of the firm. The offices will close at the end of May impacting 30 lawyers in total. A number of other firms have also closed Asian offices in the last few years including Winston & Strawn, Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson and Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft.
China local firms
Meanwhile China’s largest law firms are expanding. According to The Lawyer China Top 30 2017 report, China’s 30 largest firms by revenue together generated RMB26bn (£2.9bn) last year, up 29.73 per cent from 2015. The report points to 5000 lawyer strong Yingke, which has opened nine new offices since the beginning of 2016 has 40 offices in China and plans to double in size by 2021. Grandall has 21 offices and 1400 lawyers, almost doubling its size since 2011 when it had 712 lawyers. Meanwhile Shanghai-headquartered AllBright is the second fastest growing firm by lawyer headcount and aims to grow the number of offices from 19 to 25 in the next a couple of years.
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