King & Wood

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King & Wood PRC Lawyers
Headquarters Beijing, China
No. of Offices 15
No. of Attorneys 650
Major Practice Areas General Practice
Date Founded 1993
Company Type Law Firm
Website [1]


King & Wood PRC Lawyers is among the first law firms established when law firms were repermitted in the People’s Republic of China during the modern era and is now the country’s largest. In 1993 King & Wood’s founding partners were still working with a state-sponsored organization, the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, when the central government permitted private ownership of law firms allowing them to create the firm. To advance its policy of market-based reforms in the 1980s, China had adopted foreign approaches to legal regulations, particularly in the area of commercial law. For example, the Sino-Foreign Equity Joint Venture Law, the first law governing foreign investment, was passed in 1980. Since then, more than 300 laws and regulations, most of them in the economic area, have been promulgated. To meet increasing growth in the sophistication of Chinese law, Chinese firms began to incorporate in the late 1980s to meet demand for domestic legal services. King & Wood was among the first private law firms among a cohort of Commerce & Finance Law Offices, Fangda Partners, Haiwen & Partners, and Jun He Law Offices.. These early firms have since grown to become the largest domestic law firms in China handling most of the nation’s domestic commercial legal work.

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[edit] Profile

King & Wood currently employs nearly 650 attorneys throughout China, Hong Kong, Japan, and the United States and has now grown to become the largest law firm in China by number of lawyers. [1] These lawyers are spread throughout 15 offices throughout the world, but predominantly on the mainland. [2] The firm claims it specializes in assisting foreign companies do business in China. Its main practice areas includes banking, foreign investment, international trade, litigation and arbitration, and securities. [3]

[edit] Clients

The firm’s major clients include Citigroup, China Life, the Beijing Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games, Wal-Mart, PetroChina, the Bank of China among others. [4] King & Wood advised on the largest IPO in Chinese history for PetroChina, allowing the company to temporarily become the highest valued company in the world at over $1 trillion. [5] [6]

[edit] Locations


[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.legal500.com - Default Recommended Firms
  2. ^ PLC Which lawyer?: King & Wood: China - National profile
  3. ^ King & Wood - King & Wood Law Firm Profile - martindale.com
  4. ^ see the Chambers Global 2008 Client’s Guide. www.chambersandpartners.com
  5. ^ Now, From China, the World's Biggest Company - US News and World Report
  6. ^ SEC Info - Petrochina Co Ltd - SC 13E3/A - Jilin Chemical Industrial Co Ltd - On 12/23/05 - EX-99.(C).5

[edit] See also