International law firm Dentons and China’s largest law firm, Dacheng Law Offices, have agreed to merge their practices to form the world’s biggest law firm with over 6,500 lawyers across 50 countries.
Peng Xuefeng, the present director and founding partner of Dacheng and chairman of its standing committee, will be the chairman of the global board and the chairman of the global advisory committee of the new firm.
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Joe Andrew, Dentons’ global chairman, will be the global chairman of the new firm, and Elliott Portnoy, the global CEO of Dentons, will take on the role of CEO of the combined entity.
Portnoy said the attraction of China to Dentons’ clients was strong and that all of its competitors were looking East. “By uniting East and West in one firm – not merely through a few offices in large cities, but with a deep presence across China – we can provide Chinese businesses with global ambitions and international clients with interests inside China a reach and depth that simply can’t be found elsewhere,” he said.
The merger is structured as a verein, allowing for the entity to share the same strategy and brand, but operate separate regional profit centres.
China prohibits foreign firms from practising in the country, however many have used the route of advising multinational clients on outbound investments to China as a means to penetrate the legal market.
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