Llinks Law Offices opened a Hong Kong office in April, and is considering setting up another new office in Asia or Europe in the future to better satisfy the needs of its cross-border practice.
The Hong Kong office is Llinks’ third following its Shanghai and Beijing offices, it is also the firm’s first outside mainland China.
Sandra Lü, Llinks’ partner in charge of the opening of the Hong Kong office, told China Business Law Journal that more than 40% of their practice has involved cross-border business, and the launch of the Hong Kong office is to meet the needs of its clients at home and abroad. She said it is a significant step toward internationalization for the firm.
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When asked whether the firm will launch another offshore office, Lü said that it would open another office in Asia or Europe in three to five years.
“This falls within the scope of our consideration, but we will decide the details based on the practice of Hong Kong office.”
She said, “In the past two years, China’s tendency toward internationalization has become outstanding, our domestic clients have need to invest abroad, and many of our foreign clients have need to invest in China.”
For the new office’s team, Lü said, David Yu, currently a Shanghai-based Llinks partner, will be a resident partner in Hong Kong. Vivien Teu and Anthony Wan, two senior Hong Kong lawyers, will also join the office as partners.
The team also intends to keep expanding. Lü said that the office will not only recruit more partners in Llinks’ areas of strength, such as asset management and capital markets – it will also expand into other practice areas.
“The main area to develop is dispute resolution, including litigation and arbitration. We will recruit new partners in this field in the short term,” she said. “We are also considering traditional practice areas such labour law and IP law.”–
Llinks’ Hong Kong office is currently in association with the Hong Kong law firm Vivien Teu & Co, so as to advise on both PRC law and Hong Kong law. Lü said they are in effect a single office. “The association is a strategy in our transitional period of three years. We will merge the firm after three years and turn the whole into a local firm,” she said.
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