Baker & McKenzie and FenXun Partners launch first joint FTZ law venture

Baker & McKenzie and FenXun Partners became the first international and mainland law firms to launch a joint operation in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone (FTZ) as part of China's legal reforms.

The joint operation would permit collaborative responses to client needs, joint execution of client matters, secondments of lawyers between the firms and exchange of know-how, but Baker & McKenzie and FenXun Partners would remain separate and independent, Baker & McKenzie said in a press release.

Yesterday, the Shanghai Bureau of Justice conducted the licensing ceremony and officially opened the joint office of these two law firms, the bureau said in a press release.

"The exploration of ways to promote closer business cooperation between Chinese law firms and law firms from Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and abroad, and the implementation of the new business models of joint operation, are an important aspect of the drive to further liberalise the legal service sector," it said.

This measure to allow Sino-foreign legal joint services is among the first batch of 23 measures currently being undertaken to liberalise service industries in the Shanghai FTZ, said theShanghai Bureau of Justice.

For a long time, Chinese and foreign law firms in China's legal sector were only allowed to separately provide Chinese legal services and foreign legal services, the bureau explained. "The joint operation and mutual secondment of legal advisers now practiced in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone do away with this unitary, isolationist service model and represent a milestone in the further liberalisation of China's legal service market."