Nishimura & Asahi, the largest of the Japanese “big four”, will open an office in Beijing and has also allied with Soga, Uryu & Itoga in an effort to target the Chinese market. The Beijing office is planned to launch May 2010, and Nishimura has also formed an East Asia practice in anticipation of the launch. Partner Saori Okada along with an associate will be the first lawyers in the office, and they will work on a ‘legally non-exclusive basis’ with three lawyers in SUI’s Beijing office, and possibly even SUI’s two lawyers in Shanghai.

The alliance will help both firms – Nishimura will immediately gain an established presence in China since SUI has been in Beijing since 2000, and SUI will expand its international experience through Nishimura.

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Hwang Mok Park’s September 2009 merger with boutique litigation firm Hanseung has helped it purchase an office in Shanghai. The new office will be Hwang Mok Park’s first branch outside of Korea, and currently three partners are based there. The firm plans to further develop the branch, though.

“We’re at the very beginning stages in building the office,” commented managing partner Sang Il Park. “So far the office largely assists Korean businesses going into China, but in the long term when Chinese companies are seeking to do business in Korea, we’d see the Shanghai office as a good foothold for that. We’ll be developing a strategy going forward on how to achieve that growth.”

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