WilmerHale Opens Office In Beijing

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WilmerHale Opens Office In Beijing

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Members of the team have structured, negotiated and concluded a range of landmark agreements with China, most notably China's intellectual property rights agreements, market access agreement and the comprehensive US-China bilateral agreement that paved the way for China's WTO membership, covering all goods, services and agriculture in the Chinese economy. The team advises Chinese entities on their outbound commercial, investment and trade transactions, including obtaining regulatory approvals, and on the structuring of transactions and defending against trade actions. We have implemented investment strategies, structured business transactions and devised sophisticated market access strategies for multinational companies around the world, and have negotiated with and litigated against virtually every major trading nation, as well as emerging market countries. The firm has represented major multinational companies in investigations across China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Thailand. For one US-based client, we helped reduce or eliminate fines following an antitrust investigation in China, Japan and Korea, securing what has been reported as the largest-ever reduction in fines from the US Department of Justice following its investigation. Additionally, WilmerHale has conducted internal investigations for Asian businesses, including one dealing with alleged kickbacks and extortion by sales representatives and another related to a major US-based manufacturer’s acquisition of a Chinese firm for $300 million.
Insightful guidance for clients navigating the ever-complex global economy.
Our China Trade Practice offers a unique combination of services bringing together prominent policy, regulatory and government relations capabilities in China with premier in-country business and transactions experience.

WilmerHale announces the opening of a licensed office in Beijing, China. The Beijing office, a milestone for the newly merged firms of Hale and Dorr and Wilmer Cutler Pickering, expands the firm's global reach to better meet the needs of its domestic and international clients.

The new Beijing office offers a unique combination of services and brings together prominent policy, regulatory and government relations capabilities with premier in-country business, transactions and intellectual property experience. The addition of the China team enables the firm to offer a hallmark of sophisticated problem solving and strategies at the intersection of business, government and regulation.

Leading the China team at WilmerHale are Ambassador Charlene Barshefsky, the former United States Trade Representative (USTR) responsible for a range of landmark agreements with China including its World Trade Organization agreement and intellectual property rights and market access agreements, and Robert Novick former USTR general counsel and chair of the firm's Trade Group.

Lester Ross heads the Beijing office. The lawyers in the Beijing office are widely recognized as comprising one of the strongest legal teams based in China for corporate, financial services and intellectual property work, including M&A, foreign direct investment, banking and finance, insurance, telecommunications, and technology. William McCahill, former deputy chief of Mission and Charge d'Affaires of the American Embassy in Beijing, spearheads the China government relations team which provides policy and regulatory advice that complements the clients' commercial objectives.

The Beijing team has represented clients across a range of industries in all aspects of their business dealings in China, including structuring, negotiating and documenting business transactions, as well as involvement in precedent-setting foreign investment transactions. Moreover, the team has substantial experience and relationships throughout China, including Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangdong, Jiangsu and other provinces and localities in addition to Beijing.

"The Beijing office represents an integral part of our broad international practice," said William F. Lee and William J. Perlstein, co-managing partners, WilmerHale. "We offer end-to-end service in Beijing, whether the need is transactions, IP or government regulation and public affairs, making this office unique in China."

With the depth and breadth of WilmerHale's US and European offices, the firm has also advised Chinese entities on their commercial and trade relations outbound, particularly in obtaining regulatory approvals, the structuring of transactions and defending against trade actions.

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