Nancy Zhang (pictured) along with a team of lawyers have recently left Kingfield Law Firm, a Beijing-based boutique firm specialising in shipping and aviation work, for Jincheng Tongda & Neal (JT&N).
Nancy Zhang (pictured) along with a team of lawyers have recently left Kingfield Law Firm, a Beijing-based boutique firm specialising in shipping and aviation work, for Jincheng Tongda & Neal (JT&N).Zhang becomes senior partner at JT&N and her team joins JT&N’s real estate practice, adding a good number of international clients to the firm’s clientele. Prior to Kingfield, Zhang also practiced in Hylands and Lehman, Lee & Xu.
Zhang chose to leave Kingfield in view of the increasing competition between domestic firms. “Competition in the legal industry will peak within the next five to ten years and evidently small-scale domestic firms like Kingfield will have a competitive disadvantage,” said Zhang.
The appointment is also seen as Zhang’s breakaway from Kingfield’s decision to merge with Dacheng. Dacheng’s absorption of Kingfield includes senior partners Zhang Shuzhen, Tian Hui, Wang Yingbo and senior counsel Tian Hong. Although Dacheng is the largest firm in China by headcount, Zhang chose to join JT&N for its higher business profile amongst international clients.
“All the Kingfield partners were considering moving to a bigger firm and the choice was a toss up between Dacheng and JT&N. In the end, I chose JT&N,” said Zhang. According to Zhang, the others primarily serve domestic clients and the choice to join Dacheng was fuelled by the firm’s extensive local presence. “The threshold for being senior partner is also higher at JT&N,” she adds.
Earlier this year, JT&N also boosted its partnership by promoting Liu Xinping and Zhao Ping to senior partners. The firm, established in 1992, has more than 240 lawyers in its offices in Beijing (34 senior partners), Shanghai, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Shenyang and Xi’an.
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