US-based law firm Miller Canfield has followed up its previous expansions into Canada and Eastern Europe with the announcement that it has filed an application with the Ministry of Justice of the People's Republic of China requesting approval to open a representative office in Shanghai.
The firm, which is one of Michigan's largest with over 350 lawyers, envisages that the Shanghai office would serve North American and European clients in a number of sectors including life sciences, and automotive and non-auto manufacturing, and would expand the firm's services in IP, environmental law, and corporate and securities including cross-border mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures and foreign direct investment.
Miller Canfield principal Thomas Appleman will lead the new office. Appleman, who has 27 years' experience in corporate and securities law, will be joined by life sciences attorney Weisun Rao, who specialises in patent law and IP transactions, and is a Chinese national, fluent in Mandarin and English.
"Shanghai is China's technology hub and its largest commercial, financial, industrial and communications centre," said Michael Hartmann, CEO of Miller Canfield. "Opening an office in China is a natural expansion of our international practice and for our growing work in the Asian Pacific Rim."
If approved, Miller Canfield expects to open the office in the fourth quarter of 2008.