Beijing Yingke, a newcomer (ranked sixth) in the 2010 ALB China 20 list of the country’s largest firms, is hot on the heels of its number-one competitor Dacheng, having established its Kunming office just after Dacheng did the same.

The new Kunming branch, currently being headed by partner Bu Chuanwu who relocated from the Beijing headquarters, will be focusing on mining, real estate, finance and capital markets. 50 lawyers work in the newly established office, 11 of whom relocated to Kunming along with Bu. Another team of 20 lawyers are also set to join the office from Yunan Tong Ban Law Firm.

While Yingke has been expanding rapidly, Bu claims that the firm does not consider whole firm mergers and franchises as viable growth strategies. “It is extremely difficult to find a firm which shares the same business culture to that of Yingke, and franchises can only guarantee a size but not sustain quality of advice. Therefore, we will only continue to seek out strong practice teams which have at least three years worth of practice experience to join our firm,” said Bu.

Bu lists Yingke Kunming’s strongest competitors in the region to be Dacheng, Yunan BaQian and Grandall Legal Group.

As of August 2010, Yingke has domestic offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Tianjin, Nanjing, Suzhou, Shenyang, Wuhan, Hohhot, Kunming, Qingdao, Xiamen, Chengdu, Changsha, Shijiazhuang and Chongqing. ALB

National firms in Kunming

Related stories:

• Grandall hires new partner to rebuild Kunming office (29 June 2010)
• ALB China Fast 10 (21 July 2010)