Australian law firm Mallesons Stephen Jaques and Chinese firm King & Wood will become King & Wood Mallesons on 1 March 2012, according to the official announcement by the firms. The agreement will see the firms rebrand, but retain separate partnerships. The only exception to this arrangement will be in Hong Kong, where the two partnerships will be completely integrated. Beijing and Shanghai-based Mallesons partners will join the King & Wood partnership.
Stuart Fuller, Mallesons chief executive partner elect, who will relocate to Hong Kong next year, said that the move was a response to the rise of Asia. “It will be a firm for the Asian century,” said Fuller. “[This will be] the only firm that brings together the combination of Chinese local law, English law, Hong Kong law and Australian law capabilities.” Fuller will become the global managing partner and Hong Kong managing partner of the new firm. Current King & Wood chairman Wang Junfeng will be the chairman of the combined firm while Tony O’Malley will become the Australian managing partner.
King & Wood Mallesons will be the largest law firm in Asia and the largest firm headquartered outside of the U.S. or UK, with more than 380 partners and 1800 lawyers. Mallesons has made it no secret that a global presence was always on the agenda, and that it had almost joined forces with Clifford Chance before the financial crisis in 2008. Fuller said the decision to join with King & Wood was one based on a combined desire to create a leading global law firm based in the Asia region. “What the King & Wood alliance does is allow the firm to create and shape its own destiny. It differentiates the firm from its competitors and is very much focused on the new world, not the old world,” he said.
He added that in the post financial crisis world clients were increasingly demanding a “one-stop-shop” for legal services while at the same time economic power has shifted as a result of change in capital flows. “By combining with King & Wood, and becoming a new, very differentiated global legal brand, we are creating a genuinely new choice for clients in the international legal services market,” he said.
Fuller said there was no plan to have a fully combined partnership in the future and touted the success of other firms in the market with the verein structure as justification for the decision. “The Swiss verein structure allows you to act very quickly to add capability in different markets. That is an important feature for us as the aspiration is to become a global law firm,” he said.
He added that as a result of discussions held with clients in the lead up to the merger, the two firms are already working on six deals together involving Chinese and international clients.
King & Wood Malleson
- Start date: 1 March, 2012
- Partner headcount: More than 380
- Global managing partner: Stuart Fuller
- Headquarters: Hong Kong
- Offices: 21 across Australia, China, UK, U.S. and Japan
- Organisational structure: There will be co-practice group heads across China and Australia and joint client relationship partners for the combined top 30 clients
- Partner vote: More than 95 percent of the partners in each firm voted in favour of the merger
澳大利亚律师事务所万盛（Mallesons Stephen Jaques）和中国律师事务所金杜（King & Wood）正式宣布，双方将于明年3月1日合并为金杜万盛（King & Wood Mallesons）此次达成的协议中，两家律所将统一更名，但是合伙人关系则维持各自独立。唯一的例外是双方在香港的办事机构将完全整合到一起。万盛在北京和上海的合伙人将加入金杜成为合伙人。
万盛首席执行合伙人Stuart Fuller明年将调任至香港，他表示此项合并是应对亚洲的崛起。
“新的律所将服务即将来到的亚洲世纪，”他说。“它将是唯一一个将中国本地法律，英国法律，香港法律和澳大利亚法律的专业能力结合在一起的律所。”
Fuller将担任合并后新律所的全球管理合伙人和香港管理合伙人。现任金杜主席王俊峰将成为新律所的主席，Tony O’Malley则将出任澳大利亚管理合伙人。
合并后的金杜万盛将拥有超过380名合伙人和1800名律师，成为亚洲地区最大，同时也是总部在美国和英国以外的最大的律师事务所。万盛一直以来寻求全球扩张广为人知，在2008年金融危机之前，一度几乎与高伟绅（Clifford Chance）达成合并。Fuller说，与金杜合并的决定是处于双方的一个共同意愿，那就是创建一个立足亚洲地区的全球领先的律所。
“与金杜的结盟，让我们能够开创并把握自己的命运，不同于竞争对手，我们专注于新世界，而不是旧世界。”
他补充说，后金融危机时代的世界，客户将越来越需要“一站式购物”的法律服务，同时由于资本流动，经济实力已经发生改变。“通过与金杜合并，成为一个新的全球性法律品牌，一个极具特色的全球性法律品牌，我们在国际法律服务市场上将为客户提供真正的新选择。”他说。
Fuller说将来还没有将双方合伙人体系完全合并的计划，并且引用市场上其他联盟式结构律所的成功例子以支持这一决定。
“这种瑞士式联盟的结构允许我们在不同的市场快速反应并强加实力…这是我们一个重要的特色，因为我们立志成为一个全球性的律师事务所”
金杜万盛概要
合伙人表决：双方都有超过95%的合伙人投票赞成合并。