今年的十佳成长律所的“成长”可以用几个词来概括：壮大团队、精增业务、深入西南、提升营收。这些律所积极地吸纳新的人才，扩大律师团队，并以充满智慧的管理模式保持着团队的高效运作；在传统业务里继续深耕细作的同时，不忘扩展新的领域，为更多的客户提供强有力的法律支持；在律所扩张方面，挺进华西，纵伸华南，使得全国的服务网络愈加完善；而也正是这些充满战略眼光的布局，使得这些律所赢得了越来越多客户的信赖、取得了辉煌的营收成绩。我们衷心地祝贺今年的上榜律所！
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上榜律所 按律所名称字母顺序排列 |
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北京德和衡律师事务所 |
汉盛律师事务所 |
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卓纬律师事务所 |
植德律师事务所 |
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段和段律师事务所 |
陕西稼轩律师事务所 |
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奋迅律师事务所 |
泰和泰律师事务所 |
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海润天睿律师事务所 |
广东广悦律师事务所 |
今年上榜的律所在多个维度都展现出了惊人的成长速度：团队方面，大多数律所的收费人员数量增长率超过20%，团队规模得到了明显壮大。业务领域方面，各家律所都进行了一定程度上的增加和细化，而资本市场、金融、医疗、合规、高科技以及知识产权则是业务扩展的热门领域。在地域扩张方面，今年上榜律所在过去12个月新开设的分所体现出了明显的向西、向南之势，例如，德和衡律师事务所新增的四家办公室中包括了西安、佛山和南昌，段和段律师事务所新设的三个分所中有两家位于宁波和太原，汉盛律师事务所的新增办公室则包括长沙、深圳和石河子（新疆生产建设兵团）。营收方面，今年的上榜律所更是成果喜人，大多数律所律所的营收增长率超过40%，海润天睿律师事务所更是达到了90%，人均创收随之较高增长，事务所整体利润高歌猛进。
部分上榜律所接受了我们的采访，与我们分享了它们近年来取得的成绩、经验总结、目前定位以及未来展望。
成果与进展
聊起这几年来的发展，几位受访律师都从多个方面分享了律所近年所取得的骄人成就。
首先，人员规模方面，汉盛律师事务所高级合伙人、执委会委员、纪委委员丁振波律师表示，汉盛持续加大优秀人才引进力度，上海总所执业律师连续三年位列上海律所人员规模前十名，同时，汉盛还进一步完善人才考察和评估机制，畅通内部人才晋升机制，给予年轻律师更多专业和资源支持。
卓纬律师事务所主任朱宁律师亦分享道，卓纬的律师团队在过去的一年中新增了29位律师，在积极从外部吸纳新力量的同时，卓纬还在今年1月，晋升了两名年轻的合伙人，充分给予年轻律师广阔的专业舞台和成长空间。
海润天睿律师事务所的团队规模也表现出显著的扩大，海润天睿主任罗会远律师在采访中表示，在过去的一年中，海润天睿新增了83位专业人员，目前已经组建起一支300余人的精英队伍。
其次，在专业化建设方面，丁律师分享道，汉盛不断打造高效专业的业务平台和人才培育机制，重点支持核心业务领域发展。通过设立内部专业委员会的形式，形成专业人才集聚效应；此外，汉盛的学术和业务交流活动也进一步扩大，与国内外多家重点高校和机构建立了紧密的合作关系。
罗律师表示，海润律师事务所和天睿律师事务所合并之后，在证券、资本市场、破产以及争议解决等业务领域有了突破性的提高。目前，海润天睿从事证券业务的律师团队已经达到了120-130人的规模，在该领域里的排名也逐年上升；破产业务领域方面，海润天睿的综合得分在去年的北京高院破产管理人名录中排名第一；此外，在银行业务、商事争议解决、知识产权等领域，海润天睿也已取得了规模与质量兼备的进展。
朱律师指出，近几年，卓纬在其核心业务领域：资本市场和金融也颇有发展。“从去年至今，我们服务了包括建设银行、中信银行、民生银行在内的几大商业银行，以及信托、证券公司、资管公司等，并这些客户提供了专业的法律服务，尤其在资本市场、银行、金融方面的争议解决业务领域里取得了较大突破。”朱律师介绍道。
此外，卓纬在现有业务基础之上，针对市场形势发展变化，通过引进专业团队和内部整合，积极开拓全新的业务领域，以满足客户的专业服务需求，取得了实质性成效。新增加的业务领域包括银行及金融领域争议解决、跨境合规、跨境争议解决、金融衍生品、反垄断以及债券违约处置。
第三，在律所布局扩展方面，罗律师表示，海润天睿近几年新设立了天津分所、重庆分所和深圳分所，并有南京、大连和淄博分所目前正在设立过程中。“未来两三年内，我们希望能够在全国主要的中心城市或主要的区域都有所布局。”罗律师说道。
汉盛的分所布局则更具国际化色彩。“汉盛的国内外分所布局稳步推进，在国际业务开拓方面取得了重要进展，先后在亚太地区和欧洲设立4家海外办公室，基本实现了全球法律服务的覆盖和法律资源的有效配置。”丁律师介绍道。
卓纬虽然在过去的12个月中还未建立新的分所，但早已将其纳入了未来规划之中。朱律师表示，今年，卓纬会启动上海和海南分所的设立，而明年后半年，还计划开设深圳分所。此外，卓纬还加入了国际联盟Alliott Group，成为该联盟的第一家中国大陆律所成员，在积极开展国际合作的同时，为将来开设海外分所奠定基础。
除了以上三个方面，罗律师还指出了海润天睿在品牌影响力和业务管理方面取得的成绩。
“海润天睿的品牌知名度在近几年有了显著提高，不仅更频繁地出现在权威机构的榜单中，还在业界树立起了良好的口碑。同时，在业务的规范化管理方面，我们也有着较快的成长速度，建设起了完善的制度，包括内部风险控制制度、内核制度、人员管理、财务管理等。真正从一家‘精品所’走向规模化、专业化。”罗律师说道。
关键因素
在市场竞争愈加激烈的当今，取得如此迅速的发展并非易事。回望发展历程，几位律师总结出了几个对于成长型律所来说至关重要的因素：
1. 业务质量
“业务是律师事务所的基础。想要快速成长，就必须拥有至少一两个颇具实力的业务领域。”罗律师说道。他认为，只有凭借很高的业务质量，才能塑造良好的口碑和品牌竞争力，并且吸引更多的人才。
2. 团结协作的工作关系
在罗律师看来，合伙人之间和谐的工作关系、一致的工作理念对于律师事务所来说尤为重要。“我们在招揽合伙人时，一个重要的指标就是他是否认同我们的理念，是否崇尚和谐。事务所合伙人们应该保持团结和谐的工作关系，才能真正齐心协力把业务做好、把律所做大、做强。”罗律师指出。
朱律师也同意这一观点，她认为团队的高度凝聚力是卓纬这几年快速成长的强大推力之一。“团队凝聚力以及对未来发展方向的一致认同使得合伙人和律师对业务和事务所的发展有着很高的投入度，成长型的律所要有‘灵魂’，要有凝聚力，从合伙人到律师都应一致认同未来发展方向，并且共同努力，才能取得令人满意的成果。”朱律师说道。
3. 人才吸收
对于成长型的律所来说，核心业务领域必然需要得到又好又快的发展，这就依赖于优秀人才的加盟。罗律师表示：“海润天睿这几年发展如此之快的原因之一就是吸收了一批优秀的合伙人。在证券业务、银行业务和破产业务领域，海润天睿在过去已经打下了坚实的基础，而这几年一批新的合伙人的加入，对于海润天睿来说无疑是如虎添翼、锦上添花。”
4. 律所品牌
“海润天睿这几年的迅速成长和它在客户中间建立起的良好口碑是不无关系的，”罗律师分享道，“尽管我们过去的市场宣传不多，但我们从客户的角度出发，能够真正地为其着想，我们多年如一日的高质量服务为我们赢得了良好的业内口碑，从而创造了很强的客户粘性，很多客户已经与我们合作了十多年，可以见得品牌对于律所成长的重要性。”
5. 兼顾规模与质量的管理体系
摆在许多成长型律所面前的一大难题就是如何在扩大律所规模的同时保持业务质量与专业化。“从更好地服务客户的角度来讲，律所需要有适当的规模，这样才能保证有足够的的人员去满足客户综合性的需求，但人员的增加和团队的扩大对管理合伙人来说，是一个不小的挑战。”朱律师表示。
面对这一挑战，朱律师所采取的措施是通过更明确的工作规范和更严格的工作质量审核制度来建立起更稳定的管理架构，在适当规模的情况下保持团队的专业水准，从而保证服务质量。
“只要能够满足绝大多数客户的需求，就是适当的规模。卓纬从来都不会盲目追求律师事务所的规模，而是以专业水平和服务质量作为衡量律所最重要的标准。”朱律师说道。
罗律师也表示：“在规模扩张的过程中，业务始终是放在第一位的。虽然在影响力和人才吸引方面，规模越大就越有优势，但我们一直更看重的是服务质量。”今年，海润天睿将放缓分所的发展速度，通过一体化的管理模式在业务管理、流程和风险控制上保证分所与总所同步和一致，从而保证其业务质量。
目前定位
发展至今，几家受访律所都对自身在现阶段有着明确的定位。丁律师说道：“专业立所，人才为本。具体来说，汉盛律师事务所在规模化发展的基础上，更加注重专业建设和人才梯队建设，把控和提升法律服务质量；充分发挥优势领域竞争优势，塑造专业品牌价值和良好的市场口碑。”
罗律师表示，海润天睿目前是一家处于快速成长和发展之中的比较大型的律师事务所，他说道：“这几年我们的发展速度的确很快，事务所规范化管理和信息化建设首当其冲，唯一目标和标准就是事务所的健康发展，这也是海润天睿事业不断向前的源源动力。。”
朱律师则从几个方面对卓纬的现阶段定位进行了总结：“从市场层面来讲，卓纬的团队还比较年轻，还只能算一个‘新兵’，在许多方面依然需要向行业头部律所学习；在专业领域这方面，卓纬可以说是一个后起之秀，无论是专业水平、专业能力、客户服务，还是国际化布局，我们都对自己有着很高的定位；在管理方面，卓纬的思路会更加开阔，乐于向国内外同行学习经验，形成具有卓纬特色的管理风格和模式。”
未来发展
展望未来，丁律师说道：“汉盛将继续坚持规模化、专业化、国际化的发展战略，‘量’和‘质’并重，持续优化管理模式，提升律所文化凝聚力，不断朝着品牌化名所、专业化强所，与国际化大所的方向稳步发展。”
海润天睿在未来三到五年的规划则是进入中国一流大所的行列。“这不仅指的是人员规模和收入水平，更重要的是律所的管理水平和业务质量能够和一流大所比肩，”罗律师说道，“同时，我们也希望能够扩大品牌影响力，在业内塑造更好的口碑。”
朱律师表示，首先，卓纬致力于成长为一家真正立足于中国并具有一定国际化影响力的律所；其次，始终以保证专业性为前提，适度规模化，努力成为核心业务领域里的国内头部律所，赢得更多来自业内与客户的认可与肯定。
2020 ALB China Fastest Growing Firms
The accomplishments of this year's Fastest Growing Firms in China can be characterized by stronger and expanded teams, business growth, expansion into the western and southern parts of China, and revenue boost. These firms actively recruit talented people to strengthen their teams, while maintaining the efficient operation of the teams with a smart management model. While continuing to work hard in the traditional business, they strive to explore new fields to provide strong legal support to more clients. By expanding their presence in West China and South China, they continue to perfect a service network covering the whole country. Thanks to these strategic arrangements, these firms have gained the trust of more clients, and achieved remarkable revenue. We congratulate the firms that made the list year for their outstanding achievements.
The Fastest Growing Firms this year have shown stunning growth rates in multiple facets. In terms of the teams, most firms had over 20 percent growth in fee-earners, and remarkably expanded their teams. In terms of practice areas, all law firms add new areas to their practice area lists, while capital market, finance, medical care, compliance, high technology, and intellectual property are the hot areas for business expansion. In terms of geographic expansion, there is clear trend showing that the firms on the list this year are expanding towards West China or South China over the past 12 months. For example, Beijing DHH Law Firm opened four new offices, one in West China (Xi'an), and two in South China (Foshan and Nanchang); Duan & Duan opened three offices, one in South China (Ningbo), and one in West China (Taiyuan); and HanSheng Law Offices opened two offices in South China (Changsha and Shenzhen), and one in West China (Shihezi). In terms of revenue, the growth figures in this year's Fastest Growing Firms revenues are even more exciting. Most firms on the list saw over 40 percent revenue growth, and among them Hai Run Law Firm recorded 90 percent revenue growth.
We spoke to some of the firms that made the list about their achievements and successful experiences, their current positioning, and future prospects.
ACHIVEMENTS AND PROGRESS
Talking about the growth of their firms in recent years, the lawyers share with us the firms' outstanding achievements in many aspects.
First, in terms of the number of employees, Ding Zhenbo, senior partner at HanSheng Law Offices, says that HanSheng continues to absorb talented people. For example, HanSheng's Shanghai head office ranked among the top 10 law firms in Shanghai by the number of employees for three consecutive years. Meanwhile, HanSheng has further improved the performance evaluation mechanism and employee promotion policy to appropriately allocate internal sources of personnel promotion and give more support to young lawyers in terms of professional development and resources.
Zhu Ning, the director of Chance Bridge Partners, shares with us that 29 lawyers joined Chance Bridge last year. While actively recruiting new talent, Chance Bridge also offers young lawyers opportunities for professional growth and development, two young lawyers were promoted to partners in January this year.
Hai Run Law Firm continues to expand its team of lawyers. According to Luo Huiyuan, the director of Hai Run, 83 professionals joined Hai Run last year. Now the firm has an elite team of over 300 lawyers.
Secondly, in terms of areas of practice and business development, Ding says that HanSheng continues to build an efficient and professional business platform and talent cultivation mechanism to support the development of its core business areas. With the establishment of an internal professional committee, more talented people are attracted to HanSheng. Furthermore, the firm is playing a more active role in academic and business exchange activities, and has built close cooperative relations with many key universities and institutions at home and abroad.
Luo says that Hai Run has achieved breakthrough growth in the areas of securities, capital market, bankruptcy and dispute resolution after the merger with Tianrui Law Firm. Now the firm has a securities team of 120 to 130 people, and its ranking in this area has been moving up year by year. In the area of bankruptcy, Hai Run came top in terms of the comprehensive score of bankruptcy mangers according to a ranking by Beijing High Court last year. The firm also made progress in areas of banking, commercial dispute resolution and intellectual property in terms of size and quality.
Zhu tells us that Chance Bridge has made remarkable progress in its core areas of practice, capital market and finance. "Since last year, we have provided professional services for several major commercial banks, including China Construction Bank, China CITIC Bank, and Minsheng Bank, as well as trust companies, securities companies, and asset management companies. And we have made great breakthroughs in capital market, banking and finance related dispute resolutions," Zhu says.
On the basis of its existing business, Chance Bridge is also actively exploring new areas of practice through the introduction of external specialty teams and integration of internal team to meet the needs of clients, and has make substantial achievements. Its new areas of practice include dispute resolution in the banking and financial sector, cross-border compliance, cross-border dispute resolution, financial derivatives, antitrust, and bond default disposal.
And thirdly, regarding the expansion of law firms, Luo says that Hai Run has opened offices in Tianjin, Chongqing and Shenzhen in recent years, and the building of offices in Nanjing, Dalian and Zibo is in process. "In the next two to three years, we hope to establish our presence in major central cities or major regions of the country," Luo says.
HanSheng is expanding domestically and internationally. "HanSheng has been steadily advancing its domestic and international expansion, and has made important progress in international business development. We have set up four overseas offices in the Asia-Pacific region and Europe, having basically realized the coverage of global legal services and the effective allocation of legal resources," Ding says.
Chance Bridge did not launch new offices in the past 12 months, but it already has plans. Zhu says that Chance Bridge will start the establishment of Shanghai and Hainan offices this year and plans to open Shenzhen office in the second half of next year. Furthermore, Chance Bridge has joined the Alliott Group, becoming the first Chinese mainland law firm member of the alliance, to actively lay the foundation for setting up offices abroad in the future and actively develop international cooperation.
In addition to the above three aspects, Luo also shares with us Hai Run's achievements in brand building and business management.
"Hai Run did very well in increasing its brand awareness in recent years. The firm often appears in rankings done authoritative organizations, and meanwhile has established a good reputation in the industry. In terms of standardized business management, we have built a set of complete systems, including internal risk control, internal audit, personnel management, and financial management. Hai Run is growing for a boutique firm to a comprehensive large firm," Luo says.
KEY FACTORS
Given the increasingly intense competition in the market today, it is not easy to achieve such rapid development. Looking back on how they have made those achievements, the lawyers share with us a few factors that are vital to growing law firms:
1. Good business practices
"Businesses are the basis of a law firm. To grow rapidly, you must have competitive advantages in at least one or two practice areas," Luo says. He believes that the good business practices are the only approach for a firm to build a good reputation, and then to attract more talent.
2. Unity and harmonious relationships in the workplace
In Luo's view, it is particularly important for a law firm if its partners have harmonious working relationships and share the same business philosophy. "When we recruit a partner, one of the important criteria is whether he shares the same business philosophy with us, and whether he advocates harmonious relationships in workplace. Partners of a firm should maintain harmonious working relationships, so that they can truly work closely together to do business well and make the firm bigger and stronger," Luo points out.
Zhu echoes Luo's opinion and she believes that the high cohesion of teams is one of the strong impetuses driving the rapid growth of Chance Bridge in recent years. "Team cohesiveness and acceptance of the same development direction make partners and lawyers remain committed to the development of the business and the firm. A growing law firm must have a 'soul' and cohesiveness, and partners and lawyers should agree on the future development direction and work closely together to achieve satisfactory results," Zhu says.
3. Recruiting talented people
For a growing law firm, its core practice area needs to develop well and quickly, which largely depends on the joining of outstanding talent. "One of the reasons why Hai Run has been growing so fast in recent years is that it has absorbed a number of excellent partners. Hai Run already laid a solid foundation in its securities, banking and bankruptcy businesses. The joining of new partners is like 'adding wings to a tiger' and icing on the cake," Luo says.
4. Law firm branding
"A good reputation also contributes to the rapid growth of Hai Run. We did not do a lot in the past to get market publicity for our firm. Our business philosophy is putting our clients first and dedicating ourselves to ensuring our clients are successful. Our high-quality services have won us a good reputation in the industry, and created strong customer stickiness. Many clients have worked with us for more than ten years, which shows the importance of a good brand reputation for the growth of law firms."
5. A management system combining scale and quality
One of the major challenges facing many growing firms is how to remain as specialized firms and maintain service quality while growing in size. "To better serve our clients, a law firm needs to have an appropriate scale, so as to ensure that there are enough people to meet the comprehensive needs of clients. Meanwhile, it is a big challenge for managing partners with the increase in the number of staff and the expansion of teams," Zhu says.
To address this challenge, Zhu set up a more stable management structure by implementing clearer work norms and a stricter work quality review system, to maintain the professional levels of the teams and ensure quality services while expanding the firm to an appropriate size.
"As long as we can meet the needs of most of our clients, it should be the right size for us. At Chance Bridge, we won't expand 'blindly'. We believe that whether we can provide specialized and quality services to clients is the most important criterion measuring our success," Zhu says.
Luo agrees with Zhu and says: "In the process of expansion, good services for clients always come first. It is true that a bigger firm might have better exposure and could attract more talent, but for us, providing quality services is always our top priority." Hai Run will slow down the expansion in launching new offices this year. The firm will ensure the business management, processes and risk control of branch offices and the head office synchronized and consistent through an integrated management model to guarantee the quality of the services.
CURRENT POSITIONING
The firms we spoke to already have a clear positioning of themselves. "Specialization and talent are the basis of our firm," Ding says. "While expanding in size, HanSheng attaches importance to the development of practice areas and fostering of talent, to ensure and improve our service quality. And we'll make full use of our competitive edges to build our brand value and a good reputation in the market."
Hai Run is relatively large law firm undergoing rapid growth and development. "We've experienced an accelerated growth in recent years, especially firm’s standardized management and IT construction. Our goal for the future is to reach a healthy and sustainable development, which give us constant motivation to keep moving forward," Luo says.
Zhu summarizes the current positioning of Chance Bridge from several aspects: "From a market perspective, Chance Bridge is still quite young, like a 'newbie', and needs to learn from the top-tier firms in many aspects. Regarding specialized areas of practice, we could say that Chance Bridge is a rising star; we have a high positioning for ourselves in terms of expertise, capabilities and customer services, as well as the international presence. And about management, Chance Bridge has an open mind and is willing to learn from domestic and international firms to form our own management style and model with Chance Bridge's characteristics."
FUTURE DEVELOPMENT
Looking ahead, Ding says that "HanSheng will stick to the development strategy of expansion in scale, specialization and internationalization, with equal emphasis on 'quantity' and 'quality'. And we'll continue to optimized our management model, enhance the cohesiveness of the firm, and develop steadily towards the goal of building a prestigious, specialized and strong international law firm."
Hai Run's goal is to be among the first-tier domestic large firms in China within the next three to five years. "It is not only about the number of employees and revenue, more importantly, we want to be comparable with the top-tier firms on the management level and service quality," Luo says. "We will also work to expand our brand's influence and to become a higher reputable firm in the industry."
Chance Bridge is committed to establishing itself in China and meanwhile expanding its international presence. The firm will adopt a development strategy featured providing clients with high-quality specialized services, appropriately expanding in size, and striving to be among the top firms in its core areas of practice, so as to win recognition and trust of clients and in the industry, Zhu says.
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