A 2008 merger with Beijing Zhengtai law firm has made Zhongyin one of the country's ten largest firms by number of lawyers. According to The ALB China 20, the Beijing-headquartered firm had 263 lawyers, including 36 partners, across more than ten branches and representative offices as at June 2009.
The firm's strong growth has caught the attention of many peers, certainly including Baker & McKenzie's former Taipei partner Steven Hsu (pictured). With 13 years of experience practising law in Taiwan and an EMBA from Beijing Tsinghua University, Hsu has recently joined Zhongyin's Beijing head office as senior consultant and managing director of the firm's marketing center.
"I've realised that China one day will become the largest market in the world and I would not want to miss the growing chance with this market. So I've decided to leave Taiwan and move to the mainland," said Hsu.
Hsu's practice focuses on capital markets, M&A, corporate strategic alliance and FDI. In addition to strengthening Zhongyin's expertise in these practice areas, Hsu's appointment will also boost the firm's new development strategy, of which expansion and globalisation is an important part.
"We've fixed our eyes on international expansion and more international business. Hsu's international experience and perspectives will help us better execute our goal of becoming a large, international PRC firm," said Zhao Cenghai, managing partner of Zhongyin.
Having already established representative offices in Toronto and Frankfurt, the firm is currently exploring possibilities to form strategic alliances with London and Hong Kong law firms. Locally, it is planning to open or is opening branch offices in Fuzhou, Wuxi, Jinan, Tianjin and Qingdao.
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