曾任普衡合伙人的林华伟律师和曾在谢尔曼•思特灵就职的资深律师傅志耕,近期加盟了环球律师事务所担任北京办公室合伙人。该次的招聘表明国际律师人才回归本地律所的趋势日渐明显。

林华伟律师的专业特长在于并购， 房地产和投资领域，而傅志耕 则主要从事跨国资本市场，并购重组以及外商投资等业务。

同时，环球也聘请了原中伦合伙人徐明浩担任建筑和房地产团队的合伙人。

Global’s recent hiring of Lin Huawei and David Fu indicates a homeward trend in the legal job market. Both lawyers have left Paul Hastings and Shearman & Sterling respectively to better serve local clients from a domestic platform.

Lin will focus on M&A, PE, real estate and FDI matters, and explained that his choice was also due to a preference for providing reasonable legal charges. Fu will focus on M&A, foreign enterprise restructuring, FDI and offshore capital market sectors.

“I think after all, being a local lawyer I serve local clients best. Global provides me with a much more flexible working environment for what I do best,” said Lin, who left his partnership at Paul Hastings to join Global as partner. “Clients are more aware of the rate of legal fees these days. Domestic and international firms charge very different rates, and given that, local firms are becoming the ‘go to’ firms, especially when they are becoming increasingly capable of providing international expertise,” he added.

The firm has been expanding its partnership structure with new talent since 2008. Over the past two year the Shanghai office has grown with five new partners – George Wang (Fried, Frank) Alan Zhou and Jane Ying (AllBright) and Gu Weiwei (King & Wood). All came from prominent international firms in China. “To recruit new partners, we do not use headhunters and only target the lawyers we know well, either through working or recommendations by other partners,” said Liu Jinrong, managing partner of Global.

Yet Global is not the only firm tempting potential local candidates to return to domestic shores. Last year Jincheng, Tongda & Neal recruited Jeff Cai, Salan’s former head of China real estate practice. Shanghai Jade & Fountain also successfully lured Song Liwei from Gide and Jeffery Yang, whose international experience includes working with Freshfields and Herbert Smith. Han Kun also hired former Clifford Chance lawyers Cao Yinshi and Hwang Leikang, along with Wang Jinliang from Baker & McKenzie and Wang Zhe from Gide, last June.

Along with the recent recruitment of Lin and Fu, Xu Minghao has also joined Global’s partnership from Zhong Lun, where he was team leader in the real estate and construction sectors.