近日，美国博钦律师事务所北京以及上海代表处管理合伙人朱坚和王朝晖一同加入君合，成为该所国际知识产权部门合伙人。同时加入君合的还有众达北京代表处资深顾问律师崔轩。这三位新合伙人，均兼具美国和中国律师执业资格，且都在美国专利商标局执业注册。他们在专利法律领域有各自独特的专长。

三位新合伙人将是推动君合建立新硅谷分所的主要成员。据悉，君合正在申请开设硅谷分所所需的相关审批和执照，筹备过程应在一个多月后完成。

Following the arrival at King & Wood of Clifford Chance's former Beijing chief Rupert Li as an international managing partner, Jun He has secured the service of three IP partners from leading US firms in preparation for opening a new office in Silicon Valley. The two firms at the pinnacle of the PRC legal industry are really setting the pace in terms of hiring partners from international firms to support their further internationalisation.

Two of the new partners joining Jun He are James Zhu and Zoe Wang, who previously served as Beijing and Shanghai managing partners respectively of Seattle-based US firm Perkins Coie. They were among the key members establishing Perkins Coie's Shanghai office, which opened in 2006.

Both are US qualified lawyers and registered to practice before the US Patent and Trademark Office, and both focus on patent-related issues, but Zhu primarily services the life sciences, medical device, chemical and material sciences sectors, whilst Wang prefers life sciences, nanotechnologies, data processing, and devices.

Steven Cui, the third new partner in Jun He's IP practice group, is admitted to the California bar and also registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office. He joins from Jones Day's Beijing office, where he was a counsel practising IP law with an emphasis on patent procurement, technology transfer, and portfolio management. Before joining Jones Day in 2008, he spent seven years as in-house at Genentech in San Francisco, where he was the lead IP counsel for the company's most promising drug products.

"The arrival of the three new partners and their respective teams has bolstered the capabilities of our international IP practice group, and signals a new phase of growth for the firm in 2010," said David Liu, senior partner of Jun He. "They will be leading the development of our soon to be launched Silicon Valley office, and will bring in many new PE and VC clients, who need strong patent legal advice and services when they invest into high-tech enterprises that are in growing and expanding stages." The firm, which established its New York office in 1993, is finalising its licence application for the Silicon Valley office and expects to complete the process within one month.

Mutual attraction
Although partner lateral hires from international counterparts were not unheard of in the past, Liu said, the necessity of them for PRC firms and the willingness of international partners to join local firms has never been greater.

"Given the rapid market development and emerging client demand, leading PRC firms now have a huge need to recruit lawyers and partners with extensive international exposure and experience. As they increasingly take on lead roles in cross-border transactions and investments, the ability to offer clients the combination of local and international expertise and capabilities is critical," said Liu.

"From the partners' point of view, practising on a strong local platform is an increasingly attractive option. At a local firm, they are able to leverage the firm's extensive local resources and local legal support to provide higher quality and a wider range of services to clients. Equally importantly, they can offer a more attractive value proposition to existing and prospective clients, as the cost base in even the very top-tier PRC firms is still noticeably lower than that of international firms," Liu continued.

A number of international firms operating in China have openly addressed the question of increased competition from local firms - much of it for talent. International firms, having been established much longer than their PRC counterparts, inarguably still have certain advantages over their local competitors. However, the growing number of partners jumping ship to local firms, particularly in the past few months, could provoke international firms into lengthy periods of introspection over their China strategies.