US law firm Dorsey & Whitney has entered into a ‘special counsel’ relationship with local PRC firm, Martin Hu & Partners (MHP). MHP is a boutique corporate practice based in Shanghai. The 20-lawyer firm was founded in 2008 after managing partner, Martin Hu, departed Boss & Young to establish his own firm.

Under the special counsel arrangement, MHP will be available as special counsel to Dorsey to advise the firm and its clients on mainland Chinese law. Dorsey, as special foreign counsel to MHP, will advise MHP and its clients with respect to the laws of the jurisdictions that Dorsey is permitted to practice in.

Peter Corne, co-chair of Dorsey’s Asia practice group said that the relationship will make it easier for Dorsey clients to obtain qualified legal representation in areas of mainland practice reserved for domestic Chinese law firms, including litigation and domestic arbitration, corporate finance on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges, insolvency procedures and court sponsored restructuring, while providing the US firm with better access to local and national government authorities.

The special counsel relationship is some long-overdue good news for Dorsey’s China practice. The defections of Shanghai-based partners Jay Yan and Michael Chin to Reed Smith and Hogan Lovells, respectively, have decimated the firm’s office in the country’s financial capital. Corne is now the only partner based on the mainland. The firm has five other lawyers in Shanghai.