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China – Our people

China – Our people

Approachable, supportive, inclusive. 

People make our firm and there’s not one type.

Lawyers in our China offices make up one of the most experienced teams of any international law firm. Operating across many sectors, our teams support clients across a wide range of contentious and non-contentious work. Our China offices in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong are fully integrated and our legal teams provide the best legal advice and service to our clients, wherever and whenever required.

Our team on the ground in China comprises a compelling mixture of PRC educated lawyers and international experts that have advised the firm’s clients in a large number of jurisdictions in Asia, Europe and the US. Our international experience combined with an in-depth local expertise makes us uniquely placed to guide you through issues you may face in the Chinese market. Year after year, independent league tables show us as the leading law firm for public and private M&A, capital markets and compliance, antitrust, competition and trade transactions in China.

Our people

Lawyers

Our lawyers come from a range of nationalities and backgrounds. Between them they speak more than ten different languages and they understand the legal framework in many jurisdictions, including China, the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany and Hong Kong. 

Teamwork is important to us, too. Our China offices are fully integrated and work together to provide the best advice and service to our clients.

Demand for our skills is growing and we’re always looking for new, world-class legal talent. We recruit people from all legal disciplines, and from all backgrounds and nationalities. 

Not all of our associates are qualified in Hong Kong law. Some are qualified in jurisdictions such as Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Singapore, the US and the UK.

Others are PRC law graduates who join us as legal consultants. 

Then there are law graduates who have gained impressive work experience and who have also passed the New York Bar exams. They join us as global legal consultants and are promoted when they have achieved the skills required of an associate.

The global nature of our work means all our people must speak and write English fluently. In addition, Mandarin is extremely valuable: our work increasingly involves the PRC. Being able to communicate efficiently with a range of clients means greater opportunities and variety of work.

Business services

A 24/7 global business also needs exceptional support in human resources (HR), IT, administration, finance and accounting, risk management and compliance, and marketing and business development.

More than 2,000 business services professionals make our business tick; they support our lawyers and deliver great client service.

As with our legal teams, we want only the best people to take on business services roles that are so pivotal to our success. We're always interested in hearing from people with the right skills.

Lawyers

To recruit and retain the best lawyers, we offer outstanding career development.

This includes global induction programmes; training sessions with teams and practice groups; residential development programmes; and worldwide conferences. 

As your career progresses and you take on more responsibility, we’ll help you to develop your team, business and project management skills. It all goes towards helping you fulfil your potential.

If you are a lawyer from another jurisdiction, we will help you to qualify as a Hong Kong lawyer. We will sponsor and support you financially while you study for the Overseas Lawyer Qualification Exams.

We’re also happy to sponsor language training for those who want to improve their Mandarin.

Business services

We make sure all employees supporting our fee-earners benefit from comprehensive personal and professional development.

Our learning and development team has designed business services skills workshops to develop capabilities such as influencing and presentation, effective writing, team leadership, management development, facilitation and coaching.

Our tailored development programmes and activities build on existing strengths and respond to development needs.

Some programmes are delivered globally to help colleagues network and work together across the firm’s global network.

Life at Freshfields - China

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Our work

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