China business law expertise does not come easily, or in a classroom – it comes from years of experience in working with real clients in developing their business within the China business law framework.
The China business law team continues
Liuming International, the experts at China business law that are the international business group of the Liuming Law Firm, continues the original team set up in 2002 by China law identities, Graham Brown and Wei Xin. True to their vision, the team’s Chinese lawyers advise foreign companies on their China projects and cross border transactions.
Collaboration from 1991
Graham Brown and Wei Xin formally began collaborating on China business law and policy issues in 1991 when CCH published their article on China’s (then) new Land Use Rights law. They have now been working together on China business law and China business issues for more than 20 years and their unique experience and practical insights are highly valued. They are widely published on China business law and China business matters and have been frequent invited speakers at conferences in Australia, the USA, UK and China.
Leadership
Graham first went to China in 1984, visited regularly for two years from 1995 and moved there to live and work full time in 1997. He had wide commercial experience, and had become a legal academic teaching contract and other commercial law topics at undergraduate and post graduate level at universities in Australia and China for more than 10 years. In China he also concurrently acted as a business advisor for a number of large Chinese companies in their negotiations and dealings with foreign parties, and in the process gained fairly unique insights into how things work on the Chinese side of the table.
Graham’s teaching experience has been invaluable in helping team members develop the skills and attitudes needed to service the China business law needs of their clients. His wide commercial experience also enables him to quickly “get” the commercial and technical realities of a China project and then to develop effective legal structures to implement it.
A Beijing native, Wei Xin is from a well known Beijing legal family and was educated at both Chinese and Australian universities. She spent nearly 10 years in Australia but returned to Beijing in 1995 as the Chief Representative of Australia’s (then) largest law firm in their China office. She subsequently worked in the China practice of two internationally acclaimed US law firms, ultimately as the China partner for a New York based world top ten law firm.
Although a China business lawyer in that world, she increasingly felt that she could give her international clients better value and service if she could set up a team of China business law professionals specifically trained to work with international clients on their China projects.
The vision realized
Graham Brown and Wei Xin’s personal experience in training and working with young Chinese lawyers, together with Wei Xin’s big law firm experience, convinced them that well qualified Chinese lawyers, properly trained and guided, could deliver international quality legal services from a Chinese law firm. Their idea became a reality in 2002 when they started out on their adventure, working with a Chinese law firm to advise on cross border China business law matters.
It was challenging, sometimes more challenging than anticipated, but she and Graham Brown persevered and now more than 10 years on, the China business law team is going strong, and many current team members have participated from the early days. “Home grown” Partners, Luo Shui and Yao Liang, are part of the management team, providing the base for further expansion as China business lawyers.
Over a decade and more the focus has never changed – the Liuming International team delivers very high quality China business law advice for significant China projects to clients that can appreciate its value.