Chinese legal powerhouse Zhong Lun Law Firm is ranked ‘Outstanding’ across various practice areas and industry sectors with its well-established teams in both the transactional and contentious arena. With its exceptional experience in complex and high-profile restructuring, M&A, and various other transactions, it has assisted many hi-tech businesses in their development and expansion. Construction and project development have traditionally been the firm’s core practices, its expertise has also expanded to real estate, infrastructure and PPP, energy, public facilities, and industrial manufacturing. Some of the key partners to note from the firm are Shanghai-based partner Anthony Zhao, who specialises in capital markets, private equity, cross-border investment/M&A, and Beijing-based partner Jihong Wang, whose practice covers corporate governance, health, safety, environmental protection, and financing. Dongping (Mabel) Liu, specialises in competition/antitrust, joined the firm as partner from East & Concord Partners in November 2020. The firm’s IP team welcomed Xi Sun as partner from Lifang & Partners in March 2021. Partner Lixing Zhao departed to Fangda Partners in April 2020.
Client feedback
“Zhong Lun Law Firm benefits from two factors which contribute to its reputation as one the premier disputes firms for international work in the PRC. First, it benefits from excellent leadership. Lijun Cao and Huawei Sun are both superb leaders. Sun, with whom I have worked most closely, is brilliant. He is bright, thoughtful, engaged and hard-working. Secondly, the firm attracted the brightest and best graduates from Chinese universities. As a result, the support from associates is excellent.” – Dispute resolution
“The firm is very proactive in finding the best approach to serve client's interest. They are very open to new ideas and suggestions, and know how to work in a collaborative mode, particularly with western teams.” – Dispute resolution
“The firm provides comprehensive legal advice that is tailored to our business needs.” – Intellectual property
“The team of lawyers provided a lot of targeted and valuable plans for the purpose of business transactions of the company. It promoted the development of the product market through the distribution of the company's patented technology.” – Intellectual property
“Detail-oriented, professional and responsive.” – Intellectual property
“Detailed analysis of the patent. Timely feedback.” – Intellectual property
“Quick feedback with accurate and practical solutions. Outstanding in patent and other technology related cases. Profound experience in Supreme People's Court IP cases. Deep knowledge of all kinds of IP issues in China.” – Intellectual property
“The law firm has provided professional opinions on the issue.” – Privacy and data protection
“It is always on standby and helps resolve your issues as needed.” – Private equity
“Zhong Lun Law Firm provided effective, high-quality legal services, which contained fund establishment, documents drafting and negotiation for this project. Also, lawyer Yanchun Zhao's legal team possesses sound experience with respect to fund establishment and the investment and financing of funds.” – Private equity
“Professional and responsive.” – Real estate
“It demonstrates enthusiasm with a rigorous attitude.” – Restructuring and insolvency
“Professional and efficient.” – Technology and telecommunications
Ping Gu
“Gu understands the needs of our business and provides the legal advice that we need.”
Dongxiao Ma
“Good communication and analytical skills. Clear thinking, responsive and detail oriented. Provides very practical solutions to clients in IP matters, from client's business side. Exceptional, outstanding, and eloquent in court.”
“Very professional and detail-oriented in TM and IP related matters. He responds to inquiries promptly and thinks from the client's commercial perspective instead of from a textbook.”
“Highly responsive and professional. Recommended for complex and technology sophisticated cases. Has a team of talented associates responsible for different tech areas.”
Shengfeng Xu
“Diligent research and good problem solver.”
Huawei Sun
“Sun is brilliant – bright, thoughtful and extremely hard working. Her ability to focus on the most important case-critical issues means that she is particularly well-suited to the most complex and high value disputes.”
Wenhao Han
“Proactive, fluent in English, very good at explaining issues and finding solutions.”
Yanchun Zhao
“Yanchun Zhao is an equity partner of the firm. He has in-depth research and rich practical experience in the compliance, establishment, fundraising and investment of private equity and investment funds. Partner Zhao has provided legal services for private equity and investment funds such as FOF, VC, PE, M&A funds and real estate funds, and the investment fields include biomedicine, artificial intelligence, education, environmental protection, great health and real estate.”
Work highlights
Advised a founding family of a A-share listed company on transferring the economic interest in A share to offshore trusts.
Advised I4F Patents & Technologies, a Belgian company engaged in developing and licensing flooring technologies, on tax treaty benefits claiming in China.
Key clients
BNP Paribas
Work highlights
Advised Ascendent Capital on its investment in supermarket retailer Wumart.
Advised Cathay Capital on its investment in Deerma, a household electrical appliances production company.
Key clients
Everest Medicines, Grand Flight Investments, Jiangxiaobai Holdings, Tencent, VMS, Xiaomi
Work highlights
Represented a fund company in the arbitration proceedings of a huge bonus dispute against its former employee.
Represented a technical director in the litigation proceedings of a share transfer dispute after he was illegally dismissed by a listed company.
Represented a world-famous elevator and lift manufacturer in the labour arbitration and litigation against its employee regarding termination based upon false expense reimbursement.
Work highlights
Represented Beijing Sogou Science and Technology Development on a patent infringement case against Baidu. The series of patent litigations between Sogou and Baidu is known as the biggest internet patent case in China, which brings a significant effect on the IP field and the internet industry.
Represented Ningbo Biwo Textile Machinery in a Rmb330 million violation of a technology secret licensing contract dispute and trade secrets crime cases. The case has tremendous guiding significance for trade secret licensing disputes, and has important reference for future co-handling of civil and criminal cases by courts.
Advised Adobe, a multinational computer software company best known for its Adobe Flash web software ecosystem, in its first hearing in China regarding a copyright infringement proceeding.
Key clients
Beijing Sogou Science and Technology Development, China Tobacco Hubei Industrial, Jinko Solar, Microsoft Mobile Alliance Internet Services, We Doctor Holdings (Zhejiang)
Work highlights
Represented Lin Dai and Liang Liu, the shareholders of Shanghai U9 Game, in response to civil compensation suits for securities misrepresentation. This case is the first case in which shareholders did not disclose the marriage registration and were administratively punished for the information disclosure violation.
Key clients
China United SME Guarantee Corporation, Founder Technology Group, Luen Mei Group, Qingdao West Coast Development (Group), Zhongliang Holding Group
Work highlights
Represented the government of Shanghai on the formation of National Green Development Fund.
Represented CICC Capital on the formation of CICC Qide Innovation Biomedicine Fund.
Key clients
Beijing ALAN Asset Management, Beishang Capital, Dao He Long-term Investment Management, Hudson Capital
Work highlights
Represented Liaoning Huishan Dairy Group Company and its 82 affiliated companies on their reorganisation. The debt scale of Huishan Dairy's series of corporate merger and reorganisation cases is as high as Rmb30 billion, the asset scale is over Rmb10 billion, and nearly 8000 employees are involved.
Acted on the consolidated bankruptcy restructuring of Shandong Tranlin Group Bankruptcy and its 22 affiliates.
Advised Langold Real Estate on its merger with Power China Real Estate Group.
Key clients
China Energy Investment Corporation, Feima Investment Holdings, Guizhou Guoyuan Mining, Shenzhen Feima International Supply Chain
Work highlights
Advised Zhejiang Zheneng Electric Power on its equity investment in the San'ao Nuclear Power Project. The project is the first civilian nuclear power project invested in by private capital, and also a key supporting project for Zhejiang Province in the progress of building a clean energy sample province.
Advised SDP Investment on its acquisition of U-Show Project. This cross-border deal is a representative block transaction of Beijing real estate in 2020 and is of great significance to the activation of the block transaction market.
Key clients
Barrick Gold Corporation, Unicom Capital Investment Holding, Warburg Pincus, Zhejiang Zheneng Electric Power
Work highlights
Advised Lufax, a leading technology-empowered personal financial services platform, on its IPO on the NYSE. This transaction is the largest ever fintech IPO and the biggest Chinese IPO since 2015 in the US.
Advised Haier Smart Home on its privatisation of Haier Electric Group and listing on the HKEX. This transaction is the first A-share listed company issuing H shares to privatise a Hong Kong-listed company and a major asset restructuring project. Upon the completion of this transaction, Haier Smart Home became the first to be listed on the three major stock exchanges in Shanghai, Frankfurt and Hong Kong.
Key clients
China National Nuclear Corporation, Hanshow Technology, Huafu Securities, Langold Real Estate, NetEase
Work highlights
Advised Liaoning Bora Enterprise Group on its proposed joint venture with LyondellBasell Industries. This is the largest project of its kind in Northeast China. This government project has been highly valued by the government and attracted widespread attention in the industry.
Advised Yum China on merger filing for its joint venture with MiningLamp. This case is the first unconditional approval of a transaction involving the VIE structure by SAMR. It marks a major milestone for subsequent anti-trust filings for similar transactions.
Key clients
China Merchants Shekou Industrial Zone Holdings, GD Midea Heating & Ventilating Equipment, Huawei Technology, Lakala Payment Corporation, Zhejiang Artiking Group
Work highlights
Advised Bank of Beijing, one of the largest urban commercial banks in China, on its online auto loan cooperation project with Guazi.
Key clients
Bank of China Financial Technology, Bank of Nanjing, Shanghai Commercial Paper Exchange, Taiping Financial Services
Work highlights
Advised TBEA on its engineering contracting matters for the construction of the Power Grid Expansion and Upgrading Project in Dhaka District, Bangladesh. This project is the most significant power grid system expansion and upgrading project in Bangladesh and it will also become a link project connecting China and Bangladesh in the ‘Belt and Road’ cooperation and development, making it the most important part of China-Bangladesh economic and trade cooperation.
Key clients
Agile Group Holdings, Hangzhou Shuya Technology, Ping An Real Estate, Sinosteel Equipment & Engineering
Work highlights
Advised Inner Mongolia Mengniu Dairy Group on its comprehensive compliance system construction project.
Advised Daimler, a German global automotive corporation, on China data compliance management systems to meet the local requirements of personal information protection.
Key clients
eBay, JD Healthcare, Xinyin Wealth Management, Zoneco Group
