Robert Lewis, the head of Lovells’ Beijing office, left the firm at the end of April, just 48 hours before its merger with Hogan & Hartson.
Regarded as the driving force behind Lovells’ Sino-Global Legal Alliance (SGLA), Lewis joined AllBright’s Beijing office on 1 May – the day the Hogan-Lovells merger took effect – to lead its international practice. His title at the Chinese firm is now that of senior international legal consultant.
Lewis will simultaneously act as chief administrative officer of the SGLA. Meanwhile, his position as chairman of the SGLA, which he had held since the alliance was set up, has been taken by Xue Yunhua. Xue is managing partner of Guangda Law Firm, an SGLA member firm headquartered in Guangzhou, and is also a former vice-president of the All-China Lawyers Association.
Lewis had been a partner at Lovells since 2001, having previously worked as Asia general counsel for Nortel Networks. He has lived and worked in China since 1993, and was instrumental in the establishment of the SGLA in 2007 as a non-exclusive referral network including Lovells and nine regional Chinese firms.
By all accounts, his departure from Lovells was amicable, especially in view of the fact that both his old firm and his new one are key members of the SGLA. Lewis is expected to go on working closely with Hogan Lovells as part of the alliance. “Lovells strongly supports these senior SGLA appointments and Robert’s move within the SGLA to AllBright Law Offices,” said Crispin Rapinet, Hogan Lovells’ regional managing partner for Asia and the Middle East.
In his new role at AllBright, Lewis will be responsible for developing and leading the firm’s international legal team in Beijing, focusing on inbound investment and M&A, cross-province work for domestic subsidiaries of multinational companies, and outbound commercial transactions and investments for Chinese enterprises in market segments not addressed by the major international law firms in China. Lewis will also be responsible for establishing international-standard law firm management, know-how and business development systems for both AllBright Beijing and the SGLA. He will also help promote closer cooperation among the SGLA member firms in respect of management systems and client work.
Also taking a new management position in the alliance, Thomas Man, a partner in Hogan Lovells’ Beijing office, has been appointed as a vice-chairman of the SGLA. Lawrence Zhu, managing partner of AllBright Law Offices, and Cai Xueen, managing partner of Wuhan-based SGLA member firm Dewell Law Offices, continue as vice-chairmen of the SGLA.
Lewis is the 35th partner since the beginning of March to decide that a future at Hogan Lovells would not suit them. Seven partners quit Lovells in Chicago, while Hogan lost six in Warsaw, 18 in Berlin and three in Geneva.
