Orrick’s reconsolidation of resources from the closure of its Shanghai and Taipei offices to the remaining branches in Beijing, Singapore and Japan marks the seventh major foreign firm to downsize across the China region.
A spokesperson at Orrick told China Business Law Journal: “We have decided to consolidate our China practice in Beijing and will not renew our Shanghai office lease. Separately, we have terminated our lease in Taiwan.
“These moves reflect a rebalancing of our Asia-Pacific platform, including the launch of our Singapore office in 2021, to align with client demand.”
The lease on Orrick’s Shanghai office will expire in July and key personnel, including partner and chief representative in Shanghai Ethan Ma and partner Jeffrey Sun, will relocate to Beijing.
The spokesperson clarified that the Taipei office primarily served as a client meeting space and did not have resident lawyers. Therefore, this office’s closure was unrelated to any staff dismissals. Last month, two partners from the Taipei office, Robert Benson and Jeffrey Johnson, joined Baker Botts’ branches in San Francisco and Houston, respectively.
Orrick’s revised China strategy will prioritise litigation and IP services, particularly those related to litigation in US federal courts and the US International Trade Commission. In the past two months, the firm’s US office hired two IP litigation partners, Josh Pond and Tim Carroll, who specialise in US 337 investigations. They plan to collaborate closely with China IP heads Wang Xiang and Ma, and Tokyo office head Shinsuke Yakura to better serve clients in the Asia-Pacific region, said the spokesman.
In 2017, after facing setbacks with the departure of the firm’s entire capital markets team to Morgan Lewis in Hong Kong, Orrick has been striving to strengthen its presence in critical areas such as technology, but the city’s office shut down in 2020. A year later, the firm established a Singapore office to reinvigorate its presence in Asia.
Regarding the changes in China, Orrick said, “This approach is aligned with demand from our tech and energy clients, and will enable us to shift greater investment to Singapore and other markets.”
The Asean Summit held last year underscored the essential role of energy transition in driving regional economic growth. Leading energy-consuming nations in Asean, such as Indonesia and Vietnam, have made a blueprint for incorporating renewable energy sources into their national power generation plans.
Orrick has strategically positioned its Singapore office to focus on this “fast-evolving energy transition market throughout South and Southeast Asia, including in collaboration with our Tokyo energy team,” said the spokesperson.
Key markets in Asia – including Taiwan, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam – fall within the scope of Orrick’s Singapore and Tokyo offices. Recently, the firm has been involved in Taiwan’s two most important offshore wind projects, Zhong Neng (298MW) and Formosa 3.
Apart from energy and infrastructure, Orrick’s Tokyo office also specialises in IP, commercial litigation, and corporate and venture capital practices.
