In Depth: The Changing Landscape of Foreign Law Firms in China

Following shifts in international business, U.S. firms are leaving as Southeast Asian lawyers move in

As trade tensions reshape the global trading landscape, China’s legal business is evolving, with fewer U.S. firms around to help their compatriots.

Foreign law firms have played a crucial role in China’s economic transformation.

As the country began its long process of reform over four decades ago, these firms helped foreign investors enter the Chinese market, providing the country with much-needed capital and expertise.

But now, as trade tensions are reshaping the global trading landscape, China’s legal business is changing too — fewer U.S. firms helping their compatriots enter China, more Southeast Asian offices guiding Chinese investment in their region.

Retreat and expansion

Since 2023, more than a dozen well-known foreign firms, most of them American, have scaled back or exited operations on the Chinese mainland, according to incomplete data compiled by Caixin. Many U.S. firms have closed offices in Beijing or Shanghai while keeping operations in Hong Kong and consolidating their businesses, rather than withdrawing completely.

Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, a New York-based law firm, was among the first foreign firms to enter China, opening a Beijing office in 1981. The firm closed its Beijing office at the end of 2024, leaving it without a mainland office, though it still maintains one in Hong Kong.

Paul Weiss entered China early in the country’s opening-up, just after the government introduced three landmark foreign investment laws.

As foreign