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U.S. law firm Mayer Brown will separate its China operations from its global network, becoming the latest law firm to rethink its business there as market conditions remain weak and tensions with the U.S. strain.
Mayer Brown, one of the world’s top-grossing law firms, is working on a plan to spin off its offices in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing, according to two people close to the firm. The company has around 170 lawyers in mainland China and Hong Kong, most of them on Chinese territory.
After the split, the Chinese operations will operate under Johnson, Stokes and Master (JSM) – the same name as the Hong Kong-founded law firm that merged with Mayer Brown in 2008, the people said. Mayer Brown did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Pressure on profits at its China operations – particularly in Hong Kong – was one of the reasons for the move, the people added. “It’s really a basket full of considerations,” one of the people said.
US companies have had difficulty operating in China amid rising tensions between Washington and Beijing. Authorities have tightened regulations and introduced new anti-espionage and data laws. Weaker market sentiment and slower capital market activity have led some law firms to cut jobs and reduce their presence in the region.
Mayer Brown has struggled in Hong Kong, particularly after the company withdrew from representing the University of Hong Kong in 2021 when it attempted to erase the Pillar of Shame statue, a memorial to victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. to be removed from their premises.
CY Leung, vice chairman of China’s top political advisory body, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, and a former Hong Kong leader, had called for a nationwide boycott of Mayer Brown. Some Chinese state-owned companies dropped Mayer Brown after the incident, people with knowledge of the situation said.
Last year, U.S. law firm Dentons divested itself of its China business, citing tightening regulation, including laws on data privacy, cybersecurity and capital controls.
U.S. law firm Latham and Watkins, the second highest-grossing firm in the world, removed its Hong Kong-based lawyers from its international databases this year. The company has also asked employees not to take their work laptops with them when traveling to mainland China, according to people familiar with the situation.
Within Asia, Mayer Brown also has branches in Singapore, Vietnam and Japan.
Additional reporting by Joe Miller in New York and Cheng Leng in Hong Kong