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King & Wood maintains its position as one of the dominant players in China’s legal market, and its Beijing headquarters is highly praised by peers and clients. The Beijing litigation teams are particularly sought after by major domestic and international banks, leading financial institutions, government-linked companies and other multinational companies in China. The firm is also well-recognised for its work in international arbitration, asset management and securities litigation and compliance. With over 100 partners and more than 400 lawyers, the team is among the largest in China. Key Beijing partners include commercial disputes partners Shouzhi Zhang and Yuwu Liu and IP disputes partners Zhongsheng Li and Jing Xu.
During the research period, the firm represented Industrial Bank, one of the defendants, in the collective redress case arising from securities misrepresentation brought by bond investors. In the case, the issuer Dalian Machine Tool Group Corporation issued super and short-term commercial paper in the inter-bank market, with Industrial Bank acting as the lead underwriter. Due to the failure to pay timely the principal and interest of the bond, the investor filed a lawsuit, seeking to hold Industrial Bank and other intermediaries liable for the issuer’s misrepresentation. The case involves disputes such as whether the misrepresentation infringement system applies to bonds issued in the inter-bank market, how to determine misrepresentation following the cancellation of pre-suit condition, and the determination of causation in transaction. There is no precedent for these disputes.
In government and regulatory, the firm previously advised a Chinese bank on handling the ESG investigation initiated by the Office of the Compliance Advisor/Ombudsman (CAO), the environmental and social responsibility supervisory body of the World Bank Group. This case is the first in which the CAO has received complaints against a Chinese enterprise and involves the International Finance Corporation’s largest and most controversial equity investment in China. The firm is adept at finding practical solutions in complex compliance investigations, ranging from those conducted by the US regulators under the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, multilateral development banks, and those conducted by Chinese administrative enforcement authorities and criminal prosecution authorities.
In international arbitration, the firm represented a renowned South Korean cosmetics company in multiple distribution contract disputes with its domestic distributor. The case involved complex and emerging practical challenges, including asset preservation of goods (notoriously difficult to execute), the transfer of e-commerce platform distribution rights, and the coordination of asset preservation and arbitration procedures between Hong Kong and mainland China. Through a multi-jurisdictional arbitration strategy, the team facilitated a comprehensive settlement for the client, successfully recovering disputed goods and minimising financial losses.
In 2025, the firm promoted 33 new partners and senior advisors across its China offices and recruited several partners from Linklaters in Hong Kong. The firm opened new offices in Shanghai’s Lin-gang, Changchun in Hunan and Wuxi, Jiangsu.
Commerce & Finance Law Offices is renowned for its expertise in commercial disputes, banking and finance, fund and trust, and international trade. In recent years, the firm has also expanded into international arbitration. Key partners at the firm’s Beijing headquarters include Hongji Li, Qiang Cui, Jialu Wang, and Xiaoming Guo, all specialising in commercial disputes.
During the research period, Cui’s team represented Growth Steal Group in the largest civil litigation case in China’s history, the Suzhou toxic land billion-yuan infringement case, involving Rmb10 billion. This case, heard by the Jiangsu Higher People’s Court in the first instance, is the largest civil litigation case since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, given the high threshold for first-instance cases in higher courts.
Li and his team represented Hainan Rubber Group in a dispute with China Huayang over joint venture control. Despite contributing 90% of the capital, Hainan Rubber Group held only 35% of the shares. After the court rejected their request to dissolve the joint venture and recover the investment, Commerce & Finance devised a plan. They filed a capital contribution dispute, won the case, and initiated a forced execution procedure to transfer China Huayang’s 65% equity to Hainan Rubber Group, making it the 100% owner. This strategy helped Hainan Rubber Group gain control quickly.
The firm has also bolstered its team by hiring five partners from Jincheng Tongda & Neal, and two others from Kingpound Law Firm in Guangzhou and Beijing W&H Law Firm. In 2025, the firm recruited four partners in Hong Kong, including Bonnie Rong (from Han Kun), Chi-ho Kwan (from Jingtian & Gongcheng), and Kung-Wei Liu and Frank Fu (both from A&O Shearman).
Headquartered in Shanghai, Grandall Law Firm is a leading name in commercial dispute resolution, renowned for its expertise in arbitration, banking and finance, equity capital markets, aviation, real estate, competition law, and insurance. Senior partner Zhengyu Yang is a key partner who specialises in commercial disputes.
Grandall represented Shanghai Jin Feng Wine, a historic enterprise originally established in 1954 as Shanghai First Food Store and restructured into a public company in 1992. The case arose when Xu et al. claimed inherited shareholder rights based on 1992 paper stocks allegedly owned by Xu’s father, asserting that his initial shareholder registration had been omitted. The plaintiffs also named the People’s Bank of China Shanghai Branch, the original listing authority, as a third party. Faced with missing archival records, partner Zheren Zhou and his team meticulously reconstructed the stock’s issuance history, analysing physical attributes, regulatory protocols, and issuance methods. Their efforts successfully disproved the plaintiffs’ claims, leading the court to rule in favour of Jin Feng Wine and reject the inheritance demand.
In a landmark equity transfer dispute valued at Rmb3.4 billion, Grandall’s Nanjing office secured a decisive victory for World Group, a leading agricultural machinery company, against Thaihot Group, a former listed real estate firm. The dispute centred on a 2017 agreement requiring Thaihot to pay Rmb3.8 billion for full equity in a real estate project. Amid financial strain and a market downturn, Thaihot halted payments and sought to terminate the agreement. World Group filed suit to enforce a Rmb600 million instalment, while Thaihot countersued to reclaim Rmb2.8 billion already paid. After consolidating the cases, the Supreme People’s Court upheld most of World Group’s claims, rejecting Thaihot’s termination request and affirming the enforceability of the payment obligations.
Grandall’s Hangzhou office represented Hangzhou JinTou Group through a complex Rmb1.1 billion debt restructuring involving Dexin Real Estate and ZheShang Asset. The team resolved a mix of non-litigious negotiations and litigious proceedings, addressing intricate financial and legal challenges to stabilise the client’s position.
The firm defended China Merchants Bank’s Taiyuan branch in a negotiable instruments recourse dispute against Shanxi Property Group. It also represented Guizhou Kaili Rural Commercial Bank in a negotiable instruments financing clash with Hengfeng Bank’s Nantong branch. In another matter, Grandall acted for China Huateng in a circular trade dispute against Shanxi Jianbang Group and Shanxi Tongcai Industry.
The firm’s clients include financial institutions, state-owned enterprises, and multinational corporations, reflecting its broad sectoral influence. Collaborations across its Shanghai, Nanjing and Hangzhou offices, coupled with deep regulatory insights, solidify its reputation as a powerhouse in cross-industry dispute resolution.
In 2025 and early 2026, the firm added equity partners in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Fuzhou and Wuhan.
Commerce & Finance Law Offices (Beijing) (hereinafter referred to as “Tongshang Beijing office”) was officially established in Beijing on May 16, 1992 with the approval of the Department of Justice of Beijing City, and has a group of 438 employees, including 305 partners、lawyers and paralegals, and 51 administrators. The lawyers in Beijing are young and middle-aged lawyers with rich experience. With several years or even more than 10 years experiences in the fields of finance, company, investment, securities, real estate, education, etc. , all the lawyers graduated from the first-class universities in the country, and most of them have obtained master’s degree or above in law school.
Tongshang Beijing office Beijing office is one of the first truly private partnership and of the best commercial law firms in China. Founded in 1992, Tongshang Beijing office has steadily built up its well-recognized practice and reputation in Capital Markets, Corporate/M&A, Private Equity, Dispute Resolution, Banking & Finance, New Economy (TMT, Healthcare and Education), Competition & Antitrust, Investment Fund, Restructuring & Insolvency, Regulatory, Labor and Employment, Wealth Management, Real Estate & Construction and Intellectual Property. We dedicated to providing advice and expertise at the highest levels. While most firms provide legal advice, Tongshang Beijing office delivers business solutions. Tongshang Beijing office focuses on solving our clients’ most demanding and important problems and provides one-stop solutions and strive to provide clients with pragmatic and cost-effective legal solutions that meet their best interests. Inside the firm, our talented and entrepreneurial lawyers work together on a task-force basis on all of our clients’ matters, bringing to bear the requisite mix of people and expertise across practice areas.
Tongshang is one of the eight “Red Circle Offices” (top law offices) in China，Who has a strong practice in the listing practice area. For instance, it is one of the first batch of law offices engaged in overseas capital market business in China. Tongshang Beijing office is the first firm to provide legal services in the capital market field; it first creates the VIE structure and has participated in a large number of significant transactions with milestone significance. Tongshang Beijing office have participated in many landmark state-owned enterprise reorganization and IPO projects that involved legal issues of national significance while also being recognized as a market leader in field of “red-chip” IPO projects. Tongshang Beijing office is one of the most frequently appointed legal advisers in overseas stock market IPO projects, either as the issuer’s or the underwriters’ PRC legal counsel. It is one of the law offices in Mainland China involved in the most overseas listing projects of Chinese enterprises.
Tongshang Beijing office has a compact group of practitioners well reputed for providing legal advice and business solutions, with especially notable experience of the former. Tongshang Beijing office aiming at not only providing our clients first class international legal services, but also providing important contributions to the equity/debt financing of Chinese enterprises in both domestic and foreign legal area.
King & Wood is an international law firm headquartered in Asia. We are underpinned by world class capability as we draw from our Eastern and Western perspectives to deliver incisive counsel. We are driven to understand our clients’ needs, solve their problems and unearth the right opportunities as they look to unleash the fullest potential of the Asian Century.
Established in 1993, King & Wood was one of China’s first private partnership law firms and one of the first Chinese firms to open offices overseas. Since then, the firm has played a leading role in the development of China’s legal market, contributing to the progress of the rule of law in China and providing professional legal services for multinational companies to invest in China, as well as development and "going global" opportunities for Chinese companies.
We have more than 520 partners and 1,700 professionals, 23 offices, including Beijing, Shanghai, Shanghai Lin-gang, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Suzhou, Wuxi, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hong Kong SAR, Hengqin (Macao SAR Associated Office), Haikou, Sanya, Chengdu, Chongqing, Qingdao, Jinan, Changchun, Tokyo, New York, Silicon Valley, Los Angeles and Vancouver.
We are able to provide Chinese, Hong Kong SAR, U.S., Japanese and Canadian law capabilities, supporting clients in their business development across Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, South America, and other regions.
Founded on May 2000, Tahota Law Firm has undergone more than two decades of rapid development, and has become a leading comprehensive law firm both in China and the international arena. Our office network spread across Beijing, Chengdu, Chongqing, Guiyang, Jinan, Kunming, Lhasa, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Tianjin, Hong Kong, Xi’an, Taiyuan, Xining, Nanjing, Wuhan, Haikou, Urumqi, Fuzhou, Guangzhou,Nanchang,Zhengzhou,Rangtang,Washington, Sydney, Kathmandu, Bangkok and other major cities around the globe. The performance of each office ranks forefront in the local market.By virtue of unremitting investment in talent cultivation, Tahota has established a scientific and comprehensive training mechanism, and maintained an open and inclusive attitude towards the talents. At present, Tahota has more than 3000 practitioners and more than 4000 employees, ranking the first array of China’s law society. Moreover, Tahota has become one of the top 100 big law firms around the globe. Most practitioners of Tahota graduated from reputable law schools with nearly 100 of them holding the PhD degree. Numerous members of our team have comprehensive educational background and are qualified to practice law multilingually across borders.With a global network and exceptional talent pool, Tahota integrates its development with China’s new “dual circulation” system and the global “Post-Epidemic Era” transformation. Tahota has provided long-term legal services for more than 10,000 domestic and overseas clients in dozens of industries covering finance, real estate, aviation, high-end manufacturing, environmental protection, energy, medicine, commerce, tourism and culture, etc. Our legal products encompass the field of real estate, capital market, investment, financing, M&A, restructuring and government legal advisors, etc. Embracing the era of the digital economy, Tahota is also expanding into emerging fields throughout Internet, artificial intelligence, block chain, pharmaceutical, healthcare and studio entertainment.Based on the systematic management, refined specialization and efficient cooperation, Tahota is competent to confront the opportunities and challenges of the new era with our clients. Tahota have presented numerous sophisticated legal service products and we are in the process of building more than ten cross-regional “legal service centers”. Empowering legal services with cutting-edge technology, the intelligent office and administrative support system has made efficient inter-team, cross-provincial and even cross-country coordination and close collaboration the norm of Tahota. We has set up a special business research department as the knowledge management center coordinating the whole firm, and along with the enrichment of our clients, we also have the Law School’s continuous support for our service field extension and service expertise enhancement.In 2005, Tahota was awarded “National Outstanding Law Firm”. Over the past two decades, we has also been recognized by Chambers, Asia Legal Business (ALB), The Legal 500, China Business Law Journal, Asialaw Profiles, IFLR 1000, LEGAL BAND and other international rating agencies, and has been listed in authoritative professional rankings for numerous times.The year of 2021 is not only the crucial year of China’s 14th Five-Year Plan, but also the key year of Tahota’s 2th Five-Year Strategy. In the next five years, we will strive to become a law firm with efficient cross-domain collaboration, multi-core business leadership and in-depth client service. Our “Law&Industry One-Stop International Service Center” is already under construction.With a professional network throughout China and the world, we are imperturbable without arrogance, harmonious with diversity. In the near future, Tahota will build a more comprehensive, connected and professional global service network, further participate in the process of China’s rule of law from the perspective of lawyers, and actively engage in the global economy and development evolution with the strength of multi-industry integration.
