American law firm Mayer Brown is to split its China operations from its global network, becoming the latest law firm to rethink its business in the world’s second-largest economy amid market weakness and tensions with the US, reports the Financial Times. Mayer Brown, one of the world’s top-grossing law firms, said on Thursday it had decided to hive off its Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing offices. It has roughly 170 lawyers in mainland China and Hong Kong, with most of them based in the southern Chinese city.
Mayer Brown said that after the split, which it expects to take place by the end of the year, its existing Chinese operations would operate as Johnson, Stokes and Master (JSM)—the name of the Hong Kong-founded law firm that merged with Mayer Brown in 2008.
The firm added, however, that it would set up a separate new Hong Kong arm under the Mayer Brown name in order to retain a presence in the city. A person with direct knowledge of the plan said the new entity would probably be “much smaller” than the firm’s existing China team.