Professional notice
The Chinese firm is acting in a billion-dollar real estate dispute
Treaty cases | 0 |
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Current arbitrator appointments | 24 (of which 14 are as sole or chair) |
Lawyers sitting as arbitrator | 2 |
Based in Beijing and Shanghai, Hui Zhong Law Firm was founded in 2013 as one of the first Chinese law firms to specialise in dispute resolution and has significant experience in the field thanks to its senior partners.
The international arbitration practice, comprising 10 partners, is led by Beijing-based co-founders Xinguang Cao and Ning Fei. Cao, who previously served as partner of another Chinese law firm for 21 years, was one of the first ever arbitrators appointed by CIETAC. Fei led the dispute resolution group at Jun He Law Office for five years and worked at CIETAC’s secretariat.
Senior consultant Shengchang Wang is the former vice chairman and secretary general of CIETAC who was controversially imprisoned after being part of a tribunal that ruled against Chinese interests in the PepsiCo arbitration, a major Sino-western dispute of the 2000s. The episode made Wang a champion of the arbitral community.
The firm often serves as co-counsel of choice for other international law firms on the GAR 100, such as Clifford Chance, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Herbert Smith Freehills.
Who uses it?
Financial services clients are prominent users of Hui Zhong, including the Bank of China, China Everbright, and Hong Kong’s Core Pacific-Yamaichi.
In other sectors, the firm has acted for clients as diverse as IBM, Hugo Boss, Swiss multinational ABB, US water treatment company Culligan, Danish biotechnology company Novozymes, US flash memory manufacturer SanDisk, and Shanghai SECCO Petrochemical Company Limited (one of the largest petrochemical joint ventures in China).
Track record
Hui Zhong has a reputation for vigorously defending its clients. The firm has minimised the losses of its clients in arbitrations ranging from an UNCITRAL claim over a contract for the importation of soybeans to a CIETAC claim involving the Beijing subsidiary of the NBA.
The firm has also engineered advantageous settlements for its clients. The Chinese subsidiary of US chemicals provider Lubrizol retained the firm for parallel SIAC and SHIAC proceedings over a construction dispute and found itself settling the disputes after the firm adopted effective strategies in both proceedings.
Recent events
Hui Zhong recently helped a Taiwanese client settle a US$110 million claim against the Chinese government over the transfer of land use rights.
The firm continues to act (alongside Clifford Chance) for a US private equity firm in a US$300 million CIETAC dispute over a restaurant chain. In another significant matter, it is acting for China Central Properties in a US$1 billion real estate dispute, helping to coordinate related litigation in China, Korea and Barbados.
The firm hired two new disputes partners. Jiang Hong, formerly secretary general of the Shanghai Sub-commission of the China Maritime Arbitration Commission; and Qiu Ming, a former Supreme People’s Court judge.
Yang Chao, Chen Jingjing, Yu Tiantao and Zhang Hongwu were all promoted from salary to equity partners in the disputes practice, and senior associate Yang Xueyu was promoted to counsel.
Equity partner Liu Guangming left in December 2015.
Offices:
Beijing Office
Rm 2304 ONE INDIGO, 20 Jiuxianqiao Road Chaoyang District
Beijing, PRC 100016
T: 86 (10) 5639 9688
F: 86 (10) 5639 9699
Shanghai Office
Rm 1507, Jing An Kerry Center, Tower 1, 1515 Nanjing Road West,
Jing An District , Shanghai, PRC 200040
T: 86 (21) 2226 1200
F: 86 (21) 5370 0292
Website:
www.huizhonglaw.com
Founded in June 2013, Hui Zhong Law Firm (“Hui Zhong”) is a boutique law firm specializing in domestic and international dispute resolution. Hui Zhong now have more than 30 lawyers, including 12 partners, offering law services in Beijing and Shanghai.
Despite Hui Zhong’s relatively short history, the depth of experience and high standing of its members are widely acclaimed – each of Hui Zhong’s lawyers have practiced law for a number of decades. Many are key players in the world of international arbitration and transnational litigation. They have served as leading legal counsel, co-counsel and legal experts in hundreds of significant and complex cross-border commercial disputes, appearing before courts and arbitration bodies in a variety of jurisdictions. Moreover, Hui Zhong’s lawyers are on the panels of multiple arbitration and mediation institutions, including CIETAC, BAC, SHIAC, SCIA, CCPIT/CCOIC, HKIAC, SIAC. Their expertise spans a wide range of areas, including energy & resources, finance, real estate, joint ventures, M&A, engineering and construction, sales and purchase agreements, intellectual property, technology transfer, international investment agreements such as BITs and employment law, etc.
With their commitment to professionalism, efficiency, responsiveness and excellence, Hui Zhong’s lawyers excel at teamwork. Over the past four years, Hui Zhong has achieved a remarkable success in international arbitration. Hui Zhong’s handling of complex, multi-jurisdictional, multi-languages high profile and high value arbitrations earned it the reputation of a rising star. The disputed amount in some of the cases exceeds US$ 100 million.
Hui Zhong has been listed, recommended or highly ranked by GAR 100 (2016, 2017 and 2018), Legal 500, Chambers & Partners Global and Asia-Pacific, The Lawyer China Elite, Legalband, and Asialaw Profiles. Hui Zhong won China Business Law awards in the categories of Best New Law Firm and Dispute Resolution.
More details about Hui Zhong can be found on the website (www.huizhonglaw.com), including biographies of Hui Zhong’s lawyers.