Will Chinese Law Firms Flourish As Their Clients Expand Overseas?

As China’s outbound investment has surged, with several multibillion dollar deals completed in the U.S. in recent years, a new paper suggests the country’s law firms could follow their clients overseas.

“One of the ways in which the leading U.S. and U.K. law firms grew internationally was by following their domestic clients overseas,” Gail J. Hupper, a former research scholar at Harvard Law’s Center on the Legal Profession, notes in a forthcoming paper . “As Chinese law firms gain in sophistication and experience over time, could they not do the same?”

The question of whether Chinese law firms will seek to represent Chinese companies in the U.S. ...