Pittsburgh-founded Reed Smith is planning to close its Beijing office, becoming the latest major U.S. law firm to shrink its footprint in China. It will leave the firm with just one branch on the mainland, in Shanghai.
The firm has "decided to strategically consolidate our resources in our Shanghai office, which closely collaborates with our offices in Hong Kong and Singapore," Reuters quoted a firm spokesperson as saying.
"We remain deeply committed to the China market," the spokesperson said.
Reed Smith first entered the Greater China legal market in 2008, starting out with offices in Hong Kong and Beijing. It then opened an office in Shanghai in 2011.
According to the firm’s website, the Beijing office currently employs seven legal professionals. Some people from the Beijing office will transfer to the Shanghai location, and the firm is offering assistance to others who are not relocating, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Among the seven professionals are partners Barbara Li and Eric Lin, both of whom have undergone multiple career transitions over the past decade.
According to ALB records, Li joined Norton Rose from Baker McKenzie in 2013 and later moved to PwC’s affiliate firm Rui Bai in 2020, where she served as the head of corporate law in China. After Rui Bai’s deregistration in 2022, she joined Reed Smith.
Lin, on the other hand, helped to establish Simmons & Simmons’ Beijing office in 2011, but later joined Reed Smith in 2019.
Currently, Reed Smith’s Shanghai office employs seven lawyers, while the Hong Kong office, the largest in Asia, has 90 lawyers.
