16 ASIAN LEGAL BUSINESS CHINA • 亚洲法律杂志-中国版 AUGUST 2023 Shidai Law Firm in January 2019, has always adhered to the partnership concept of loyalty, equality, democracy and inclusiveness. All partners follow the philosophy of “choosing big over small, choosing long-term over shortterm and choosing collective benefit over individual interest”, and “persist in refining and strengthening our practice, making the cake bigger and better, and working together to build a platform for common benefit.” According to Pan, “the firm has navigated the transition from development amid integration to integration while developing, and has now been smoothly integrated as one.” In addition, how to ensure that the headquarters and local offices of a firm are progressing together is another challenge during the scale-up process of law firms. “The rapid growth of Hylands’ Beijing headquarters is not balanced with that of our offices in different places. Revenue from the headquarters accounts for half of total national revenue, while the revenue and the number of headcount in each office are small and uneven. This easily leads to conflicts in the development and management of the headquarters and local offices.” Jiang shares that to address this issue, Hylands issued the Implementing Opinions on Common Development in 2022, in an effort to align everyone on the same page and “build a ‘fleet’ that maintains formation.” On the other hand, JAVY focuses on business complementarity, market demand and cultural compatibility before deciding to open a new branch. “In terms of business complementarity, the firm to be merged have expertise in different practice areas or different client resources to achieve more comprehensive service coverage; in terms of market demand, the firm to be merged share a common understanding and similar strategic thinking so as to better jointly grow market share; and in terms of cultural compatibility, the firm to be merged have values, teamwork culture and management style that are consistent with JAVY to ensure synergies and a good working atmosphere after the merger,” says Cao. “In addition, in some firms, partners of a branch office will not be able to become partners of the headquarters. As a result, they have neither decisionmaking power nor voting rights. JAVY, on the other hand, requires branch office partners to be registered as headquarters partners. After being promoted to senior equity partners, they can not only participate in decision-making, but also share the distribution of the surplus of common revenue and expenditure.” Furthermore, partners of a JAVY office who have participated in its establishment preparation are free to choose to practice with the headquarters or the branch office. “In addition, we have achieved integration between the headquarters and local offices in terms of branding, training and business leads. The headquarters and local offices share brand reputation and training resources. The former will pass down some business leads to the latter, while the latter can also choose to work with the former according to business needs.” PERSEVERANCE AND PROGRESS While all the firms interviewed are delighted to make it onto this year’s list, they all say that this is just one small step on the road to growth, and they have set many goals for themselves for the future. Ronly & Tenwen Partners believes that internal and external goals should be progressed together. According to Pan, internally, for one, the firm must first strengthen cultural building. “Cultural building sounds vague, but it is actually the soul of the development of a firm. It is often the culture of a firm that plays an important role in key moments of the firm. The culture of a firm represents the values formed by partners and all lawyers over a long period of time, and subtly influences the behavior of each lawyer. Therefore, going forward, we need to continue to build up the cultural core of Ronly & Tenwen and enhance the cohesion of the firm.” Second, the firm needs to improve professionalism. “Professionalism lays the foundation for the development of both a firm and a lawyer. Ronly & Tenwen helps lawyers specialize in one core practice area and two supporting practice areas, and actively builds an internal COVER STORY LEAQUAL LAW FIRM 两高律师事务所 MERITS & TREE LAW OFFICES 植德律师事务所 RONLY & TENWEN PARTNERS 上海融力天闻律师事务所 SGLA LAW FIRM 中联律师事务所 WINCON LAW FIRM 文康律师事务所 ZHI HENG LAW FIRM 广东知恒律师事务所 METHODOLOGY Law firms were selected on the basis of fee-earners growth, new offices launched, additions of key partners and important clients, revenue growth and other kinds of expansion. The ranking was open to law firms with physical offices in mainland China. 评选方法 调研根据收费人员增长、新添加 的办公室、新增核心合伙人和重 要客户以及营业额增长量等其 他相关扩张指标进行，进而评选 出了名列前茅的律师事务所。中 资所和外资所均可参与评选，但 参评的律师事务所需要在中国 大陆设有办公室。
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