Morrison & Foerster has confirmed to ALB that it plans to close its Beijing representative office when its lease expires this fall. It will become the fifth U.S. law firm in this year alone to scale back in mainland China.

The firm informed ALB that closing the Beijing office will not affect its China business, as "nearly all of our work for clients in China is already being done by lawyers and other professionals based in Shanghai, Hong Kong, and other firm offices."

"We believe the firm is best positioned to service our clients in China from our Hong Kong and Shanghai offices from both a business operations and a client service perspective," the firm stated.

When it established its Beijing office in 1998, MoFo was one of the few U.S. law firms in China at that time. The firm primarily provides services in mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, private equity, TMT, and data-related matters in China.

The Beijing office currently has four partners: Sun Chuan (managing partner), Huang Ke, Paul McKenzie, and Zhao Rongjing. Huang will continue to practice from the Hong Kong office, Sun and Zhao will practice from the Shanghai office, and McKenzie will continue to practice from the Singapore office.

The firm is also offering relocation opportunities to other lawyers and staff from the Beijing office, with final decisions to be made before the fall.

So far this year, Weil, Gotshal & Manges, Orrick, Perkins Coie, and Winston & Strawn have also announced closures of at least one China office. They followed similar decisions made by Latham & Watkins and Akin Gump last year.