Duke Law in China: Danian Zhang '89
Senior Partner & Chief Representative: Baker & McKenzie, Shanghai
Zhang practices in the areas of cross-border counseling, mergers and acquisitions, general commercial, WTO, and international trade regulations and customs.
Looking ahead, for international law firms such as Baker & McKenzie, mergers and acquisitions is one of the growth areas in China. Every year, many international companies come to invest in the PRC, some for taking advantage of its relatively cheap labor force, while others [seek to enter] the Chinese market. Instead of setting up a presence from scratch, more and more foreign investors are showing an interest in acquiring existing businesses with acceptable records. Intellectual property will be another growth area and outbound investment by large PRC companies such as Lenovo, Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation, and Haier Group, is also on the rise. In summary, there has been increasing demand for international lawyers in China to advise on crossborder transactions. In addition to the above, dispute resolution, construction and securities are also attracting more attention.
To be honest, without receiving the fine legal education from Duke Law School, I cannot imagine that I could achieve what I have achieved today. I have always been very grateful for Duke's generous financial support provided to the Chinese students at that time and the highquality legal education I received from Duke. At Baker & McKenzie's Hong Kong and Chinese offices, other than myself, we have also other lawyers who have graduated from Duke, and we are all very proud of being alumni. We highly appreciate the dean, the board members and other professors of Duke Law School's recent visit to Beijing and Shanghai and their meeting with Duke Law School alumni in both cities.