Global-Local Dynamics and the Rise of Chinese Corporate Lawyers

Abstract

Although the rise of China as an economic powerhouse has attracted considerable academic attention, until recently, the role of Chinese corporate lawyers in this age of economic prosperity and the growth of the Chinese corporate bar have been under-explored in the field. Over the last few years, a small but growing academic literature on Chinese corporate lawyers has started to appear and has shed valuable light on our understanding of the Chinese corporate bar in the era of globalization. Inspired by both U.S. theoretical paradigms and local practice patterns, this literature mainly focuses on the global-local dynamics of the Chinese legal profession and the Chinese corporate legal services market, investigating the relationship between the global diffusion of corporate lawyering and the local logics of the corporate law market. This article reviews this increasingly significant line of research and develops new inquiries about Chinese corporate lawyers.