For Birketts, medium-sized means flexibility

With offices in Ipswich and Norwich in East Anglia, Birketts is a regional law firm that employs 35 partners, making the practice large enough to take on major cases yet lean enough to provide clients with hands-on attention.

The firm works in various sectors with an expertise that ranges from agriculture to logistics and shipping.

The growing importance of the Chinese economy has prompted Birketts to shift part of its attention further afield.

In the past two years, it has hired partners with specific experience in Asia, specifically in China.

"Our core, the starting point of our Chinese operations, is working with small and medium-sized British companies, which are looking to work in China. This is where we offer services that other law firms are unable to offer," says Kate Teh, one of the partners.

Birketts has established an impressive and growing network of contacts in China.

Kate Teh and Nicholas Woo, who head the firm's China operations, have extensive experience in the region and offer clients the required expertise to succeed in the booming market.

Birketts's partners are not restricted by regulations that other foreign law firms face in China, allowing them to provide clients with flexible advice and services that they may not have access to elsewhere.

These characteristics of flexibility, innovation and creativity are what Birketts prides itself on in China and the UK.

As a medium-sized regional law firm, it can provide services that larger "City" firms are unable to.

Birketts provides the same unique services to Chinese companies expanding in the UK, and it expects the number of Chinese clients to grow in the future.

"We have a very long-standing relationship with most of our British clients and that relationship is built upon trust. We welcome Chinese companies to begin the same type of relationship with us in the future," says CEO Alistair Lang.

www.birketts.co.uk

(China Daily 08/28/2007 page19)