Law firms encouraged to seek partners beyond mainland

Shanghai's justice authority said it will encourage domestic law firms to cooperate more with firms outside the Chinese mainland to achieve the city's goal of an all-around, multilayered platform by 2020 for legal services in cases involving foreign parties.

The approaches include encouraging law firms from the Chinese mainland and those from Hong Kong and Macao to set up joint-venture law firms, starting in August, the Shanghai Bureau of Justice said on Wednesday.

"Such joint-ventures are very different from the existing collaborative models between local law firms and those from Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and foreign regions," said Zhang Ming, head of lawyer work management at the bureau.