China

Cleary Gottlieb has a longstanding commitment to its China practice and extensive experience related to the Chinese legal environment and the legal implications of doing business in China.

Centered in our Hong Kong and Beijing offices, our China practice includes U.S.-, Hong Kong- and English-qualified lawyers, most of whom are native Chinese speakers.  We provide clients with fully integrated law advice in a range of practice areas, including mergers and acquisitions, private equity, private funds, capital markets, leveraged finance and antitrust.

Our lawyers have advised on many high-profile and innovative transactions in China in an array of industries, and have specific strength in the structuring, negotiation and documentation of a wide range of complex corporate and financing transactions.

• Drawing on our global M&A, private equity and emerging markets practices, we advise Chinese companies on their worldwide outbound investments, as well as multinational corporations, private equity investors and hedge funds, among others, in inbound Chinese investment, finance and joint venture transactions and pre-IPO investments.
• In the capital markets area, we represent issuers and underwriters in a variety of capital markets transactions, including SEC-registered and Reg S/Rule 144A IPOs, Hong Kong listings, follow-on offerings and debt offerings by private sector Chinese companies.
• We have a dedicated team based in Hong Kong specializing in Asia-related fund formation, including formation of funds focusing on China investments, with extensive experience working with China-based clients.
• Our finance practice lawyers advise clients in China on financing structures and products, including senior, mezzanine, second lien, and subordinated debt, leveraged and acquisition financing, bridge facilities, asset backed financing and margin loans.
• We have a globally-renowned antitrust team and a long history of coordinating global antitrust matters in China, and elsewhere in the region, for our global clients.

Hong Kong Law Practice

A key distinction of our global practice is the integration of our international lawyers with a strong local law practice in many of our offices. We have approximately 20 Hong Kong-qualified solicitors who work closely with our international lawyers to deliver integrated U.S., Hong Kong and English legal services seamlessly to our clients.  The practice focuses on Hong Kong-listed IPOs and other capital markets transactions, as well as private equity and M&A transactions, and general corporate and compliance advice.