Loeb & Loeb has hired a team of 17 lawyers, paralegals and IP specialists in Beijing from Perkins Coie. 

The announcement follows Perkins Coie confirming earlier this week it would shutter its Beijing office, having closed its Shanghai base in March.

The team is led by partners James Zimmerman and Scott Palmer, who joined Perkins Coie together in 2018 from Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton. As part of the move Loeb & Loeb said it also expects to take over an intellectual property agency from Perkins Coie that will be managed by Palmer and support the group’s IP practice. 

Zimmerman has been based in China for nearly 30 years and is a former four term chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China. He advises foreign companies on corporate, transactional, regulatory, litigation and white collar criminal defence matters, with a focus on the media, music, film and television industries. He frequently advises foreign media on security matters, press freedoms and general operational issues in China, and manages cases involving individuals detained and prosecuted under local law and regulations.  

Meantime Palmer, who spent 10 years as a partner at Baker McKenzie before joining Sheppard Mullin in 2013, focuses his practice on IP matters. He counsels clients on trade secrets, personal rights, customs enforcement and cross-border IP litigation, and also advises on licence approvals and regulatory compliance matters, including before the China Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. 

“With more than half a century of combined experience in the region, James and Scott have the vision and staying power to serve American and foreign businesses operating on the ground in China,” said Lawrence Venick, managing partner of Loeb & Loeb’s Hong Kong and Beijing offices. “We share a commitment to the region, which is what differentiates Loeb from the pack.”

Loeb & Loeb has around 450 lawyers across its offices in the US and its Asia bases in Beijing and Hong Kong. The firm also recruited capital markets partners Shirley Lau and Polly Liu in Hong Kong in May from Lau Horton & Wise, the local association firm of CMS that was founded by Lau.

For its part Perkins Coie said it would refocus its China operations on the booming tech hub of Shenzhen, where it plans to open an office.

Over the past 18 months a raft of US firms have announced they would close offices in China or exit the country altogether amid economic and regulatory uncertainty and fraught US-China relations. Reed Smith, Dechert, Morrison Foerster, Sidley Austin, Orrick and Weil have all announced office closures this year, while in April Mayer Brown said that it was hiving off the bulk of its 160-lawyer Hong Kong arm. 

Last summer Dentons also broke off from its China arm citing new Chinese government rules on data privacy and cybersecurity, while Latham & Watkins closed in Shanghai and Ropes & Gray downsized its base in the same city.

That came shortly after Eversheds Sutherland’s international arm and King & Wood Mallesons’ China business formed an exclusive alliance that saw KWM close its six offices in the UK, Europe and the Middle East. Eversheds portrayed the deal as a practical alternative to having a large presence on the ground in China.