Perkins Coie is in the process of closing its office in Beijing, making it the latest in a string of US law firms to rethink its China operations amid economic and regulatory uncertainty and fraught US-China relations. 

The move follows Perkins Coie closing its Shanghai office in March and shifting its focus in China to the booming tech hub of Shenzhen in the country’s south, where it plans to open an office. 

Perkin Coie’s Beijing office, which it opened in 2001, currently has 11 staff members, according to its website, including four partners, five associates and two business support professionals. The office practises across areas including litigation, e-discovery, international trade and IP. 

Scott Palmer, who is based in both New York and Beijing, serves as the office’s managing partner. Perkins Coie did not comment on the next steps for its Beijing team. 

The firm has shifted its focus to Shenzhen in light of the city’s explosive growth as China’s leading tech hub, according to a source familiar with the matter.

They added that the move would enable Perkins Coie to better serve its China clients in Shenzhen, particularly in its core areas of IP and patent litigation as well as corporate law, international trade and trademark matters.  

Perkins Coie also set up an IP agency in 2019 with offices in Beijing and Shenzhen and has one other office in Asia, in Taipei. The firm hopes to have more news to share about its planned Shenzhen office opening soon, the source said. 

The Beijing closure sees Perkins Coie join a raft of US firms that have scaled back their China presence or left altogether over the past 18 months, including Reed Smith, which confirmed last week it would close its Beijing office and consolidate its China operations in Shanghai. 

Dechert confirmed in July it was planning to close its bases in Beijing and Hong Kong, leaving it with Singapore as its sole base in Asia. Earlier in the year, Morrison Foerster said it was closing its representative office in Beijing, Sidley Austin and Orrick confirmed closures in Shanghai, Mayer Brown said that it was hiving off the bulk of its 170-lawyer Hong Kong arm and Weil said it was mulling the closure of its Shanghai office, having shut its Beijing base last year. 

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.