Birth of the SGLA

The Sino-Global Legal Alliance (SGLA) was launched publicly in September 2007 by Lovells LLP, a global top 10 law firm, and nine leading regional Chinese law firms located in the major economic centres of Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Qingdao, Tianjin, Wuhan, Shenyang and Chongqing. A tenth firm was added in Chengdu in August 2008, followed by three additional firms in Beijing and Xiamen in March 2009.

Member Selection Process

Selected by Lovells following a rigorous year-long due diligence process, each SGLA member firm has been awarded "National Outstanding Law Firm" status from the Ministry of Justice (or met equivalent qualification standards). For more information on the selection process and qualification standards of the SGLA member firms, please see "How to Choose a China Lawyer" published in the January-February 2008 issue of the China Business Review.

The winning firms were chosen to represent their region in the SGLA, not only because they possessed strong local knowledge and contacts, but because they understood the link between effective law firm management and client satisfaction. Each member law firm is committed to improving its client services capabilities by continuously developing its specialised practice areas, implementing effective workflow and profit-sharing arrangements and training and supervising its junior lawyers.

The accuracy of the selection process was ratified when Lovells was named International Law Firm of the Year in China for 2008 by Asian Legal Business and each of the other member firms were declared winners or finalists in their respective regions. To learn about the related news report please click on In The News in the tool bar on the top of the page.

Core Strengths of the SGLA

Collectively, the SGLA has more than 1300 international and domestic lawyers located throughout China, making it the only platform for truly integrated international and domestic legal services in China. Conversely, Chinese companies with international operations or aspirations can access Lovells' 27 offices world-wide and its global network of partnership arrangements. No matter where your business needs to be, the SGLA offers a full range of legal services.

Working together, Lovells and the local SGLA member firms provide practical commercial solutions to the myriad legal problems facing businesses today. Our unmatched global footprint allows us to provide critical legal support for your company's global strategic operational objectives, and we have extensive experience with sophisticated commercial transactions and complex litigation both inside and outside China.

Raising the Standard

SGLA lawyers have organized across five core specialized practice area platforms, or virtual practice groups: Corporate and Commercial, Dispute Resolution, Intellectual Property, Real Estate and Construction and Financial Services. The legal professionals within each practice group develop shared know-how and conduct training relevant to their areas of specialized expertise, enabling the SGLA to offer a fully coordinated legal services resource to companies with operations in multiple regions of China. For more information on any of the SGLA cross-firm practice groups please select the link to the appropriate practice group in the side bar to the left.

Lovells and the other SGLA member firms are working together to set new standards of excellence in the legal profession in China. To achieve our goal, the SGLA has established four internal committees which meet regularly to promote and coordinate the development of the member firms: Executive Committee, Management Committee, Membership Committee and Standards and Training Committee.

Recognizing the critical importance of law firm management structures and systems to the continued development of high-standard legal services capabilities, the local member firms in the SGLA participated in a week-long training seminar on law firm management principles and practices hosted by Lovells at its Atlantic House headquarters in London 7 in July 2008. The participants attended presentations on all aspects of law firm management by the senior management leadership team of Lovells and, more importantly, set standards for the next stage of development of management systems for each SGLA member firm. To learn more please click on In The News in the tool bar on the top of the page.

Lovells and the SGLA also have established partner relationships with other key leaders in the legal profession to create innovative solutions for our clients and to promote the development of the Chinese legal profession generally.

For more information on how the SGLA can assist your company with China Inbound, China Operations or China Outbound matters, please click on the appropriate link in the toolbar on the top of the page.