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Riding with the dragon

"China Development Bank in particular is one of the most active lenders and has instructed a significant number of law firms, including Clifford Chance, Hogan Lovells, Norton Rose, Shearman & Sterling and White & Case." Have they paid their fees? In full? It seems like they're playing the field to try and squeeze these firms on fees. Chinese clients are generally quite poor at paying fees in full and culturally the Chinese attitudes towards lawyers tends to be, well, not very positive - and they understand fully how much firms like those mentioned love to use CDB to beef up their deal lists to say they've done "China Outbound", then firms rationalize it that it was worthwhile for the experience. The next little while will be interesting to see these tensions play out and whether Chinese clients change their ways and start paying premium price for top advice or if the foreign firms go and cop a hiding fee wise.

29-Nov-2011

11:37 am