U.S. law firms are struggling to represent Chinese companies on outbound investments as the world’s second-largest economy continues to expand. Even though the number of American lawyers in China increases by the day, cross-border work from China to the United States has been hard to get, thanks to a combination in America of China-bashing, security concerns, and protectionist policies, combined with cultural differences.
“There is the perception that the political climate [in the U.S.] is harder for Chinese companies,” says Spencer Griffith, managing partner of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld’s Beijing office. That perception gained traction in 2005, when state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) dropped its offer for Unocal Corporation, and was reinforced last year when Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. abandoned its bid for 3Leaf Systems Inc. The CNOOC deal came under fire from lawmakers, while the Huawei bid drew the attention of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).
