The managing partner of Lovells’ Beijing office is leaving to join Chinese firm Allbright Law Offices. Because Chinese practice restrictions on foreign lawyers prevent Robert Lewis from being a partner, he will be a senior international legal consultant in the Beijing office of Shanghai-based Allbright.
The move makes the 52-year-old Lewis — a Beijing partner at U.K.-based Lovells since 2001 and before that Asia general counsel for telecommunications equipment maker Nortel — one of the most senior Western lawyers to join a domestic law firm in China.
