Shenzhen, China, has recently emerged on the radar of global law firms. I have written about how some firms have opened offices there following clients such as Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. and how the city fares against Hong Kong as a legal services hub. But does everyone really need a Shenzhen office?

To answer that, let’s first get a sense of the city itself. Most people know the city as a hub for China’s technology companies and for sharing a border with Hong Kong. The city is also one of the economic and commercial centers in southern China and has the third-largest economy among all cities in China, behind Shanghai and Beijing. But as a legal market, even a domestic one, Shenzhen lags disproportionately behind Shanghai and Beijing.