Only a few decades ago, law firms based in the U.K. and the U.S. couldn’t move into China fast enough. Driven by opportunity, hunger, and yes, greed, they launched offices in Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai, brought in partners, hired associates, and some for a time even made money.

But as I wrote years ago when I was a young foreign correspondent at The Wall Street Journal, China has a long history of disappointing the West. I cited then a statement made in the 19th century by an Englishman that every student of China knows: He said, if he could add an inch to every Chinese shirt-tail, the mills of Lancashire would run for a generation. Those mills, of course, didn’t last. And in the 21st century, it looks like many of the Western law firm offices in Hong Kong and China also could disappear.

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