The rebrand: how it might look if Saatchi is involved
Dentons has severed ties in China, resulting in its lawyer count halving in size.
Dentons combined with mega Chinese firm Dacheng in 2015, which has offices in more than 40 locations across China. The launch was accompanied with a big fanfare as Dentons ballooned to 6,000 lawyers, becoming the world's largest firm by headcount. The firm continued to expand, reaching over 12,000 lawyers this year.
The split from Dacheng, effective from 7 August, means that Dentons has now shrunk to a mere 5,970 lawyers, with around 12,550 staff in total. But, if size matters, Dentons can still boast that it's the world's largest firm by people. It remains a behemoth, albeit a slimmed-down one.
The tie-up with Dacheng provided Dentons' clients with a one stop shop in the region, as foreign lawyers are not allowed to provide domestic legal advice in China. When Dentons announced the combination eight years ago, it said that it would have sophisticated systems in place to ensure that "only lawyers and professionals who need to know the client's business" would be able to access the data.
However, it seems that the Dentons firewall was about to have its work cut out. In a statement about its departure from China, the firm said that "In response to recent Chinese government mandates on Chinese law firms, including those relating to cybersecurity and data protection, Dentons is modifying its relationship with Beijing Dacheng Law Offices, the Chinese legal partnership that has been a member of the Dentons Group since 2015".
Following the combination the firms adopted a verein structure, meaning there was a single brand, but their finances were kept separate.
But now, back-pedaling out of the country, Dentons has said that "Moving forward, 大成 (Dacheng) will operate as a separate, standalone law firm that will serve as Dentons’ preferred law firm for clients with legal needs in China. While our legal relationship is changing, we will continue working together to meet our clients’ needs across China and the 80+ countries where Dentons does business".
In what sounds like a similar pact, Eversheds Sutherland announced last month that it had agreed a deal with China's King & Wood Malleson, where the two firms will refer legal work to one another.
A Dentons spokeswoman also confirmed to RollOnFriday that the firm is modifying its logo. Outside of mainland China the firm will no longer include the Chinese characters in the Dentons logo, she said.
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Comments
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This is interesting. The requirements of the new laws on data protection and cyber security in China are such that other firms like KWM which also has a verein structure with the Chinese firm as well as the international firms with their own local Chinese law firm (Baker & McKenzie, Links and a handful of others) must all be looking at this…
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Dentons is such a low grade firm. They are even in the Cayman Islands!
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Bob (08:17) - you need to re-sit your GCSE English.
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That Dentons joining up with Dacheng was a desperate move which only appealed to laymen. There was no synergy, Dacheng was not a top level firm, it was all so they could be the biggest firm - the true McDonalds of law firms, only without the consistent quality. They kept up the facade for as long as they could, but ultimately it fell. Dentons are about to find out that having offices in every country in the world dilutes the brand name, not strengthens it.
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"They are even in the Cayman Islands!"
Dreadful.
Presumably they use the office there as some kind of long-term holding pen for lawyers too abominable to work in even their most paper-pushing banking teams.
Just to keep them away from any work that would actually ever matter to a client.
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While your observations about DaCheng maybe correct, this decision is almost entirely driven by the change in attitude of the Chinese government towards foreign professional services firms.
A number of issues over many years have built upto this point including, for example, the Big4 audit reports which declined to provide a 'rubber stamp' [google it, kids] on the financial accounts of the first round of Chinese companies listing on foreign stock exchanges many years ago. Expect more of these announcements or, in this era of ghosting, subtle changes to websites and letterheads.
Note also that for all the talk about HK being part of the motherland, foreign firms will be able to operate their in their current structure.
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Shame. The Far East is a fascinating place where associates have baos and sushi over meetings. I wish I moved over there when I was younger.
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Anyone who knows the firm in China will know that it was never really "Dentons", they just used the branding. In fact, it operated like a traditional Chinese firm, where lawyers didn't collaborate and just worked on their own things.
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@10:40. Nah, that Kool-Aid is going down nicely. Just wait and see what the other firms do - the ones with real, more integrated and high-end Chinese partners. None of them will move from the mainland.
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So if the Chinese characters are being removed from the logo phallus, does that mean it's going to get shorter? What an apt metaphor.
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Would UK firms gradually wind down their operations in Hong Kong?
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"Dentons joining up with Dacheng was a desperate move which only appealed to laymen. There was no synergy, Dacheng was not a top level firm, it was all so they could be the biggest firm - the true McDonalds of law firms, only without the consistent quality. They kept up the facade for as long as they could, but ultimately it fell. Dentons are about to find out that having offices in every country in the world dilutes the brand name, not strengthens it."
Agreed! I used to work at a firm that Dentons took over and, even after 5 years, everybody at the firm agreed that Dentons just slapped their name on the firm for the sake of being "the largest law firm by headcount". The firm didn't feel/look/act any different after Dentons took over.
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I once asked a senior Dentons person in HK "Why Dacheng?" The answer I was given was "Just because it's the biggest." This was always about size and never about integrated global legal serivces.
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Size does matter, I suppose.
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@13:37
This is true. I had also worked in one of the law firms that "joined up" with Dentons. Nothing substantively changed , apart from a new letterhead and and obnoxiously large and jarring email signatures. Even worse - many felt that there was loss of brand equity. We were/are one of the oldest and most venerable law firms in our jurisdiction. Hint: it is in southeast asia.
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Very sad that Dentons was the saviour of the old Maclays outfit in Scotland. Once one of the Scots big 4, now confined to history, hidden behind that ghastly purple branding.
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How will the Milton Keynes office survive without all those referrals from Chinese offices?
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Dentons making Lewis Brisbois look top shelf.
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China is a snake pit for any foreign investor. One misunderstanding or miscommunication gets you blacklisted. It is also a horrible place to live - wall to wall surveillance and posters everywhere telling you how to behave. Felt like living in prison (and millions actually are imprisoned).