The provision of high quality expert legal services has been, and must continue to be, a key enabler of trade in the Asia-Pacific region. … As Asia’s economies modernise, the demand for world-class lawyers ... – will increase exponentially. Photo: Ron D’Raine Images
of our existing and potential ties with our region. During a recent visit to this country, the President of the UK Law Society, Lucy-Scott Moncrief, observed that Australia is not only an interesting legal services market in itself. It is increasingly being seen by our members as the gateway to the Asia-Pacific. Her comments speak to the enormous potential for Australian legal firms to help navigate opportunities for growth in our region. So the Turnbull Government is committed to supporting free trade which has encouraged, among many other beneficial effects, home-grown lawyers to beat a path to the Asia-Pacific. As we speak, Australian lawyers can be found working in endless capacities across the region. They work as foreign lawyers in Asian firms. They work in Australian firms that have formed strategic partnerships with regional firms. Many also work in global firms, which increasingly are establishing a presence on our doorstep. Research conducted at the end of 2015 by the Asia-Pacific Brand Power Index found that eight of the top 11 firms with the greatest brand power in the Asia-Pacific region have offices in Australia. Most were global giants, such as Allens Linklaters, Ashurst, and Herbert Smith Freehills. The Index also included a national firm for which I myself have worked, MinterEllison. The same study predicted that legal services expenditure in the Asia-Pacific would increase at double the global average rate in coming years. It would be safe, therefore, to predict that those firms with the foresight to establish themselves in the region will be best placed to take advantage of that growth. Of course, whenever one mentions the word growth in a speech like this, a reference to China can never be far away. As it stands, Australia’s two‑way trade with China is worth more than $150 billion. Last year, Australia’s export in services to China were worth over $10.7
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billion, making China our largest export market of professional services. For instance, MinterEllison has worked with Chinese clients since the 1980s and was one of the first foreign firms to establish offices in that country. Minters opened offices in Hong Kong and Shanghai in the late 1990s, and in the past decade the firm has expanded into Beijing. Since the 1990s, the Chinese legal market has seen widespread change and undergone rapid evolution. Our lawyers’ engagement in the region has meant that Australian firms have been present at every stage of the recent development of the Chinese legal profession. No doubt Australian lawyers played their part in its maturation and indeed its internationalisation just as they have done with other local legal sectors across the Asia-Pacific. That engagement extends to the judiciary as well. Shortly the Deputy Chief Justice of China will visit Australia where he will be hosted at the High Court – the most senior judicial officer from China ever to visit Australia. And other Australian, various Australian states and various jurisdictions have established their own bilateral relationships with tiers of the Chinese judiciary. Australian lawyers have therefore been able to develop a sophisticated understanding of the cultural particularities of the Chinese legal sector, as those familiar with the sector and the region recognise. Dr Geoff Raby, a former Australian Ambassador to China, is co-chair of Corrs Chambers Westgarth’s China practice. Dr Raby has said that in his view the things that matter more in China than they do in the West are relationships. Of course, relationships are undeniably important to Australian corporate culture as well, yet the uniquely Chinese manifestation of this phenomenon is encapsulated by the concept of Guanxi, which describes a culture in which personalised networks of influence are vital to business. Australian firms have the acuity to see that the buying and selling of legal services is
no exception. King & Wood Mallesons may be held up as another success story of an Australian firm becoming deeply enmeshed in the Chinese legal market. As a result of Mallesons’ merger with the Chinese firm King & Wood, the resulting entity placed itself uniquely to practise Chinese, Hong Kong and Australian law. A key factor in this success is an understanding of cultural values and context. Stuart Fuller, global managing partner of King & Wood Mallesons, noted that establishing the right contacts, connections, and local know-how is crucial to the success of transactions in the Chinese market. He emphasised the importance of having firms on the ground in China rather than simply importing flyin-fly-out lawyers. Above the level of the individual firm, there is much that government can do, and much the Federal Government is doing, to help the Australian legal services sector take advantage of the opportunities in our region. The Australian government is acutely conscious of China’s importance as an export market for Australian legal services, and the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement, which came into force in 2015, delivers China’s best ever trade commitments when it comes to professional services. That is something worth reflecting upon. There is no country in the world with a trade agreement with China, more favourably treated when it comes to the export of professional services. These include market access not granted in any of China’s previous free trade agreements. Uniquely, ChAFTA secures China’s first ever treaty commitments on commercial associations between law firms. It guarantees existing access for Australian law firms in China and their ability to establish commercial associations with Chinese firms. China and Australia also agreed to promote increased mobility for Australian and Chinese lawyers. Respective peak legal