For years O’Melveny & Myers has been viewed as an undisputed heavyweight among foreign law firms in the China market. But, like many global firms, O’Melveny is now figuring out how to navigate a shifting Asia landscape.
Under Asia head Howard Chao, the firm built a formidable practice advising multinationals doing business in China—tapping dozens of local lawyers working in the firm’s Beijing and Shanghai offices for help. (These Chinese lawyers were called legal consultants and were not typically counted in O’Melveny’s professional head count.) But it was in part due to them that O’Melveny became a go-to firm for inbound China work to rival earlier market entrants like Baker & McKenzie or the now-defunct Coudert Brothers.
