The Daily Journal reported on the official opening of Fenwick & West’s first international office, interviewing the leader of the new Shanghai office, corporate partner Eva Wang, and corporate partner Gordy Davidson.
With five lawyers joining Wang in the Shanghai office, Fenwick's China practice now includes 20 attorneys in the PRC and the United States. Wang, who had worked from an informal Shanghai office since joining Fenwick in 2013, said the firm chose its China location based on the area’s prominence as a global technology center.
Davidson cited client demand as the driving force behind the Shanghai office launch. Launching the new office now, he said, positions Fenwick for the "second wave" of technology investment and transaction activity in China, following the initial burst of venture capital investments and fund formation in the late '90s and early 2000s.
"With the first wave of venture capitalists who invested heavily in China, the U.S. and U.K. law firms that opened aggressively in China were seeking a lot of the high-profile capital markets transactions," Davidson told the Daily Journal. "After the economic downturn, some of that activity didn't materialize."
Fenwick’s recent activity includes advising a special board committee of the China-based video game company Giant Interactive Group Inc., in a pending $3 billion "going-private" deal. The firm also represented Shanghai-based semiconductor manufacturer Spreadtrum Communications Inc. in a $1.8 billion sale that closed in December.
Wang previously served as Spreadtrum’s general counsel and took the company public in 2007. Her practice includes representing U.S. and Chinese venture capital funds that invest in Chinese companies, as well as U.S. and Chinese emerging growth companies.