This document summarizes the history and activities of East & Concord Partners, a Chinese law firm formed through the 2014 merger of East Associates Law Firm and Concord & Partners. It discusses the firm's recognition and awards, practice areas including dispute resolution, M&A, cultural and sports media, and internet finance. It provides an overview of the firm's 200 legal professionals and offices in Beijing.

1. 宫晓燕, 合伙人
Gong Xiaoyan, Partner
胡晓东, 合伙人
Hu Xiaodong, Partner
EAST & CONCORD PARTNERS 天达共和律师事务所
BEIJING OFFICE
A: 20/F Landmark Building
Tower 1, 8 Dongsanhuan Beilu,
Chaoyang District, Beijing,
100004, P. R. China
北京总部
地址：北京市朝阳区东三环
北路8号亮马河大厦1座20层
电话 T: +8610 6590 6639
传真 F: +8610 6510 7030
邮箱 E: beijing@east-concord.
com
邮编 : 100004
周琦, 合伙人
Zhou Qi, Partner
张璇, 合伙人
Zhang Xuan, Partner
李大进, 合伙人
Li Dajin, Partner
SPONSORED ARTICLE12 ASIAN LEGAL BUSINESS
MAY 2015
Since beginning of 2015 East & Concord Partners (“East &
Concord”) has continued to be recognized and has received “China’s
Annual Legal Excellence Award” and “Energy and Infrastructure
Development Practice Excellent Law Firm Award” and named the
“Best Chinese Energy and Natural Resources Law Firm of the Year”,
“China’s Best Banking Industry Law Firm of the Year”, “Best Chinese
Law Firm for Dispute Resolution Practice” and the “Best Chinese Law
Firm for Corporate/M&A”. In addition, several partners have received
the distinction of “Asia’s Outstanding Lawyer” as the post-merger
of East & Concord Partners gradually approaches the status of top
international law firm building on the foundation of the two “leading
law firms”.
In 2014, the former East Associates Law Firm and Concord &
Partners merged to form East & Concord Partners. East Associates
Law Firm and Concord & Partners were established in 1993 and 1995
respectively.
Before the merger, both law firms specialized in Financial
Leasing and Commercial Management, Anti-Dumping and Anti-
Subsidy, Criminal Litigation, Cultural and Sports Media, Mergers and
Acquisitions, Banking and Finance, Energy and Natural Resources,
Infrastructure Projects and Dispute Resolution.
The purpose of the partnering of the two leaders was to achieve
a mutual synergy. Director and partner of East & Concord, Li Dajin,
stated that “post-merger East & Concord will strengthen the law firm’s
name, move from specialization and refinement to leadership and
excellence.”
East & Concord Partners has its headquarters in Beijing. Currently
the firm has more than 200 legal professionals, including senior
partners who possess more than 15 years of professional experience
and years of experience with government agencies and/or prestigious
foreign law firms.
In addition to retaining its leading position in existing fields, after
the merger East & Concord has become increasingly more dominant
especially in Internet, Finance, Anti-Monopoly and Intellectual
Property fields.
Dispute Resolution
Dispute resolution is a longstanding and fundamental legal service
provided by East & Concord. Many of the cases East& Concord has
represented have been used as case studies by the Supreme People’s
Court and China International Economic and Trade Arbitration
Commission.
East & Concord dispute resolution team comprises of 18 partners,
35 associates and legal assistants. In recent years, on the basis of its
position in the traditional dispute resolution business, efforts have
been made to make in-roads to professional sub-domains.
Dispute resolution team partner Zhou Qi stated, “Currently we
are seeing increase in commercial litigation and arbitration disputes
in large market leasing, oxygen and nitrogen factory investment, gas
supply contracts and trust financial leasing.”
The East & Concord dispute resolution team has represented
major litigation cases across multiple fields such as energy, property,
consumption and finance. Clients include multinational energy giants,
large central government enterprises and major domestic capital
groups.
Mergers and Acquisitions
M&AisoneofEast&Concord’scoreservices.Asthemostcomplexof
any company services, M&A is the touchstone of legal professionalism.
Requirements placed on lawyers are equally demanding. Along with
M&A team lead partner Hu Xiaodong, East & Concord M&A team has
a total of 12 partners and 35 associates. The majority of partners and
associates have had legal education and/or work experience abroad,
enabling them to negotiate and prepare transaction documents in
English and in Chinese.
“Taking the acquisition of Prestolite as an example, Prestolite
Group’s global restructuring process involved a total of five well
known law firms in China and the US working through a long period
of complex consultations and negotiations. “ Hu Xiaodong told ALB.
In 2013, the law firm represented Beijing Prestolite Electronics Co., Ltd.
and American Prestolite Electronics (China) Holdings Co., Ltd. in the
acquisition of Beijing Prestolite Electronics Co., Ltd. by Broad-Ocean
Co., Ltd.
In the past two years, the M&A team has made major strides in
personnel and business volume. East and Concord’s M&A projects
include acquisition of COSCO (Qingdao) Asset Management Co., Ltd.
by wholly owned subsidiary COSCO (HK) Group Co. Ltd. of COSCO
(Group) HQ in issuing equity and acquisition of assets on behalf of
Harbin Pharm Group.
Cultural and Sports Media
With the development of the cultural and sports media industry,
the number of arbitration cases in this field has also expanded. Last
year alone, East & Concord cultural and sports media team handled
three international sports arbitration cases.Among those, the suit filed
by China track and field athlete Zhang Wenxiu against the Olympic
Council of Asia (OCA) led to widespread attention. Zhang Wenxiu was
the gold medal winner in the 2014 Inchon Asian Games for hammer
throw event. Because of a positive urine test result during the Asian
Games, the OCA revoked Zhang Wenxiu’s gold medal. The cultural
and sports media team for Zhang Wenxiu collected extensive evidence
within a short time proving that Zhang Wenxiu’s urine sample should
not have returned a positive result. After 219 days, the gold medal was
restored to Zhang Wenxiu.
Cultural and sports media team partner Gong Xiaoyan added,
“Legal services for sports related matters not only place high demands
on a lawyer’s professional capabilities, but also require that lawyers
have foresight into legal services required for each stage of sporting
events so as to readily meet client’s needs.”
Internet Finance
Internet finance is like a magician, pulling together financial
consumers that are scattered like stars all over the place. But gaps in
regulatory coverage and laws make this emerging industry rife with
potential insecurity.
East & Concord’s internet finance team was created during the
domestic internet finance craze and has expanded rapidly within a
short time. Members of this team have experience in finance and
internet fields, providing comprehensive advice and specialized legal
services to many internet financial enterprises since 2013. The law
firm’s business scope covers activities across multiple business states
in Internet Finance, such as P2P platform fundraising legal services
and third-party payment platform partnerships. Among its many
clients are Xueqiu, Jinfuz and other well-known online investment
platforms.
Internet finance is not the only innovation. Legal services aligned
with Internet Finance also require corresponding innovation. For
lawyers on this team, keeping up with the times without crossing the
line is a major challenge. East & Concord partner Zhang Xuan believes
that with specific administrative rules and standard documents yet to
be fully introduced by regulators, the various business models are in
their exploratory phase, which forces the usually “back-office” support
legalworktobe“front-office”work,requiringjointstudy,consideration
and design of business models together with business personnel of the
law firm.
“Not constraining business innovation and development through
overt conservatism, but also not crossing the line on regulation. This
balancing act is critical for a lawyer’s foresight and flexibility,” Zhang
Xuan said to ALB.
ADVANCING AFTER MERGER BETWEEN INDUSTRY LEADERS

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2015年伊始，荣誉纷至沓来， “中国年度法律卓越大奖”、“
中国年度最佳能源与自然资源律师事务”、“中国年度最佳银行
业务律所”、“争议解决领域最佳中国律所”、“公司/并购领域最
佳中国律所”、“能源及基础设施建设领域卓越律所大奖”，多名
合伙人被评为“亚洲领先律师”等，合并后的天达共和正在两个“
律所强人”的基础上逐步向国际顶级律师事务所迈近。
2014年，原天达律师事务所和原共和律师事务所合并成
天达共和律师事务所。天达和共和分别成立于1993年及1995
年，合并之前的天达和共和各自是以融资租赁与商业保理、反
倾销反补贴、刑事诉讼、文化体育传媒、收购与兼并、银行与
金融、能源与自然资源、基础设施项目以及争议解决等为专长
的综合性律师事务所。
强者联合，相得益彰。天达共和律师事务所主任、合伙人李
大进律师表示，“合并之后的天达共和会加强提升律所的品牌，
从专业和精致走向领先和卓越。”
合并后的天达共和所总部位于北京。目前该所拥有200余名
法律专业人士，资深合伙人具有15年以上的职业经验，部分合
伙人拥有多年国家部委或境外知名律所的工作经历。
除了在原有业务领域继续保持领先位置，合并后的天达共和
也已在互联网金融、反垄断、知识产权等更多领域日显强大。
争议解决
争议解决是天达共和传统和基础的法律业务，天达共和拥有
丰富的实务经验。重大、复杂案件的代理经历更使天达共和在
这一领域游刃有余。诸多代表性案件被最高人民法院及中国国
际经济贸易仲裁委员会作为案例收录。
天达共和争议解决团队共有18名合伙人，35名律师及律师
助理。近年来，在立足于传统争议解决业务的基础上，致力于
细分专业领域的深耕。
争议解决团队的合伙人、拥有30年专业经验的周琦律师表
示，目前，在大型卖场租赁、大宗商品买卖、气体的投资建厂
和供气合同、信托、融资租赁领域面临越来越多的诉讼和仲
裁纠纷。
天达共和争议解决团队代理过的重大诉讼案件横跨能源、
地产、消费、金融等多个领域。服务过的客户既有国际能源巨
头，也有大型央企及国内外资本大鳄。
收购与兼并
并购是天达共和的核心业务之一。作为公司业务里最复杂
的交易，并购业务是一个律所专业水平的试金石。同时对律师
的要求也非常高。据并购团队合伙人胡晓东律师介绍，天达共
和并购团队共有12位合伙人，35位律师。绝大部分合伙人和律
师都在欧美等国接受过法律教育或拥有法律工作经验，许多交
易文件和谈判都以中英文进行。
“以佩特来的收购为例，交易涉及到佩特来集团的全球重
组，期间共有中美五家知名律所参与，经历了长时间的复杂磋
商和谈判。”胡晓东律师对ALB表示。2013年，该律所代表北
京佩特来电器有限公司及美国佩特来电器（中国）控股有限公
司参与了中山大洋电机股份有限公司对北京佩特来电器有限
公司的收购。
近两年并购团队在人员和业务量上都有了长足发展。承办
的收购兼并项目有：代表中国远洋运输（集团）总公司的全资
子公司-中远（香港）集团有限公司收购青岛远洋资产管理有
限公司、代表哈药集团股份有限公司发行股份收购资产等。
文化体育传媒
随着文化体育产业因成为国家的新战略而加速发展，该领
域的仲裁案件也呈增长趋势。仅去年，天达共和文化体育传媒
的团队就代理了三个国际体育仲裁案件。其中，代理的中国田
径运动员张文秀起诉亚奥理事会一案引起了广泛的关注。张
文秀是2014年仁川亚运会女子链球金牌得主，由于在亚运会
期间的尿检呈阳性，亚奥理事会收回了张文秀的金牌。文化体
育传媒团队接受了张文秀的委托，在短时间内搜集了大量证
据证明了张文秀尿检阳性结果不成立。历经219天之后，张文
秀的金牌失而复得。
文化体育传媒团队合伙人宫晓燕律师表示，“体育赛事法律
服务除了对律师的专业能力提出了较高的要求，还要求律师能
够对整个赛事需要的法律服务有可预见性，以便随时响应客
户的法律服务要求。”
互联网金融
互联网金融像一个魔法师，拉近了像天上的星星一样分散
在四处的金融消费者之间的距离。但监管的缺位、法律的不健
全让这个新兴行业充满了不安全隐患。站在互联网金融行业背
后的律师们，则用法律守望着这片新天地的安宁。
天达共和互联网金融团队伴随着国内互联网金融的火热诞
生，在短时间内迅速壮大。该团队的成员兼具从事金融法律领
域以及互联网领域的法律服务经验，自2013年起，开始为多
家互联网金融企业提供全方位的常年及专项法律服务。其业
务范围涵盖了互联网金融多种业态项下的事宜，如P2P平台引
资的法律服务、第三方支付平台的合作项目等。服务客户则包
括但不限于雪球财经、金斧子等知名平台。
不仅互联网金融是种创新，针对互联网金融的法律服务也
要相应创新。对团队的律师们来说，如何与时俱进又不踩到红
线是一个不小的考验。天达共和合伙人张璇律师认为，在监管
机构的具体管理规定和规范性文件尚未全面出台的情况下，各
种业务模式也是在摸着石头过河，这就倒逼原本作为“后台”支
持的法律工作“前台化”，需要与业务人员一起学习、探讨、设计
业务模式。
“既能够不触及监管的红线，又能不过度保守的压制业务的
创新和发展。这个平衡点是极其考验律师专业、前瞻和灵活能
力的。”张璇对ALB表示。
强者联手后重装上路