Hainan’s legal market white-hot under free port plan

Hainan has seen 81 new law firms set up office since the province liberalized its legal services sector in October last year, according to Hainan Lawyers Association (HLA) data shared exclusively with China Business Law Journal.

The relaxed regulations, along with the country’s plan to develop the island on China’s southern coast into an international free-trade port by 2050 under the Hainan Free Trade Port Plan, has attracted national and international law firms to the province.

“Hainan has a vast legal market of high-end and foreign-related businesses including finance, medicine, aviation and education,” said Zhang Xiaohui, the president of HLA.

Liao Hui, director of Zhong Lun Law Firm’s office in Haikou, the province’s capital city, said: “The new regulations relax the requirements for the admission of partners in special general partnership law firms, lower the requirements of setting up law firms, and allow qualified law firms to set up corporate-type law firms.”

The regulations allow representative offices of Hong Kong, Macau and other foreign law firms to deal with certain Hainan-related non-litigation legal matters, and to set up legal partnership associations with mainland law firms in the special economic zone.

The Hainan Free Trade Port Plan, issued by the State Council in June this year, is to be implemented in the entire province and involves institutional innovations in 11 aspects including the legal system, entry-exit management and taxation.

“It is foreseeable that Hainan Free Trade Port will generate great demand for legal services,” Wu Lei, the director of Jingtian & Gongcheng’s office in Sanya, another major city in Hainan, told China Business Law Journal.