Hui Zhong Law Firm

Firm Details:

Managing Partner: Ning Fei

Number of partners:28

Number of lawyers:89

Languages:Chinese, English

Firm Overview:

Established in June 2013, Hui Zhong Law Firm ("Hui Zhong") stands as a distinguished Chinese boutique law firm specializing in domestic and international dispute resolution. Presently, Hui Zhong boasts a formidable team of over 85 legal professionals, comprising 25 partners, 9 senior consultants and more than 50 associates, delivering comprehensive legal services to both domestic and international clients. Operating from strategic locations in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong, the firm has rapidly solidified its position as a reputable player in the legal landscape.

Despite its relatively brief history, Hui Zhong has garnered widespread recognition for the wealth of experience and esteemed standing of its members. Each partner at Hui Zhong brings forth decades of legal practice, with many holding pivotal roles in international arbitration and transnational litigation. They have served as prominent legal counsel, co-counsel, and legal experts in numerous intricate cross-border commercial disputes, appearing before courts and arbitration bodies across diverse jurisdictions.

Hui Zhong's legal practitioners have profound experience in multiple arbitration and mediation institutions, including CIETAC, CMAC, BAC, SHIAC, SAC, SCIA, CCPIT/CCOIC, ICC, SIAC, HKIAC, PCA, KCAB, AIAC, LMAA and CAS. Additionally, the firm's lawyers possess substantial expertise in ICSID arbitration, CAS arbitration, and ad hoc arbitration, covering a spectrum of sectors such as energy and resources, finance, real estate, joint ventures, M&A, engineering and construction, sales and purchase agreements, intellectual property, technology transfer, international investment agreements, employment law, and sports law.

Committed to professionalism, efficiency, responsiveness, and excellence, Hui Zhong's legal team thrives on collaborative teamwork. Over the past decade, the firm's dispute resolution practice has witnessed remarkable growth, attesting to its ability to handle not only routine disputes but also complex and challenging cases. These encompass multi-level cross-border disputes, parallel proceedings, and cases involving novel legal points and new types of disputes at the cutting edge, such as BITs disputes and sports-related disputes, with contested amounts exceeding US$ 100 million in certain instances.

In the realm of litigation, Hui Zhong lawyers have achieved success in numerous significant cases at various levels of the Chinese courts, including the CICC, with many of these cases marking breakthroughs and setting precedents. In the field of arbitration, Hui Zhong stands as the first prominent PRC law firm capable of providing a full range of legal services in arbitration, covering commercial arbitration, maritime arbitration, investor-State arbitration, and sports arbitration.

Acknowledged by GAR 100 (2016 through 2023), Chambers & Partners Global and Asia-Pacific, Legalband, Legal 500, ALB, The Lawyer China Elite, and China Business Law Journal, Hui Zhong maintains a solid reputation. The firm actively contributes to the promotion of international arbitration and the dissemination of arbitration knowledge. Co-founder and executive partner Mr. Ning Fei, appointed as Vice Chairman of the Belt and Road Commission of the ICC Court, recently assumed the role of a Governing Board Member of the International Council for Commercial Arbitration (ICCA).

Several Hui Zhong lawyers have played integral roles as speakers and mentors in high-profile training courses in international commercial arbitration. In a significant development in July 2023, three Hong Kong barristers, including William Wong SC, Sabrina Ho, and Connie Lee, joined Hui Zhong's Shenzhen Office as Greater Bay Area lawyers licensed by the Chinese government. They have commenced practice across nine cities in South China within the Area, enriching the firm's capabilities with diversified legal backgrounds, encompassing both civil law and common law systems.

For additional information about Hui Zhong, including detailed biographies of its legal professionals, please visit the firm's website at www.huizhonglaw.com.

Main Areas of Practice

Dispute resolution

Dispute resolution: arbitration

Dispute resolution: litigation

Dispute resolution: investor-State arbitration

Dispute resolution: sports arbitration

Maritime and Shipping

The following is a list of representative cases handled by Hui Zhong:

• Hui Zhong is advising a Chinese citizen against the Republic of Korea for expropriation and FET claims under the China-Korea BIT (2007) with hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars at stake. The case is conducted under the ICSID Convention. Hui Zhong is closely working with King & Spalding on this case.

• Hui Zhong is advising two Chinese investors against the Kingdom of Cambodia for its arbitrary, discriminatory and confiscatory revocation of telecommunication licenses held by the investors’ telecommunications companies in Cambodia, under the Agreement on Comprehensive Economic Cooperation between the People’s Republic of China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN-China Agreement) with hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars at stake. The case is proceeding pursuant to the ICSID Convention and the ICSID Arbitration Rules. Hui Zhong is closely working with Arent Fox on this case.

• Hui Zhong is advising a British citizen against the People’s Republic of China for an expropriation claim under the UK-China BIT arising from China’s wrongful revocation of a Land Use Right Certificate and wrongful cancellation of two land transfer contracts. The case is conducted under the UNCITRAL Rules with the PCA as the appointing authority. Hui Zhong is closely working with Wilmer Hale led by Gary Born. At this stage, in consideration of the sensitivity of the case as it is against the PRC government, Hui Zhong has not been disclosed as counsel in the arbitration proceeding yet.

• Hui Zhong represents Sun Yang, a world-renowned Chinese Athlete, who won several Olympic medals and world championship titles in swimming, in a dispute related to anti-doping control against the World Anti-Doping Agency in the proceedings after the issuance of the original CAS award, which against the client. The case involves a series of complicated legal issues including admissibility of cases, arbitrators’ independence and impartiality, parties’ right to be heard, athlete’s human rights, public policy, etc. It also involved numerous Swiss statutes and case laws. Hui Zhong is closely working with the Swiss law firms Schellenberg Wittmer SA and Bonnard Lawson. Hui Zhong successfully applied for a revision of the original CAS award before the Swiss Supreme Court and the challenged award was annulled.In the re-opened CAS proceedings, Hui Zhong continues to represent Sun Yang. Through vigorous defense by Hui Zhong and its Swiss partners, the challenged arbitrators had to resign and a new CAS Panel was formed. The new Panel issued an award which halved the penalties that had imposed on Sun Yang under the original award.

• A series of cases arising out of a real estate project; disputed amount exceeds US$ 1 billion - Parties from China, Hong Kong, Korea and Barbados initiated, successively or in parallel, more than 30 arbitrations and litigation proceedings in various jurisdictions. Hui Zhong is the lead counsel representing Beijing Zhongtian Hongye Real Estate Consulting Co. Ltd., in arbitral and judicial proceedings in China, and acting as general coordinator for cases in other jurisdictions.

• A CIETAC arbitration concerning the Grand Lan chain restaurants; amount in dispute exceeds US$ 300 million - Hui Zhong represents a prominent investment company as a co-counsel with Clifford Chance.

• An ICC arbitration case in Hong Kong; disputed amount - US$ 120 million - Hui Zhong represents a Chinese private company in a claim against Egyptian companies.

• A CIETAC arbitration arising out of land use rights transfer; disputed amount - US$ 110 million - Hui Zhong acts as a co-counsel with Lee & Li, representing a Taiwanese company in a claim against a Chinese local government. The case has reached a satisfactory settlement.

• A HKIAC sale of goods arbitration; disputed amount - US$ 33 million - Hui Zhong represents a Chinese private company in a dispute with a Japanese company. The case has reached a satisfactory settlement.

• A HKIAC purchase agreement arbitration; disputed amount- US$ 14 million - Hui Zhong represents a U.S. manufacturer against a Chinese buyer in a dispute arising out of a Purchase Agreement. The arbitral proceedings are administered by HKIAC and conducted in English. Hui Zhong advised to opt for cost-efficient expedited procedure and sole arbitrator tribunal, which helped client to reduce the arbitration costs.

• Enforcement of a CIETAC arbitral award in the Hong Kong courts - Hui Zhong acts as the PRC counsel for a Chinese company in a dispute with a Philippines company. This is a long-running landmark case, destined to become an important precedent, establishing principles applicable to the jurisdiction and powers of the Hong Kong court when enforcing foreign arbitral awards.

• Non-enforcement of an ICC arbitral award in Mainland, China- Hui Zhong represented Hebei Zhongxing Automobile Manufacture Co., Ltd against AGE from its arbitral cases to this enforcement case. This enforcement proceeding concerned complex and parallel proceedings initiated to invalidate and to prevent the enforcement of an ICC arbitral award. Eventually, Hui Zhong won the case launched before the Chinese court, and successfully prevent the enforcement of the ICC arbitral award in Mainland, China.

Key Clients

China Export & Credit Insurance Corporation

Novozymes

China National Technical Imports & Exports Corporation

Shanghai Hongyan Enterprise Management Partnership

Shanghai SECCO Petrochemical Company Ltd

Sulzer Ltd

MathWorks Inc.

Thermal Engineering International (USA) Inc.

Trimble Navigation Limited

Wyeth LLC

Emerson Electric Co.

IBM

Offices

Beijing

Shanghai

Shenzhen

Hong Kong