Crain’s Chicago Business – Claire Bushey
“Fifteen years ago, U.S. law firms wanted to post all their Mandarin-speaking attorneys to their offices in China, says Feng Xue, a partner at Katten Muchin Rosenman. Now they want to keep them here. Since Xue moved from DLA Piper in 2008 to chair Katten’s China practice in Chicago, the city’s sixth-largest firm has hired four Mandarin-speaking lawyers to handle an increasing amount of work from China, as well as tapped a longtime partner in corporate finance who could speak the language but hadn’t previously worked with Chinese clients. The Chinese students graduating from Chicago’s six law schools provide a steady supply of entry-level attorneys, but senior associates are hard to find. The firm plans to hire another attorney in real estate in 2015, which Xue expects to be a busy year.”(more)