A candid framing first: the Oriental Hub is new, its rulebook is still being written, and no law firm on earth has a decade of "Hub experience". What a Shanghai firm can honestly offer today is three things: proximity — we practise in Pudong, in the city whose government and customs administer the zone; tracking — we read each announcement as it publishes and keep a current picture of the rules; and the onshore craft — because everything the zone facilitates ends, if it succeeds, in ordinary Chinese legal work: an entity, a contract, a trademark, a hire. That work is our daily practice, documented across this site. Here is how the pieces fit.
Before the visit: making the delegation compliant 行前合规
- Advising on the current entry requirements — invitation channel, documentation, timing — as of the week you travel, against the zone's latest announcements (see the entry guide for the framework).
- Drafting the hosting and invitation provisions into your agreements with Chinese counterparties, so responsibility for invitation accuracy sits where it belongs.
- Mapping the mainland leg of mixed itineraries: which participants need ordinary visas, what applies to factory visits or signings outside the zone.
- Pre-visit IP hygiene: trademark and patent filings before anything is exhibited or demonstrated — the single cheapest piece of protection in this entire playbook (see Contracts & IP).
In the zone: papering what gets agreed 区内签约
- Term sheets and contracts negotiated at zone meetings, drafted for enforceability from the start: correct parties, chops, governing law and a dispute clause chosen deliberately (Dispute Resolution).
- Bilingual documentation with a controlling-language clause — the same discipline this site applies to itself.
- NDAs and exchange-stage protections for training programmes, technical exchanges and demos, sized to what Chinese courts actually enforce.
After the handshake: landing onshore 落地中国
- Entity setup when the exploration matures: vehicle choice, negative-list screening, incorporation and the post-registration tail (Market Entry).
- Employment for the first hires and the expatriate manager's permits (Employment; personal matters at the Expats desk).
- Ongoing compliance — governance, filings, data (Compliance) — and, in due course, getting the profits home (Repatriation).
What we will not tell you 我们不说的话
We will not claim insider channels, guaranteed entries, or influence over zone administration — no one honest can. We will not invent a track record the zone is too young to have given anyone. And we will not promise outcomes: our commitments are diligence, documented reasoning, and fees confirmed in writing before engagement. If that plain dealing suits you, the desk is one email away.
