Graf von Westphalen enlarges its China team with a new lawyer at its Hamburg office

Since 2 May 2011 Graf von Westphalen's China team has been further enlarged with yet another lawyer with a Chinese background joining the firm's Hamburg office. Ms Cuifang Wang will complement the commercial and corporate law team around Christian Mayer-Gießen and Dr Dominik Ziegenhahn and will focus on commercial disputes and corporate transactions involving China aspects. Many of the Hamburg office's clients involved in the trade, transport and production sectors have already been operating in China for quite some time. The growing need of these clients for advice on German-Chinese legal relations was the decisive factor for opening the firm's office in Shanghai in 2008, which quickly became very successful.

By hiring Ms. Wang Graf von Westphalen intends to accommodate the ever increasing demand for legal advice on Sino-German business relations at the Hamburg office. Dr Robert Theissen, one of the firm's Managing Partners says: "With Ms Wang joining our China Desk, Graf von Westphalen now counts four German-qualified lawyers who speak Mandarin, including two native speakers. This development, together with the fact that we are constantly expanding our office in Shanghai by hiring additional Chinese lawyers, reflects the increasing importance for our firm of inbound as well as outbound business with China."

Ms Wang was born and raised in the PRC. After studying law for three years at the renowned Tongji University in Shanghai she decided to continue her law studies at a German university. Supported by a scholarship granted by the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) (German Academic Exchange Service), she graduated with flying colours in 2008. As part of her legal traineeship at the Hanseatische Oberlandesgericht (Hanseatic Regional Court of Appeals) in Bremen, which she also completed very successfully shortly thereafter, she completed placements with, inter alia, the litigation team of a prestigious international law firm in Hamburg as well as with the Delegation of German Industry and Commerce in Beijing. Apart from her mother tongue, Mandarin, Ms Wang also speaks fluent German and English.