Melody Wang joins Shanghai Lang Yue bringing China litigation capability to Allen & Overy Lang Yue

Melody, who will join Lang Yue with a team of three litigators, brings more than 16 years of experience advising multinational and Chinese clients in high stakes litigation and arbitration, often in a cross-border context. She has extensive experience helping foreign corporations and their China entities to successfully resolve disputes in China through negotiation, arbitration or litigation in PRC courts.

Melody’s commercial litigation experience in China is far-reaching. She brings specialised experience representing clients on matters related to restructuring and insolvency, financial services, professional liability, and environmental protection. In addition, Melody has substantial experience advising clients on U.S.-led regulatory investigations involving China, particularly in connection with state secrecy and data privacy protection, anti-corruption and fraud.

Jane Jiang, partner at Allen & Overy Shanghai and a representative on the Management Committee of the Allen & Overy Lang Yue (FTZ) Joint Operation Office, commented: “Melody’s specialist skills and deep experience significantly enhances our dispute resolution offering in China. As companies face economic uncertainty and confront new challenges, the Allen & Overy Lang Yue (FTZ) Joint Operation Office is primed to support clients on contentious matters by combining an international perspective with Chinese litigation experience. We expect a growing amount of litigation, investigations and restructuring activity involving China and Melody brings a strong track record helping clients to successfully resolve disputes in this market.”

Wenxin Zhou, partner in Lang Yue commented: “At Lang Yue, we continue to invest in our practice and develop our offering to meet the current and future needs of our clients. In addition to the appointment of Melody and members of her team, we are delighted to announce that we have opened a branch in Beijing following approval from the Beijing Bureau of Justice.”

This news follows the January 2020 establishment of Allen & Overy Lang Yue (FTZ) Joint Operation Office in the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone. The Joint Operation brings together Lang Yue’s high-quality PRC law capability with Allen & Overy’s international platform, to provide clients with seamless PRC and international legal services across a wide range of capabilities, including general corporate, M&A, private equity, venture capital investments, capital markets, regulatory advice, compliance and dispute resolution.

Victor Ho, Beijing and Shanghai managing partner^* at Allen & Overy, added: “Our clients will benefit from Melody’s deep and specialised litigation experience. Her reputation and strong team will help clients as they grow in and navigate the China market.”

“We are thrilled to welcome a litigator of Melody’s calibre to our team,” said Karen Seward, Global Head of Litigation at Allen & Overy. “It’s a strategic priority to develop our China litigation capability to support both international and domestic organisations on their most pressing risk and reputational matters. I look forward to working closely with Melody and continuing the build out of our market leading disputes offering in the Asia Pacific region more generally.”

_{^*Victor Ho is also the Registered Foreign Lawyer (California) for Allen & Overy Hong Kong}