China

Be careful out there. Your clients may lose a lot of money thanks to this scam.

Your Western assumptions are not likely going to line up with the assumptions of your Chinese counterparts. Find out why.

The next time your Chinese negotiating counterpart tells you that "China is different," seek verification before you move forward.

What are some negotiating techniques commonly used by Chinese companies when negotiating against foreign companies?

Do not fall prey to the negotiating tactics discussed here.

Companies in China typically place a large amount of risk on your client. Here's how to best deal with that.

If you want a better idea of what motivates China on its economy, just read its Five-Year Plan.

There are a lot of ways to sell your product in China. Whichever you choose, make sure you've protected yourself.

Don't make the mistake of assuming that Chinese joint ventures will be managed according to a Western model, under which the board of directors has controlling power over the joint venture company.

What should we make of the latest mega-merger? Thoughts from in-house columnist Mark Herrmann.

Be very careful, because contracts in China are more formal than contracts in the U.S.

Let's focus on something that should be pretty simple, but isn't at all: the hourly workweek.

* Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, was recently referred to as the “most dangerous man in American politics.” Why’s that, you ask? It’s because he’s “a federal prosecutor who doesn’t give a f*ck.” Damn straight. [BuzzFeed]

* Just when you thought the Alan Dershowitz sex scandal couldn’t get any more intense, the investigative sleuths over at Gawker found flight records that allegedly place the professor as a passenger on a billionaire bad boy’s pedo plane. [Gawker]

* Dewey know which former chairman of a failed firm had to beg to get a refund on his bail money because he couldn’t otherwise afford to pay the expert witnesses for his upcoming criminal trial? Aww. Poor, poor Steven Davis. [New York Law Journal]

* Fried Frank’s chairman says that completely pulling the firm out of Asia was a “difficult but necessary decision.” On the other hand, an ex-partner at the firm says this move had basically been “inevitable” since at least 2009. Hmm. [Am Law Daily]

* If you want advice on how to pick a “cost-efficient” law school, the first thing you should realize is that your scholarships may come back to bite you in the ass. Go on, read the fine print — after all, you want to be a lawyer. [U.S. News & World Report]

* Dentons is on the verge of finalizing a mega-merger that would make the combined firm the largest in the world, beating out even Biglaw behemoth Baker & McKenzie. Which law firm is Dentons wooing this time? [Wall Street Journal]

* “We say law school is expensive, but it’s not expensive for everybody.” People who do poorly on the LSAT finance their classmates’ schooling, and thanks to this chart, now we know what the cost of a low LSAT score really is. [Bloomberg Businessweek]

* Senate hearings for Loretta Lynch are scheduled to begin next week, but thus far, she’s only received eight letters in support of her nomination for AG. Eric Holder, who is apparently far cooler than she is, received tons of ’em. Aww. [National Law Journal]

* The next edition of the Am Law 100 will soon be released, but until then, Am Law is sating our desire for rankings with little tidbits of interesting information. This just in: Apparently Weil Gotshal posted a major, double-digit increase in PPP. [Am Law Daily]

* Nixon Peabody has had the urge to merge for quite some time, and now the firm has finally found a willing partner. If everything works out, the firm will gobble up Ungaretti & Harris, and everyone will be a winner! [Crain’s Chicago Business]

* “There is a large overhang of unemployed law graduates looking for jobs. Whether employers will hire them over 2015 grads is hard to predict.” Which is the lesser of two evils: dumber law grads or law grads with huge résumé gaps? [CBS News]

Chinese companies are increasingly requiring their commercial contracts with American companies provide for disputes to be resolved by arbitration in China. How can you prevail?

A recent incident suggests that as China's soft power increases, so does its ability to influence even the most powerful of Western online companies.

Foreign companies in China should be increasing their guard against these listed items in 2015, most of which result from the slowing economy.

* Per recent reports, human rights attorney Amal Clooney was threatened with arrest after she pointed out major issues with the Egyptian justice system in a paper sponsored by the International Bar Association. She was able to escape because officials feared the wrath of George Clooney. [The Telegraph]

* Uh oh! It looks like Alan Dershowitz got himself mixed up in a lawsuit involving a salacious underage sex scandal. In his own defense, the famed Havard Law prof said, “It’s a completely, totally fabricated, made-up story. I’m an innocent victim of an extortion conspiracy.” [WSJ Law Blog]

* The price of the billable hour may have risen by more than 10 percent over the course of the last four years, but according to the chairman of one Biglaw firm, “[t]he question is: Is anybody ­paying that?” Hahaha, yeah right. [National Law Journal]

* That was quick. The Bitcoin Foundation hired a global policy counsel who lasted there for less than a year. It seems the policy and regulation aspects of the digital currency’s existence were viewed as a “distraction.” [DealBook / New York Times]

* Chicago Biglaw and midsized firms are brushing up on their Mandarin language skills because Chinese investment in the Windy City hit more than $3 billion last year. FYI, senior associates, these firms may have a job for you. [Crain’s Chicago Business]

* Did she get SLC punk’d? Another woman was just nabbed for allegedly pretending to be a lawyer. It seems that Utah resident Karla Carbo reportedly impersonated a member of the bar at least three times in the past six months. [New York Daily News]

If you have any reason to doubt your China registrations, you probably should have them checked out.

If you are a foreign company planning to commence or strengthen your China operation’s legal compliance program, you should be prepared for a fight.