The Red Circle ("红圈" in Chinese) is an informal term for leading

law firm A law firm is a business entity formed by one or more lawyers to engage in the practice of law. The primary service rendered by a law firm is to advise consumer, clients (individuals or corporations) about their legal rights and Obligation, respon ...

s in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

that are perceived as prestigious or high-quality, similar to the

Magic Circle A magic circle is a circle of space marked out by practitioners of some branches of ritual magic, which they generally believe will contain energy and form a sacred space, or will provide them a form of magical protection, or both. It may be mar ...

firms in the UK and

white-shoe firm In the United States, "white-shoe firm" is a term used to describe prestigious professional services firms that have been traditionally associated with the upper-class elite who graduated from Ivy League colleges. The term comes from white buckski ...

s in the US. The term was first used by ''

The Lawyer ''The Lawyer'' is a legal business information product for law firm leaders, commercial lawyers, barristers A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdiction (area), jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advoc ...

'' magazine in a report in March 2014, which used the term to define eight top-tier law firms in China. The eight firms include: Commerce & Finance (通商), Global Law Office (环球), Haiwen & Partners (海问)
Jingtian & Gongcheng
(竞天公诚),

Jun He Law Offices JunHe LLP, formerly Jun He Law Offices () is a corporate law firm headquartered in Beijing, China. JunHe is one of the first private Chinese law firms. As of 2022, JunHe has eleven offices: in Beijing (head office), Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou ...

(君合),

King & Wood Mallesons King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) is the largest international commercial law firm based in the Asia–Pacific, Asia-Pacific. It has 26 offices and over 3,000 legal professionals across Australia, Hong Kong, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and the U ...

(金杜),

Zhong Lun Zhong Lun () is a Chinese multinational law firm headquartered in Beijing, China. It was founded in 1993 as one of the first private law firms in China. Zhong Lun is one of China's most prominent law firms and is a member of the " Red Circle" of ...

(中伦), in Beijing; and Fangda (方达) in Shanghai. The list was later repeated by ''The Lawyer'' in its 2014 issue of a China-focused legal market report. Since then, it has gained wide popularity within the Chinese legal community as well as law graduates when it comes to recruitment. Although their sizes vary greatly, the Red Circle firms have much higher average revenue per lawyer (RPL), revenue per equity partner (RPP) and profit per equity partner (PEP) compared to their top 30 rivals. However, according to ''

'', Beijing-based elite firm Han Kun (汉坤) stands out from the crowd, having exceeded the Red Circle threshold across the RPL, RPP and PEP metrics in 2017.

References

{{reflist Law firms of China Neologisms

See also

References