International law firm Dorsey & Whitney LLP announced today that Karen Yiqin Fan has joined the Firm’s Corporate Group and U.S.-China Practice Group as Special Counsel. Ms. Fan’s practice focuses on advising clients on cross-border investments, mergers and acquisitions and various corporate governance matters in China and the United States.
Ms. Fan joins Dorsey from Fosun International Limited, a Hong Kong listed Chinese conglomerate with a US$13 billion market capitalization, where she was North American Senior Legal Director. In her role at Fosun, Ms. Fan advised Fosun’s board and senior management on M&A and investments transactions in North America. Ms. Fan was also involved in supervising and managing Fosun’s large portfolio of North American assets. Prior to that, she spent over seven years in private practice in Shanghai, Washington, D.C. and New York, advising private and public clients on M&A and investments deals. Ms. Fan is admitted to practice in New York and is also equipped with legal qualification of China. She is fluent in English and Mandarin Chinese.
“As a seasoned U.S.-trained attorney to be stationed in our Shanghai office after a substantial integration period in New York office, Karen will further strengthen Dorsey’s on-the-ground capability to provide 24/7 service to our China-based clients, who have expressed an increasing need for U.S.-trained lawyers with real-world experience in the U.S.,” noted Corporate Partner Catherine Pan, who serves as Co-Chair of Dorsey’s U.S.-China Practice Group. “Karen adds tremendous experience and expertise in corporate transactional matters to our firm-wide U.S.-China team, which includes over 30 lawyers in nine Dorsey offices in the U.S., U.K. and Asia, about half of whom are native or fluent Mandarin speakers.”
“Karen also brings the invaluable insights of in-house counsel for a major Chinese company,” added Partner Peter Corne, head of the Firm’s Shanghai office. “She will add an important perspective to Dorsey’s strong and diverse U.S.-China Practice Group,” noted New York Partner Lanier Saperstein, who also is a Co-Chair of Dorsey’s U.S.-China Practice Group.
“Dorsey is a great Firm with a uniquely positioned legal team in the U.S.-China Practice Group ready to meet the diverse and ever-changing cross-border needs of clients from China, the United States and around the world,” noted Ms. Fan. “I look forward to serving Dorsey’s exceptional client base and assisting our clients to efficiently achieve their international business goals by providing solution-oriented legal and practical guidance to them.”