Freshfields: A Three-Century London Firm, and Its Shanghai Joint Operation / 富而德：三百年伦敦老所，如何落地上海联营？

On October 28, 2026, Suzhou Dongshan Precision Manufacturing Co., Ltd. listed its H shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, raising about HK$9.9 billion — the largest listing in Hong Kong in the previous two months. The firm advising the issuer on Hong Kong and U.S. law, as well as international sanctions matters, is a British law firm whose name carries three surnames: Freshfields LLP.

2026 年 10 月 28 日，苏州东山精密制造股份有限公司的 H 股在香港联交所挂牌，募资约 99 亿港元。这是香港过去两个月内规模居首的上市交易。为发行人处理香港与美国法律、以及国际制裁事务的，是一家名字里有三个姓氏的英国律所——富而德（Freshfields LLP）。

For a firm headquartered in London whose history reaches back to the 18th century, this transaction was nothing special. What is special is the relationship behind it: Freshfields practices in mainland China through two representative offices registered with the Ministry of Justice, plus an arrangement that only took shape in 2025 — a joint operation office with Shanghai RuiMin Law Firm. Why would an institution nearly 300 years old feel the need, right now, to rearrange its identity in China?

对一家总部在伦敦、历史可追溯到 18 世纪的律所而言，这笔交易并不特别。特别的是交易背后那层关系：富而德在中国大陆执业，靠的是两个在司法部备案的代表处，以及 2025 年才落地的一项制度安排——与上海锐敏律师事务所的联营办公室。一家近三百年的老牌机构，为什么还要在当下重新安排它在中国的身份？

Beginning with a Bank of England appointment

从英格兰银行的一纸任命开始

Freshfields dates its own starting point to 1743. That year, the lawyer Samuel Dodd was appointed solicitor to the Bank of England, and the bank’s legal work continued from there, becoming the “origin” story the firm cites to this day. Going back further, its English predecessor can be traced to about 1716, when Thomas Woodford began to practice; in 1730 William Wall took over the business, and in 1743 it passed to Samuel Dodd. This practice relationship, sustained across three generations, is why the institution can tell its history back to nearly 300 years.

富而德把自己的起点定在 1743 年。那一年，律师 Samuel Dodd 被任命为英格兰银行的律师，这家银行的法务事务自此一路延续下来，成为富而德迄今引以为据的”起点”叙述。若再往前追溯，它的英国前身可以接续到约 1716 年 Thomas Woodford 开始执业；1730 年 William Wall 接手了这份业务，1743 年又传到 Samuel Dodd 手中。这份延续了三代的执业关系，是这家机构能把自己的历史讲到近三百年前的原因。

What gave the firm its “Freshfield” name was James William Freshfield, who joined as a partner in 1801. Over the following 200 years the name changed as partners came and went: Freshfield & Son in 1825, Freshfields & Williams from 1876 to 1898, briefly Freshfields & Leese from 1918 to 1921, and in 1927 the last Freshfield family member retired — yet the surname stayed on the signboard. For an institution built on a surname, the name is its most durable asset.

真正让这个所冠上”富而德”之名的，是 1801 年入伙的 James William Freshfield。此后两百年里，所名随合伙人进出几经更替：1825 年称 Freshfield & Son，1876 到 1898 年叫 Freshfields & Williams，1918 到 1921 年短暂用过 Freshfields & Leese，1927 年最后一位 Freshfield 家族成员退休，姓氏却留在了招牌上。对一家以姓氏立身的机构而言，名字是它最耐久的资产。

Today’s full name was assembled in 2000. That year, the British Freshfields merged with two German firms, Deringer Tessin Herrmann & Sedemund and Bruckhaus Westrick Heller Löber, to form Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. The firm’s website describes the merger as having “formally established Freshfields as a firm without borders.” More than twenty years later, the 2024 rebranding dropped “Bruckhaus Deringer” from the legal name, leaving only Freshfields — a shorter, easier name.

富而德今天这个完整名字，是 2000 年拼出来的。那一年，英国 Freshfields 与德国两家律所 Deringer Tessin Herrmann & Sedemund、Bruckhaus Westrick Heller Löber 合并，组成 Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer。官网把这次合并描述为”把富而德正式确立为一家无国界的所”。二十多年后，2024 年品牌更名又把 “Bruckhaus Deringer” 从法律名称里拿掉，只留下 Freshfields——一个更短、也更好认的名字。

30 years in China, from representative office to joint operation

在华三十年，从代表处到联营

Freshfields entered mainland China far later, and far more cautiously, than it expanded globally.

富而德进入中国大陆，比它的全球扩张要晚得多，也克制得多。

Ministry of Justice filings show that the Beijing representative office of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP was approved on June 26, 1996, and the Shanghai office on February 20, 1998; the current chief representative is Alan Wang. From the outset, both offices were bounded in nature: as an international firm licensed in China, it may only provide information about the Chinese legal environment, and may not practice Chinese law as a domestic firm. Freshfields states this boundary plainly in its own website legal notice.

司法部备案显示，英国富而德律师事务所驻北京代表处的批准设立日期是 1996 年 6 月 26 日，驻上海代表处是 1998 年 2 月 20 日，现任首席代表为王庆（Alan Wang）。两个代表处的性质，从一开始就是有边界的：作为在华有执业许可的国际律所，它只能提供关于中国法律环境的信息，不得以中国律所身份从事中国法律事务。这层边界，富而德在自己的官网法律声明里写得很直白。

What actually changed the boundary was April 2025. That year, Freshfields and Shanghai RuiMin Law Firm were approved by the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Justice to establish a joint operation office, operating under the co-brand “Freshfields RuiMin.” The point of the joint operation is that Chinese-law services are provided by RuiMin, a firm with PRC qualifications, while Freshfields gains access, through the joint operation, to the business it could not reach before. As the firm’s website puts it: “Under the co-brand of ‘Freshfields RuiMin,’ the Joint Operation can engage directly with PRC regulators and offer formal Chinese law advice to both international and Chinese clients.”

真正改变边界的是 2025 年 4 月。这一年，富而德与上海锐敏律师事务所获上海市司法局批准设立联营办公室，以”锐敏富而德”联合品牌运营。联营的意义在于：中国法服务由具备中国执业资格的锐敏律所提供，而富而德通过这个联合体接入了它此前够不到的那一部分业务。官网的表述是”通过以’锐敏富而德’为品牌的联营，联营办公室可代表客户直接对接中国监管机构，为国际及国内客户提供中国法律服务”。

From representative office to joint operation took nearly thirty years. This slowness is out of step with Freshfields’ pace elsewhere in Asia-Pacific, but it matches the rhythm with which China has drawn the boundaries of foreign firms’ practice. For foreign firms, a joint operation office is not new — Shanghai Free Trade Zone’s joint operation pilot began around 2015, and many international firms have already set one up. Freshfields joined the queue in April 2025, not ahead of the pack, but having avoided some of the early institutional fumbling.

从代表处到联营，中间隔着将近三十年。这种慢，与富而德在亚太其他市场的节奏并不一致，却与中国对外国律所执业边界的设定节奏吻合。对外资律所而言，联营办公室不是新名词——上海自贸区的联营试点自 2015 年前后启动，已有多家国际律所落地。富而德在 2025 年 4 月加入这一队列，时间上并不领先，但也因此少走了些早期制度磨合的弯路。

Landmark matters are another window on it. In the October 2026 Dongshan Precision listing, Freshfields’ role is clearly stated — advising the issuer on Hong Kong and U.S. law and international sanctions, led by partners Howie Farn and David Yi, with Haiwen acting as the issuer’s PRC counsel. In that transaction, Freshfields was one of the international counsel on the issuer’s side. A single deal spanning Hong Kong compliance, U.S. securities law and cross-border sanctions naturally falls to a firm familiar with multi-jurisdictional rules — and it was Freshfields’ first heavyweight Hong Kong IPO answer after its Shanghai joint operation took shape in April 2025.

标志性项目是观察它的另一扇窗。2026 年 10 月的东山精密上市，富而德的角色写得很清楚——就香港与美国法律、国际制裁事务为发行人提供顾问，由 Howie Farn、David Yi 两位合伙人带队，海问担任发行人境内法律顾问。在这笔交易里，富而德是发行人一侧的国际法律顾问之一。一笔交易同时横跨港股合规、美国证券法与跨境制裁三个敏感面，承办角色自然落到熟悉多辖区规则的富而德头上——这正是它 2025 年 4 月落地上海联营之后，交出的第一张重量级港股 IPO 答卷。

Dongshan Precision was not an isolated case. Freshfields’ China practice has long tracked Hong Kong listings and cross-border M&A; in the Chambers Greater China Region 2026 guide, Freshfields is ranked Band 1 in both Corporate/M&A: The Elite and Financial Services.

东山精密这一单并非孤例。富而德的中国区业务长期贴着港股上市与跨境并购走，Chambers Greater China Region 2026 榜单中，富而德的 Corporate/M&A: The Elite 与 Financial Services 两个领域都列在 Band 1。

The core of a “borderless” firm

一家”无国界”所的内核

Freshfields is one of the five “Magic Circle” firms in the United Kingdom, alongside Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance, Linklaters and Slaughter and May. The term appeared in legal journals around the late 1990s and later became fixed, referring to the handful of London commercial firms of leading size and influence. Freshfields is often ranked first in “longest history.”

富而德是英国”魔术圈”（Magic Circle）五家律所之一，另外四家是安理、高伟绅、年利达和司力达。这个说法约在 1990 年代末出现于法律期刊，后来固定下来，指代伦敦几家规模与影响力居前的商业律所。富而德常被排在”历史最久”的位置上。

From public materials, the firm’s emphasis on “borderlessness” runs through its self-narrative. The website describes the post-2000 Freshfields as “a firm without borders,” and sets the keywords of the past fifty years as “expansion, integration and decisive decisions.” The current senior partner, Georgia Dawson, was announced as the choice for the post in September 2020; before that she led the Asia-Pacific practice — a firm run by someone from an Asian practice is itself an observable signal.

从公开材料看，富而德对”无国界”的强调贯穿它的自我叙述。官网把 2000 年合并后的富而德描述为”一家没有边界的所”，把过去五十年的关键词定为”扩张、整合与果决的决定”。现任掌门人 Georgia Dawson 于 2020 年 9 月被宣布为这一职位的人选，此前她负责的是亚太业务——由一位出身亚洲业务的人执掌一家伦敦老所，这本身是一个可观察的信号。

In scale, the website’s latest figures are “more than 2,800 lawyers, more than 5,700 staff, 33 offices,” covering 107 nationalities and 71 languages. These numbers come from different pages at different times and are not fully consistent in their basis, but the direction is clear: this is an institution that treats “multi-jurisdictional” as its bedrock. A firm that can keep “one voice” across dozens of offices — that is the footing Freshfields repeatedly stresses, and the part hardest to replicate.

规模上，官网给出的最新口径是”2,800 多名律师、5,700 多名员工、33 个办公室”，覆盖 107 个国籍、71 种语言。这些数字属于不同页面、不同时间点，口径并不完全一致，但方向是清楚的：这是一家把”多辖区”当作基本盘的机构。一家所能在几十个办公室之间保持”一个声音”——这是富而德反复强调的立身之本，也是它最难被复制的部分。

The boundary remains, and so do the challenges

边界还在，挑战也在

For Freshfields, what really pulls at it is precisely the two words it values most — “global” and “local.”

对富而德而言，真正拉扯它的，恰恰是它最看重的那两个词——”全球”与”本地”。

Public information shows it is doubling down on the U.S. market. Georgia Dawson said in 2024 that it was considering expansion into Texas, Boston and elsewhere. The United States is a heavyweight in legal-services revenue, and a market Freshfields, as a Magic Circle firm, has long wanted to strengthen.

公开信息显示，它正在加码美国市场。Georgia Dawson 在 2024 年表态，考虑在得克萨斯州、波士顿等地扩张。美国是法律服务收入的重镇，也是富而德作为”魔术圈”所长期想补强的一块。

On the China side, the boundary tightens in the opposite direction. The restriction barring foreign firms from practicing Chinese law has not relaxed; a joint operation is the most practical arrangement it can make within the system. Freshfields’ own website statement on its China practice reads like a list of “what it can and cannot do” — a compliance statement, but also an honest drawing of its own boundaries.

在中国一侧，边界则反向收紧。外国律所在华不得从事中国法律事务的限制没有松动，联营是它能在制度内做出的最实际的安排。富而德官网对自身在华执业范围的说明，读起来像一份”能做什么、不能做什么”的清单——这既是合规声明，也如实划出了它的能力边界。

If U.S. expansion goes well, Freshfields’ center of gravity may tilt further toward the transatlantic; if its China business continues to rely on the single channel of the joint operation, its competitiveness there will depend on whether the joint operation with RuiMin can actually run smoothly.

若美国扩张顺利，富而德的业务重心可能进一步向跨大西洋倾斜；若中国业务继续依赖联营这一单一通道，它在华的竞争力将取决于与锐敏这个联合体能否真正跑顺。

Worth noting too is a dispute that has been publicly reported. According to Wikipedia and other third-party records, German prosecutors twice searched Freshfields’ Frankfurt office from 2017, in an investigation involving “cum-ex” transactions; in November 2019, a former Freshfields lawyer, Ulf Johannemann, was sentenced to prison. For an institution built on compliance and reputation, such records are a reminder: the larger the global scale, the harder it is to manage risk exposure in every jurisdiction.

值得一提的还有一桩被公开报道过的争议。据维基百科等第三方资料记载，德国检方自 2017 年起两次搜查过富而德在法兰克福的办公室，调查涉及”累计超额退税”（cum-ex）交易；2019 年 11 月，富而德一名前律师 Ulf Johannemann 被判入狱。对一家以合规与声誉立身的机构而言，这类记录提醒的是：全球化的规模越大，每一个辖区的风险敞口也越难集中管理。

Taking the long view, a firm that began in 1743 with a Bank of England appointment has come this far not through a single moment of eruption, but by repeatedly adjusting its position relative to the institutions of the places where it operates. So for 300 years — and so for its 30 years in China.

把时间拉长看，一家 1743 年靠英格兰银行一纸任命起家的律所，能走到今天，靠的不是某个时刻的爆发，而是反复调整自身与所在地制度之间的位置。三百年如此，在华三十年也如此。