Fangda: Litigation, Arbitration and Transactions, Brought Together as One Firm / 方达：把诉讼、仲裁和交易拧成一股绳

On October 27, 2026, Fangda disclosed a matter it had fought for four years: retained by a multinational company on the same dispute, it took the jurisdiction-objection proceedings in mainland China all the way to the Supreme People’s Court’s retrial review, while simultaneously defending 197 parallel SIAC arbitrations in Singapore — and won on both fronts. Four years of grinding, with nearly 200 arbitrations running at once, is itself highly unusual.

2026 年 10 月 27 日，方达公布了一桩打了四年的案子：受一家跨国公司委托，就同一桩争议，它在内地的管辖异议程序一路走到最高人民法院的再审审查，同时把新加坡国际商事仲裁的 197 宗平行案件合并应对，最终两处都赢。四年拉锯、近两百宗仲裁同时进行，这本身就很不寻常。

How can a Chinese law firm advance parallel proceedings in mainland China and Singapore at the same time?

一家中国律所，为何能在内地与新加坡两地同时推进平行程序？

Two lines on one service list

一张清单上的两条线

Fangda was founded in Shanghai in 1993, practicing both mainland law and the law of China’s Hong Kong. The firm describes its own positioning as “a Chinese advantage in resolving complex legal issues and cross-border transactions” — transactions and disputes, onshore and offshore, placed on the same service list.

方达 1993 年成立于上海，既做内地法律，也做中国香港法律。方达自己概括为「在解决复杂法律问题和跨境交易方面的中国优势」——交易与争议、境内与境外，被放进同一张服务清单。

This positioning looks ordinary today, but in early-1990s Shanghai, a local firm handling both onshore and offshore work was uncommon. From then on, the dispute-resolution and corporate/finance lines ran in parallel, appearing on Fangda’s service list as adjacent entries within a single service system — not two separate departments that first had to be bridged. These two lines converging into one team is precisely the foundation that lets Fangda take on major matters spanning multiple jurisdictions.

这个定位在今天看很平常，但在 1990 年代初的上海，一家本地所同时做境内与境外的业务并不多见。争议解决和公司、金融两条线从那时起并行铺开，列在方达的服务清单上就是相邻的业务条目、属于同一套服务体系，而非两个各自为政、需要先打通的部门。这两条线汇入同一支团队，正是方达能接住横跨多法域大案的基础。

How integration absorbs the big cases

一体化怎么接住大案

Fangda’s dispute-resolution team has nearly 50 partners and more than 220 lawyers across seven offices. The Chambers Greater China Region 2026 guide places it in the top tier (Band 1) for China disputes; Legal 500 Asia Pacific 2026 lists both its arbitration and litigation practices in Tier 1; in Thomson Reuters’ ALB 2026 China Dispute Resolution ranking, it appears among the “Tier 1 firms” in both litigation and arbitration; and Benchmark Litigation China 2026 lists 13 of its lawyers.

方达争议解决团队有近 50 名合伙人、220 多名律师，分布在七个办公室。钱伯斯大中华区 2026 榜把它列在中国律所争议解决第一等级；Legal 500 亚太 2026 把仲裁和诉讼都列在第一等级；汤森路透旗下 ALB 的 2026 中国争议解决排名里，它同时进入诉讼与仲裁两类”一类事务所”；Benchmark Litigation 中国 2026 也有 13 位律师上榜。

These rankings point to the same thing: in complex commercial disputes, the market has repeatedly placed it at the very top tier.

这些评级指向同一件事：在复杂商事争议上，市场已反复把它放在最高一档。

What puts Fangda at that tier is its way of organizing. It adopts a “one-firm” model: the dispute-resolution team forms a working group with lawyers from the firm’s corporate, finance, transactions and investment practices, as the client requires.

方达能站到这一档，靠的是组织方式。它采用”一体化”（one-firm）模式，争议解决团队按客户需要，与本律所公司、金融、交易、投资部门的律师组成一个工作团队。

The essence of integration is not lining up the names of several departments side by side, but that whenever a matter requires it, a disputes partner can call the lead lawyers from transactions and finance into his or her own office to discuss strategy together: the whole matter the client brings is handled by a team of specialists from every field who produce the most comprehensive legal solution, rather than each person handling only one segment.

一体化的关键不在于把几个部门的名字并排列出来，而在于只要案件需要，争议解决合伙人就随时能把交易、金融的主办律师叫进自己的办公室一起讨论对策：客户交来的一整件事，各个领域的专业律师组成一支队伍给出最全面的法律方案，而不是每个人只负责其中一段。

Several of its disputes partners came from the court system: before joining Fangda, Qi Peibing, Gao Na and Heng Shanshan had worked in Chinese courts for 18 years, nearly 10 years and 5 years respectively. Former judges bring professional depth and procedural experience, while the more seasoned lawyers understand how to bring the client’s transactional background into the assessment of a dispute — and the two attributes complement each other. The earlier matter, where the mainland litigation and 197 Singapore arbitrations advanced in parallel, is a microcosm: Fangda was both the lead counsel and the coordinator of the solicitors and barristers in China’s Hong Kong and Singapore, with both tracks advanced by the same team.

它的争议解决合伙人有多位出身法院系统：亓培冰、高娜、衡珊珊在加入方达前，分别在中国法院工作了 18 年、近 10 年和 5 年。前法官带来专业深度和程序经验，资深律师们更了解客户能在研判争议时把交易背景一并考量，二者可谓相得益彰。前面那桩内地诉讼与 197 宗新加坡仲裁平行推进的案子就是个缩影：方达既是牵头法律顾问，又要协调中国香港、新加坡的事务律师与大律师，这两道程序由同一支团队推进。

Public materials show another example — Fangda acted for a Japanese building-materials company in a cross-border dispute that was split into multiple parallel proceedings in Germany, Hong Kong and Luxembourg: a tort claim under German law, a freezing order in Hong Kong, and parallel proceedings in Germany and Luxembourg — all coordinated and advanced by one team.

公开材料里还有另一例 —— 方达代理一家日本建材企业的跨境纠纷，同一桩纠纷在德国、香港、卢森堡拆成多处平行程序：德国法下的侵权诉讼、香港的资产冻结令、以及德国与卢森堡的平行程序，都由一支队伍协调推进。

Fangda also represented a U.S. manufacturer of air-purification equipment in a matter seeking recognition and enforcement in Chinese courts of a U.S. court’s commercial judgment — the second such case in the country. All three matters were advanced cross-jurisdictionally by the same team; litigation, arbitration and cross-border transactions were not split off to different people.

方达还代理过一家美国空气净化设备生产商，向中国法院申请承认与执行美国法院商事判决的案件，这是国内第二起同类案件。三桩案子都由同一支团队跨法域推进，诉讼、仲裁与跨境交易没有拆开交给不同的人办。

Fangda does not compete on size — about 800 lawyers, which is not a large advantage among leading Chinese firms. It follows a boutique path: handing the hardest matters to a cross-practice team, letting a single matter be examined through both litigation and commercial lenses. Measuring the strength of such a firm is not about whether litigation, arbitration and transactions are each strong in isolation, but whether the organization can bring them together into one team and truly form a combined force.

方达不拼规模——约 800 名律师，在头部中国律所中人数并不占很大优势。它走的是精品路线：把最难的案子交给一支跨条线队伍，让一桩案子同时经过诉讼视角和商业视角的审视。衡量这类律所的实力，看的不是诉讼、仲裁、交易各自拆出来够不够强，而是组织能不能把它们并到一支队伍里，真正形成合力。

Taking the capability to Singapore

把能力带到新加坡

Fangda did not confine this cross-jurisdictional coordination capability within the mainland. In 2024, it opened its first office outside China, in Singapore, with dispute resolution among its starting practices. Fangda also brought in disputes partner Zhao Liwen from Mallesons, raising the number of partner-level lawyers in the Singapore office to 12.

方达没有把这套跨法域协同的能力局限在境内。2024 年，它在新加坡开出第一家中国以外的办公室，争议解决是起步业务之一。方达还从 Mallesons 请来争议解决合伙人赵俐温，新加坡办公室的合伙人级别律师增至 12 人。

Chinese clients’ cross-border disputes are spilling outward to Southeast Asia and offshore jurisdictions. In recent years, more than one leading Chinese firm has set up dispute resolution in Singapore, and Fangda is doing the same: following its clients and opening dispute-resolution work in Singapore. Bringing such an international arbitration partner to Singapore also shows that, there, it does not only act as an accompanying counsel for Chinese companies going overseas, but wants to turn this kind of international arbitration into a genuinely local business for Fangda in Singapore.

中国客户的跨境争议正往外溢到东南亚和离岸法域。近年不止一家中国头部律所在新加坡布点争议解决，方达做的也是同一件事：跟着客户，把争议解决业务开到新加坡。把这样一位国际仲裁合伙人请到新加坡，也说明它在新加坡不只做中国企业出海的随行顾问，还想把这类国际仲裁真正做成方达在新加坡的本地化业务。

To replicate the domestic coordination experience overseas exactly, two things must first be in place: local cross-jurisdictional manpower, and deal flow in Southeast Asia that belongs to Fangda itself. Both are things Fangda is accumulating.

要把境内的协同经验原样复制到境外，得先让两样东西就位：本地的跨法域人手，以及东南亚属于自己的案源。这两样，方达正在积累。