Eastern European law firm makes China debut in Qianhai

The Kubas, Kos, Galkowski-Adwokaci Spolka Komandytowa Shenzhen Representative Office (Poland) will be the first office in China set up by an Eastern European law firm.

Founded in 1995, the firm is one of Poland’s largest full-service practices. It is known for its strengths in international arbitration, commercial litigation, and financial legal matters.

An aerial view of Shenzhen. Sun Yuchen

Spanning the banking, energy, transportation, and technology sectors, its clients include global corporations such as Crédit Agricole (one of France’s leading banks and insurers), PKN Orlen (a major oil company in Central and Eastern Europe), and Deutsche Bahn (Germany’s national railway operator). The firm also provides cross-border legal services to several leading Chinese enterprises.

Since 2023, China has given 17 foreign law firms approval to open representative offices in China. Eight of those have chosen Shenzhen, accounting for nearly half the total.

Insiders say strong demand from Shenzhen companies seeking to expand overseas has become a key draw for internationally renowned law firms.

Shenzhen has the highest concentration of market entities and enterprises in China. In the first half of 2025, private companies accounted for 69.8% of Shenzhen’s total foreign trade.

Many private enterprises have limited risk-resilience when operating abroad, increasing the need for proactive, high-quality legal support on foreign-related matters. They commonly face challenges such as differing national legal systems, complex cross-border M&A procedures, asset valuation issues, and government approval processes.

Shenzhen’s favorable business environment and its role as a pioneer in legal-service pilot reforms have also helped attract foreign firms.

Since 2014, the city has run a pilot program allowing partnerships between mainland and Hong Kong and Macao law firms. Shenzhen now hosts 17 such partnerships, the largest number on the mainland.

In recent years, the pilot program has been expanded to include partnerships between Chinese and foreign law firms.The first Sino-foreign joint office in Guangdong was established in Qianhai in 2024.

Qianhai is currently the only region in Guangdong approved to pilot joint ventures between Chinese and foreign law firms. The pilot program is intended to combine the strengths of domestic and foreign firms to offer more comprehensive, high-quality, one-stop legal services to clients at home and abroad.