About Us
About Us – Evolution, Ownership & Market Position
A Business Opportunity Captured
The Problems:
- Western lawyers aren’t allowed to practice in most parts of Asia.
- Asian lawyers fluent in European languages are hard to find and charge a massive premium.
- Most local lawyers are not trained in the Western concepts of customer service and project management.
The Solution:
AsiaBridge Law carefully screens, trains and coordinates a network of local lawyers across Asia. Lawyers are selected for the right mix of professionalism, honesty and affordability.
AsiaBridge Law paralegals coordinate local lawyers on behalf of the AsiaBridge Law clients while providing account management in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian, Russian and other major languages.
Not only does AsiaBridge Law provide a superior customer service experience, but AsiaBridge Law leverages its case load in Asia to secure preferential fees and can offer clients a lower rate than if the client was invoiced direct from the local lawyers.
Market Position
Large multinational firms headquartered in places like New York and London, with offices or partners in China that target large clients with large bank accounts.
At the other end of the spectrum, there are lots of local lawyers in Asia who are very professional and affordable, yet they lack the foreign language, project management and customer service skills to successfully engage overseas clients.
The name says it all, “AsiaBridge Law” was created to bridge this gap and provide high-end international service at a local price.
Recent Posts
Ownership
“AsiaBridge Law” (ABL) is a registered trade name of QTP (HK) Ltd. and part of the PassageMaker family of companies.
Corporate Milestones
For almost 20 years, companies in the PassageMaker have been serving as a bridge to Asia for international clients in the fields of sourcing, manufacturing, logistics and engineering. During that time, the group’s flagship company, PassageMaker Sourcing Solutions was often asked by international client coordinate local lawyers to draft contracts, structure deals, conduct due diligence, register IP, enforce IP rights and even take Chinese suppliers to court when contract terms were violated.
In 2010, A Guangdong-based Chinese law firm was retained by the PassageMaker to represent the group and its clients.
In 2012, sensing an under-served market for international business and individuals seeking legal support in China, additional lawyers were added to the team and AsiaBridge Law was created to provide professional, yet affordable, legal support in China
In 2013, AsiaBridge Law’s geographic coverage included all of China/Hong Kong and the service coverage expanded to Dispute Resolution, Due Diligence, Intellectual Property (IP), Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), Labor Law, International Trade (import/export), Human Resources, Real Estate, Crisis Management, Debt Collection, Family Law & Estate Planning.
In 2014, AsiaBridge Law expanded its coverage area outside of Mainland China and began to provide legal support in South East Asia, mainly in the fields of international trade, FDI, Real Estate and Family law, and mainly in Thailand at that time.
In 2015, sales and customer service was provided in English, Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, French and Russian.
In 2018, to our pleasant surprise, our case load increased as friction heated up between China and the US due to the ongoing “trade war”.
Pandemic of 2020, as the majority of our team works remotely, Covid-19 had minimal impact on our operations. While courts were temporarily closed in China at the peak of the pandemic, by late 2020 the legal system was fully operational with court cases, IP registration and due diligence moving forward as normal.
During 2020, 2021 & 2022, the strict quarantine policies in China, ongoing global trade friction, inflation back home, Xinjiang human rights abuses, crack down on Hong Kong democracy, shift towards authoritarianism and political fallout resulting from Beijing’s alignment with Putin all added up to create a business environment where “the juice of doing business in China is no longer worth the squeeze” in the eyes of many small to medium sized international businesses. This mentality among potential clients had a dramatic impact on AsiaBridge Law’s billings. Our loss recovery, debt collection and litigation projects increased while contract drafting, Intellectual Property registration, general counsel and due diligence declined to the point that the business was no longer sustainable.
By 2023 the majority of staff have been furloughed and the physical operations mothballed while the website, business advisory services, China business guides and tutorials remain active.
Legal services are still being conducted on behalf of international clients, but billing takes place directly between the English-speaking lawyers in China and the international clients.
At present, AsiaBridge Law is essentially a referral service to reputable Chinese lawyers who continue to service new and existing clients.
If you are in need of legal support in China, simply fill out the contact us form and we will put you in touch (free of charge) with an affordable, reputable, fully-licensed lawyer in China.
In this short video, Mike introduces AsiaBridge Law and talks about our history.
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