Fang Xue

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Fang Xue is Chief Representative of the Beijing office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP. She is a member of the firm’s Corporate Department and its Mergers & Acquisitions and Private Equity practice groups.

Ms. Xue has broad-based corporate and commercial experience. She has represented Chinese and international corporations and private equity funds in cross-border acquisitions, private equity transactions, stock and asset transactions, joint ventures, going private transactions, tender offers and venture capital transactions, including many landmark deals among those.

Ms. Xue previously worked at Shearman & Sterling LLP where she spent four years in the New York office and two years in the Hong Kong office, prior to moving to Beijing in 2009.

Ms. Xue is a frequent speaker on topics relating to cross-border and going private transactions, and is regularly interviewed and quoted by main-stream business publications. She is fluent in English and a native speaker of Mandarin Chinese.

Ms. Xue received her Juris Doctor, magna cum laude, from Duke University School of Law, where she served as Research Editor of the Law and Contemporary Problems and was a member of the Order of the Coif. She was also the recipient of 2003 Faculty Award for Outstanding Achievement in Business Organization and Finance. She received her Bachelor of Arts in International Business, magna cum laude, from Ocean University of Qingdao, and her L.L.M degree from University of International Business and Economics. She is admitted to practice in the State of New York and is qualified to practice in China.

Ms. Xue was named to the shortlist for the “Best in M&A and Private Equity” category of the Euromoney Legal Media Group Asia Woman in Business Law Awards 2016. She has been recognized as a “Notable Practitioner” in the 2018 and 2019 editions of Euromoney’s IFLR1000 financial & corporate legal rankings. She is also listed as a “Recognized Lawyer” in the 2019 edition of Chambers Asia-Pacific.

Ms. Xue published an article “Recent Trends and Issues in Outbound Acquisitions by Chinese Companies” in December 2016, on Thomson Reuters’ The M&A Lawyer, a monthly newsletter specializing in mergers/acquisitions law, corporate governance and antitrust issues.

Firm Description

In May 1872, a tall, 34-year-old, red-bearded lawyer stepped down from the stagecoach at the Plaza of Los Angeles. Corporate attorney John Bicknell had his sights on building a law practice. What greeted him at the stage was a humble little pueblo with dusty unpaved streets, no industry and scant business.

The narrow streets and alleys ran between decrepit adobe buildings roofed with “brea” from tar pits west of the city. Bicknell had summed up his philosophy this way when counselling a younger lawyer: “The safe way is to select a business that you will be satisfied to follow and build up a business of your own.” He began to follow his own advice. By the 1880s, he had attracted one of the region’s most important clients, the Southern Pacific Railroad.

It took time to select a quality partner. But in 1890, Bicknell, a Republican, teamed with Walter Trask, a Democratic litigator, thus launching the unbroken chain of partnership that today is Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. Also launched was a set of unique firm attributes. Those included selecting only quality lawyers; balancing ideas across the political spectrum; and providing powerful resources in both transactional and litigation-related legal services. More than a century later, these attributes still define today’s Gibson Dunn.

In 1897 Judge James Gibson joined the firm, thus instituting another Gibson Dunn tradition – hiring lawyers who make an impact in their communities. In 1903, in a move that created the largest firm in Los Angeles, Bicknell, Trask and Gibson merged their practice with that of former Los Angeles City Attorney William Dunn and former Assistant City Attorney Albert Crutcher. Carried out at the behest of a client in order to create a “full-service” firm, the combination was called an “experiment” in the local press. It has worked ever since. Nearly 100 years later, the press would dub the firm “The Rescue Squad” for its response and service to clients in legal need. Another article remarked that it remains easier to get into the CIA than to become a lawyer at Gibson Dunn.

The firm grew as the region grew, into both Northern and Southern California, and both nationally and internationally. By the 1970s, Gibson Dunn had offices in London and Paris. Shortly thereafter, the firm took the bold step of launching its practice in the nation’s capital and New York. Since 2000, the firm has further expanded in Europe, South America, the Middle East and Asia. As John Bicknell might say, the firm has “built up a business,” based on those attributes of quality, balance and impact and on an unrelenting mission of achieving success for clients – a mission shared today by more than 1,200 lawyers worldwide.