HURUN RESEARCH INSTITUTE RELEASES THE HURUN LEGAL · GREATER CHINA'S PREEMINENT RECOMMENDED LAW FIRMS TOP 100 2026

AVERAGE OF 1,400 LAWYERS AND PROVIDING SERVICES ACROSS AN AVERAGE OF 12 CITIES

KING & WOOD MALLESONS TOPS THE LIST, ADVISOR FOR 40 OF THE CHINA CSI 300 INDEX, FOLLOWED BY GRANDALL.

ZHONG LUN 3RD

TOP 10 PROVIDE ONGOING LEGAL ADVISORY SERVICES TO 186 OF THE CHINA CSI 300 ENTERPRISES

HEADQUARTERS CONCENTRATED IN BEIJING (50) AND SHANGHAI (19), FOLLOWED BY SHENZHEN (5) AND HANGZHOU (4)

(1 November 2025, Shanghai) Hurun Research Institute today released the Hurun Legal · Greater China's Preeminent Recommended Law Firms TOP 100 2026, a ranking of the best performing law firms in Greater China, based on their client service and experiences. This is the first year of this list.

Hurun would like to thank leading China legal industry platform Intelligeast Research Institute for its data support.

Hurun Legal · Greater China's Preeminent Recommended Law Firms TOP 100 aims to help China’s leading corporates and high net worth families identify leading law firms in the field of corporate governance, domestic and cross-border listings, M&A and corporate restructuring. On average, these firms have been practicing for 26 years, across 12 cities and employ 1,424 lawyers. They provide legal advisory work for China CSI 300 enterprises worth CNY 60tn, equivalent to US$8tn.

Hurun Legal · Greater China's Preeminent Recommended Law Firms TOP 100 was based on three key criteria: professional competence in areas such as IPO services, ongoing legal counsel for major listed companies, and complex transaction projects; service support capabilities, including firm size and geographic coverage; and client satisfaction.

This is a brief translation from the original Chinese-language press release, which can be found on www.hurun.net.

Rupert Hoogewerf, Hurun Founder, Chairman and Chief Researcher, said:

“Hurun Report has been providing rankings on China's most influential entrepreneurs and businesses through its lists and research since 1999, centered around the Hurun China Rich List, Hurun Unicorn Index and Hurun China 500. These large-scale, highly complex businesses place the most stringent professional demands on legal advisors. The Hurun Legal · Greater China's Preeminent Recommended Law Firms TOP 100 is designed to help these corporates and individuals choose their law firms.”

“I would like to thank our exclusive research partner Intelligeast Research Institute, a leading legal ecosystem platform in China, who helped us whittle down the 45,000 law firms in China to a list of just 100.”

“Hurun is planning to expand the Hurun Legal · Greater China's Preeminent Recommended Law Firms TOP 100 to include individual lawyers, of which there are 830,000 practicing in China, and the China desks of law firms assisting Chinese companies expanding overseas.”

“King & Wood Mallesons provides ongoing legal advisory services to 40 of the China CSI 300, including ICBC and Kweichow Moutai. The firm has established the Belt and Road International Cooperation and Promotion Center, offering comprehensive legal support for major overseas projects such as the China-Laos Railway. It serves not only as a legal service provider to top enterprises but also as a strategic partner in their globalization journey.”

“Jingtian & Gongcheng enjoys strong recognition in the Hong Kong stock market. Leveraging its international presence, the firm has positioned itself to act as legal counsel for both Chinese mainland and Hong Kong matters for issuers, delivering integrated and efficient services that reduce clients’ communication costs and mitigate potential risks. Its track record of advising on successful early Hong Kong listings – including companies like Yum China and Nongfu Spring – serves as a key reference for enterprises selecting legal advisors for HK IPOs.”

“AllBright Law Offices maintains a concentrated focus on A-share IPO services, consistently aligning with the reform trajectory of China’s capital markets. The firm has actively expanded its presence across emerging sectors and registration-based system pilot programs, including the STAR Market and ChiNext Board. Notable involvement in landmark projects such as SMIC’s return to the STAR Market and Jinhua New Materials’ listing on the Beijing Stock Exchange demonstrates its professional expertise in these key domains.”

“The capital market has been particularly active this year, with both the number of IPOs and the scale of fundraising showing growth. The professional legal services provided by law firms have offered robust support for this trend. Taking the A-share market as an example, 78 companies successfully went public in the first three quarters, with total IPO funds raised exceeding CNY77bn.”

“The Hurun Legal · Greater China's Preeminent Recommended Law Firms TOP 10 provide ongoing legal advisory services to 186 of the China CSI 300 Index, with a total value of CNY40tn or 65% of the index. This reflects the ‘continuous service value’ that leading law firms deliver to high-quality listed corporates, led by the likes of King & Wood Mallesons servicing 40 of the CSI Index and followed by Grandall Law Firm, servicing 25.”

“Local knowledge really helps. For instance, China Zheshang Bank, headquartered in Hangzhou, uses Hangzhou-based T&C Law Firm, while Vanke, headquartered in Shenzhen, uses Shenzhen-based Sundial Law Firm.”

“China’s richest families and individuals need the services of law firms to help with structuring family offices and trusts, thereby providing legal safeguards for asset protection and intergenerational wealth transfer.”

“As China’s corporates ‘go global’, law firms can expect to play an increasingly critical role, helping them navigate complex challenges such as global regulations, ESG standards, and emerging technologies like artificial intelligence.”

Hong Zuyun, Founder, Chairman of the Board, and Chief Executive Officer of Intelligeast, stated:

“Intelligeast has been deeply rooted in the legal services industry for over a decade, consistently dedicated to the observation and research of the legal market. We are delighted to collaborate with Hurun Research Institute, the most authoritative enterprise ranking research institution in China, to recommend the most outstanding law firms from China to exceptional enterprises worldwide.

From our perspective, the ‘Hurun Legal Ranking’ distinguishes itself from all similar rankings in the market by leveraging Hurun's long-accumulated resources of high-net-worth entrepreneurs and profound market insights. It evaluates the true value of legal services from an enterprise's viewpoint, deeply aligning with the actual operational context of Chinese entrepreneurs. The ranking is fundamentally based on the comprehensive service experience throughout the enterprise lifecycle and measurable commercial value feedback, creating a service evaluation guide that genuinely meets the commercial and legal needs of Chinese entrepreneurs.

We also look forward to continuing our collaboration with Hurun Research Institute to amplify China's voice in the global legal services evaluation and rating domain, proposing Chinese standards. This will enable Chinese enterprises in the wave of global expansion to precisely connect with partners who possess professional capabilities, legal foresight, and strategic guidance, ensuring their steady progress in both local deepening and global expansion.”

Geographical Distribution

50 of the Hurun Legal · Greater China's Preeminent Recommended Law Firms TOP 100 is headquartered in Beijing, followed by Shanghai with 19.

Beijing.A headquarter hub for leading domestic law firms. Its service portfolio is comprehensive, covering traditional legal fields such as criminal, civil, and administrative law, while also leading in high-end practice areas including cross-border legal services, intellectual property, and financial securities. Its primary client base consists of central government ministries, large state-owned enterprises, multinational corporation headquarters, and renowned investment institutions.

Shanghai.Distinguished by its focus on financial markets, international trade, and cross-border legal services. The city is notably internationalized, hosting representative offices of numerous foreign law firms. It leads the country in the number of foreign-related law firms and legal practitioners.

Shenzhen.A key legal services base for the technology sector and capital markets. Innovation-driven legal practices are highly active, with strong demand for emerging legal services in areas like data compliance, new energy, and biomedicine. Its clientele is primarily composed of high-tech companies, startups, private equity/venture capital firms, and listed companies.

Hangzhou.A representative hub for internet judiciary and digital governance. As the political and economic center of Zhejiang Province, it has emerged as a frontier for law firms developing practices in data compliance, platform governance, and tech finance, benefiting from regional innovation in strategic emerging industries such as biomedicine, information software, and advanced intelligent manufacturing.

Hurun Legal · Greater China's Preeminent Recommended Law Firms TOP 100 2026 Top 5

IPO services for A-Shares

Between January and September 2025, 78 companies completed A-share IPOs, raising over CNY 77bn. This represents a 13% increase in the number of listings and a 61% surge in total funds raised compared to the same period last year, which saw 69 listings. In terms of legal advisors, AllBright Law Offices led the pack by serving 13 of these issuers, followed by Grandall Law Firm with 8.

IPO services for HK

Between January and September 2025, there were 68 Hong Kong IPO listings, representing a 45% year-on-year increase. The total funds raised reached HKD 187.7 billion, 2.4 times the amount raised in the same period last year. Among the law firms serving these companies, Jingtian & Gongcheng led by advising 33 issuers. Commerce & Finance followed, ranking second with 23, while JunHe ranked third with 16.

Legal Advisors to the CSI 300

As of 30 September 2025, the total market capitalization of the CSI 300 constituent companies was CNY62tn. Among law firms, King & Wood Mallesons served the most of these leading enterprises, with 40. Jia Yuan Law Offices followed, ranked second with 28, while Grandall Law Firm was third.

Geographical Distribution

Half of the listed firms established a presence in more than 10 provinces or direct-administered municipalities, while 22% cover over 20 such cities.

Number of Lawyers

Large-size with 5,000 or more employees account for a mere 4% of the total. Nearly 60% of the law firms fell within the mid-size range of 500 to 2,000 employees, while smaller firms with fewer than 500 employees made up 24% of the Hurun Legal · Greater China's Preeminent Recommended Law Firms TOP 100 2026.

Methodology

The Hurun Legal · Greater China's Preeminent Recommended Law Firms TOP 100 2026 is based publicly available data and specialized research. The study focuses exclusively on domestic Chinese law firms.

Based from the perspective of corporate clients, the list is designed to help corporates and high net worth families identify the 100 most trustworthy law firms. The Hurun Research Institute evaluated firms based on their professional competence (including capabilities in domestic and cross-border IPOs, legal advisory services for CSI 300 companies, and major asset restructurings), service support capacity (such as firm size and geographical coverage), and client satisfaction, followed by comprehensive consolidation and ranking.

The specific evaluation dimensions are as follows:

(1)IPO Service Capability Index:The number of successful listing projects on the A-share and Hong Kong stock markets assisted by the law firm.

(2)CSI 300 Legal Advisor Index:The number of CSI 300 enterprises for which the law firm serves as legal counsel and the total market capitalization of these corresponding enterprises.

(3)Major Asset Restructuring Index for Listed Companies:The number of major asset restructuring projects for companies listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges handled by the law firm.

(4)Scale Index:The total number of personnel in the law firm (including branch offices).

(5)Service Coverage Index:The number of provincial capitals/municipalities directly under the central government where the law firm has a presence.

(6)Client Evaluation Metric:Scores collected through specialized research questionnaires, gathering feedback from listed companies on the legal services received.

Information Sources: Include, but are not limited to, WIND, iFinD database, official websites of the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges, China Law Info, the 2024 annual reports of listed companies, corporate IPO prospectuses, and other public authoritative channels. The data collection period was from 1 January to 30 September 2025.

Hurun Legal · Greater China's Preeminent Recommended Law Firms TOP 100 2026

Shanghai Intelligeast Network Technology Co., Ltd.

Shanghai Intelligeast Network Technology Co., Ltd. (referred to as "Intelligeast") was founded in 2014 and is a leading enterprise in China's legal technology, education, and information services sector. The company owns multiple brands including "Zhihe AI", "Zhihe Standard Center", "Zhi10" and "Bangshang". With AI technology as its core engine, it builds a technology-driven ecological platform for the legal industry.

Driven by the dual cores of "intelligent technology" and "professionalism", Intelligeast Company provides efficient and reliable legal technology products and services to law firms, legal and compliance departments of large and medium-sized enterprises, a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises, and legal professionals. Its core services cover multiple areas of support, such as case efficiency improvement, compliance risk control, workflow optimization, as well as think tank research, brand credibility enhancement, continuing education, and AI marketing. In addition, the "Zhihe Standard Center" focuses on standard formulation and consulting services in fields including corporate compliance, artificial intelligence, data elements, enterprise globalization, ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) and sustainable development, helping enterprises address complex compliance challenges.

With the vision of "being an accelerator for China's rule of law progress", Intelligeast adheres to the mission of "empowering legal inclusion with AI and advancing the rule of law with technology", upholds the philosophy of "being sincere and seeking self-improvement", and practices the values of "kindness is more important than intelligence, customer-centricity, taking strivers as the foundation, and persisting in continuous innovation". It continuously promotes the intelligent transformation of the legal industry and empowers the new generation of AI solutions for the legal industry.

About Hurun Inc.

Promoting Entrepreneurship Through Lists and Research

Oxford, Shanghai, Mumbai

Established in the United Kingdom in 1999, Hurun is a research and media group, promoting entrepreneurship through its lists and research. Widely regarded as an opinion-leader in the world of business, Hurun generated 8 billion views on the Hurun brand in 2024, mainly in China and India, and recently expanding to the UK, US, Canada and Australia.

Best-known for the Hurun Rich List series, telling the stories of the world’s successful entrepreneurs in China, India and the world, Hurun’s other key series focus on young businesses and entrepreneurs, through the Hurun Unicorns Index, two Hurun Future Unicorns indices, the Hurun Uth series and the Hurun Pioneers series.

Hurun has grown to become the world’s largest list compiler for start-ups, ranking over 3000 start-ups across the world through its annual Hurun Global Unicorns Index (startups with a valuation of US$1bn+), and two Hurun Future Unicorn Indexes: Gazelles, most likely to ‘go unicorn’ within three years, and Cheetahs, most likely to ‘go unicorn’ within five years.

The Hurun Pioneering Young Startups and Entrepreneurs series focuses on startups set up within the last ten years and founders aged 45 or under.

The Hurun Uth series includes the Under25s, Under30s, Under35s and Under40s awards, representing the cream of each generation of young entrepreneurs who have founded businesses with a social impact and worth US$1m, US$10m, US$50m and US$100m respectively.

Other lists include the Hurun 500 series, ranking the most valuable companies in the world, China and India, the Hurun Global High Schools List, ranking the world’s best independent high schools, the Hurun Philanthropy List, ranking the biggest philanthropists and the Hurun Art List, ranking the world’s most successful artists alive today.

Hurun provides research reports co-branded with some of the world’s leading financial institutions and regional governments.

Hurun hosts high-profile events across China and India, as well as London, Paris, New York, LA, Toronto, Vancouver, Sydney, Luxembourg, Istanbul, Dubai and Singapore.

For further information, see www.hurun.net.

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