Overview
(May 8, 2020, Beijing) — Steptoe & Johnson LLP announced today that Richard Battaglia's application to be the Chief Representative of the firm's Beijing Representative Office has been approved by the Ministry of Justice. Battaglia, who also serves as the managing partner of the office and focuses his practice on international regulation and compliance, was one of two partners who relocated to Beijing in the fall of 2019. Tim Bickham, an intellectual property partner from the firm's Washington office, serves as managing director of the China Intellectual Property and Litigation Groups, while also maintaining his US litigation practice. Steptoe first opened an office in Beijing in the spring of 2010.
Battaglia, who spent more than seven years in Steptoe's Chicago office, provides compliance advice and counseling on anti-corruption, anti-money laundering, export controls and economic sanctions. He also supports the firm's internal investigations, providing guidance on mergers and acquisitions due diligence and corporate best practices across a number of industries. Battaglia joined Steptoe in 2012 following a 35-plus year career at BP America, Inc., where he gained substantial international experience in ex-pat assignments in several international offices and held global responsibility for regulatory compliance.
Bickham, who has traveled to China more than 50 times, provides companies strategic counseling related to their patent portfolios and litigates patent cases in district courts throughout the United States. He represents Chinese companies with patent litigation issues in the US district courts and at the International Trade Commission. Bickham served as the director of external affairs and associate fellow at the Asia Pacific Legal Institute, and has spoken extensively in China on patent matters facing Chinese companies doing business in the United States.
"As we celebrate the 10th anniversary of our Beijing office, the firm remains committed to serving clients in the China and Asian markets," said Steptoe Chair Phil West. "We are delighted that Rich and Tim elected to move their practices half way around the globe to build on the Beijing office's first decade of success. Both have significant international experience that will provide a solid foundation for expanding Steptoe's China facing practices, both in terms of work for inbound and outbound clients."
Steptoe's Beijing office opened in March 2010 and serves as an important locus of the firm's Asia practice, which has been recognized as among the world's best by the legal directory Chambers. Additionally, Steptoe has won the China Law & Practice International Firm of the Year award in trade two times in the past three years. The firm has also received the China Business Law Journal award in international trade every year since 2014, and since 2015, has twice claimed the award in anti-bribery and compliance.
Steptoe's Beijing office is located in China Central Place in the Chaoyang District of Beijing.
About Steptoe
In more than 100 years of practice, Steptoe has earned an international reputation for vigorous representation of clients before governmental agencies, successful advocacy in litigation and arbitration, and creative and practical advice in structuring business transactions. Steptoe has more than 500 lawyers and other professional staff across offices in Beijing, Brussels, Chicago, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Washington. For more information, visit www.steptoe.com.