Recently, the Shanghai High People’s Court and the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Justice jointly released the 2025 Register of Administrators for Enterprise Bankruptcy Cases. Watson & Band Law Offices is proud to announce its continued designation as a Tier-One Bankruptcy Administrator.
Since the Shanghai High People’s Court established its inaugural register in 2007, Watson & Band has been consistently listed and ranked as a Tier-One Administrator, leveraging nearly two decades of experience in bankruptcy practice. This renewed selection, accompanied by a high comprehensive evaluation score, reflects the judicial authorities’ sustained trust in the professional capabilities of our bankruptcy practice.
Concurrently, Mr. Zhu Xiaosu, Senior Partner and Vice President of the Firm’s Management Board, has been re-listed on the Register of Individual Administrators. Mr. Zhu was among the first cohort of professionals in Shanghai to receive this individual designation.
Strategic Expansion: Building an Expert-Driven Practice
In response to the increasing complexity and scale of modern insolvency matters—particularly those involving group structures—Watson & Band has strategically expanded its bankruptcy team. Under the leadership of Mr. Zhu Xiaosu, the firm has recruited and cultivated senior practitioners with multidisciplinary expertise spanning bankruptcy, corporate governance, and finance, thereby optimizing the team’s depth and structure.
The practice has been further bolstered by the recent addition of partners and senior attorneys, including the team of attorneys Wang Jing and Zhao Mingliang, and attorney Li Baochun. These additions bring specialized focus in bankruptcy liquidation and corporate acquisitions. Today, Watson & Band boasts a specialized, multidisciplinary team capable of handling complex, cross-border, and cross-sector matters, providing end-to-end services across reorganization, liquidation, settlement, and related litigation.
Proven Track Record: Landmark Cases in Restructuring and Insolvency
Watson & Band is committed to delivering solutions that integrate legal acumen with social responsibility. In recent years, the judicial system has selected multiple complex cases handled by our team as "Typical Cases," setting benchmarks for the industry.
Key Challenges: Ensuring the delivery of housing units in a large-scale project, remediating environmental damage to riverways, and resolving substantial liabilities.
Strategy & Results: Leveraging the "Government–Court Coordination" mechanism, the team successfully completed property title transfers for over 70 homebuyers, effectively safeguarding livelihood interests. We innovatively introduced investors to revitalize remaining assets and coordinated with priority creditors to concede a portion of their interests, allowing ordinary creditors to achieve a recovery rate exceeding 18%. Furthermore, environmental remediation costs were lawfully classified as "common-benefit claims" (administrative expenses), enabling necessary dredging works and embodying the concept of "Green Bankruptcy."
Key Challenges: Rescuing a "Specialized and Sophisticated" (Little Giant) biopharmaceutical enterprise holding core patents, while urgently resolving wage arrears affecting nearly 100 employees.
Strategy & Results: Under court guidance, the team efficiently converted the case from liquidation to reorganization. We formulated an innovative "Early Settlement Plan for Employee Claims," using rental income to prioritize the payment of wages and social insurance. This approach addressed pressing livelihood issues and maintained stability. Ultimately, a sale-based reorganization preserved the company’s core patents and operational value, achieving optimal resource allocation.
Key Challenges: Reviving an unfinished construction project burdened by historical irregularities, including missing documentation that prevented the issuance of property titles, alongside difficult tenant clearance issues.
Strategy & Results: The administrator team utilized a "conditional acceptance" mechanism (accepting filings pending missing documentation). Through commissioned safety assessments and coordination with authorities, the team secured the real estate ownership certificates, laying the foundation for the reorganization plan. Simultaneously, by prioritizing negotiation over litigation, the team reached compensation agreements with tenants, efficiently resolving collective disputes.
Industry Recognition
Watson & Band’s leadership in insolvency practice is reflected in sustained recognition by authoritative legal directories. The firm’s bankruptcy team and leading practitioners have been ranked for consecutive years by Chambers and Partners, China Business Law Journal, and LEGALBAND. These accolades affirm our professional depth, client reputation, and market influence in the field of bankruptcy and restructuring.
Looking Ahead
Retaining our status as a Tier-One Administrator is both an honor and a responsibility. Watson & Band remains dedicated to its core values of integrity, vision, and professionalism. We will continue to deepen our expertise in distressed asset disposal and leverage our role as administrators to support the rescue and orderly exit of distressed enterprises, contributing to Shanghai’s high-quality economic development.
