Building a China-Africa Legal Practice Through Curated Networks Across Fifteen Countries

“In Kenya every year I have about 60 to 80 Chinese companies as my client in Kenya. So that’s the reason I can have an office in Nairobi Kenya. But for other countries nearby, for example, in Tanzania, I have four clients. And it also gives me a lot of very good legal fees and very good profit. But the problem is that I only have four clients in Tanzania. So that’s why I cannot create another office in Tanzania.”

The Narrow Gate Strategy

When Pengfei Wu made the decision to establish his practice in Nairobi, Kenya, he was swimming against the tide. “Too many Chinese go to the US and Europe,” Wu explains simply. “So I just choose a narrow gate for my life.”

That narrow gate has led Wu through roughly 25-30 African countries, building what he calls a “friends list”—a curated network of law firms spanning fifteen jurisdictions. It’s a model born not from theoretical frameworks about international collaboration, but from the practical realities of serving Chinese companies expanding across a continent where legal systems, languages, and infrastructure vary dramatically from country to country.

The approach challenges conventional wisdom about international legal expansion. Rather than establishing multiple offices or joining expensive formal networks, Wu has built something more pragmatic: “every country will have three law firms to put in our law firm’s friends list.” But this isn’t just a directory. “We will comment on these law firms, which lawyer is expert in which sector, and some of them we even put their hourly rate and our comment towards this international law firm.”

The system reveals an underlying truth about cross-border legal work that formal networks often obscure: quality control happens at the relationship level, not the institutional level. Wu notes that his list tracks not just firm names but “which one from our law firm introduced this law firm to be in our front list. And the second one is our comments.”

The Eighty-Client Threshold

The mathematics of international legal practice are brutally simple, according to Wu. There’s a clear threshold between viable and unviable markets, and it’s defined by client volume, not opportunity size.

“In Kenya every year I have about 60 to 80 Chinese companies as my clients in Kenya,” Wu explains. “So that’s the reason I can have an office in Nairobi Kenya.” The contrast with neighboring Tanzania is stark: “for other countries nearby, for example, in Tanzania, I have four clients. And it also gives me a lot of very good legal fees and very good profit. But the problem is that I only have four clients in Tanzania. So that’s why I cannot create another office in Tanzania.”

This threshold insight cuts through aspirational expansion rhetoric. Markets can be profitable without justifying physical presence. The question isn’t whether a market has opportunity—Tanzania clearly does—but whether it has enough sustained volume to support the fixed costs of an office, staff, and local infrastructure.

The implications ripple through Wu’s network strategy. For the fifteen countries where he lacks the eighty-client threshold, the friend list becomes essential. “About 15 African countries I have traveled to sort out my client’s issues in those countries,” he notes. “But the problem is that there are no other countries I have enough time to devote my effort and time to in any other specific countries other than Kenya.”

The solution isn’t abandoning these markets but serving them through relationships rather than infrastructure. It’s a model that acknowledges resource constraints while maintaining service capacity.

Translation as Core Value Proposition

What separates Wu’s practice from local African firms isn’t just legal expertise—it’s language mediation. “Most of my client’s issues… their legal department, they prefer to work in Chinese,” Wu explains. The result is a labor-intensive but essential service layer: “So every time we revise a contract, when our local team makes some revision, my team will translate it into Chinese and also make some additional amendments and discuss with our client in Chinese.”

The work is repetitive and often invisible，but this repetition is precisely what clients value. They’re not just buying legal analysis—they’re buying linguistic and cultural translation that makes cross-border transactions manageable.

This reality challenges assumptions about what constitutes legal work in international practice. The hours spent translating aren’t incidental overhead—they’re the core service that enables everything else. Wu’s team becomes the interface between Chinese business culture and African legal systems, a role that no AI platform or formal network structure can easily replicate.

The language barrier also shapes how Wu ensures quality when working with his network of foreign law firms. “Every time we revise a contract, when our local team makes some revision, my team will translate it into Chinese and also make some additional amendments and discuss with our client in Chinese. That’s my work style. So actually, most of the work is from my side.”

The Meeting Room Conversion Factor

Wu has discovered something that sophisticated marketing frameworks often miss: physical environment drives client decisions more than lawyers might expect. His office contains what he describes as a normal work room filled with legal reference books—”It makes me look educated, but it doesn’t look expensive.”

The transformation happens in a different space: “usually I bring clients to some of our specific meeting rooms, and those meeting rooms that are decorated look very expensive.” The impact is measurable: “I even find that when I bring clients to my office room, a large percentage, they choose our legal service. And currently, I think almost 80% of the clients, when I bring them to the very lecture meeting room, will finally choose us.”

The significance goes beyond interior design. “It’s very interesting,” Wu notes. “It’s just in the same office building, but it will make something different.” The observation reveals something uncomfortable about how professional services are actually purchased: competence is assumed, but credibility is performed through environmental cues.

For practitioners in emerging markets, this insight addresses a real challenge. Competing against established international firms often means competing on perceived legitimacy, not just actual capability. Wu’s eighty-percent conversion rate suggests that managing these perception factors is as important as managing legal quality.

Rankings as Client Acquisition Strategy

Rather than relying solely on local market presence, Wu has pursued international legal rankings as a business development strategy. His approach was shaped by working with a team that had been “listed in Chambers Band wagon for 15 years focusing on Africa” and that “provided legal services in Africa for 20 years.”

“I think more than 50% of the best paid Chinese clients in the African sector are choosing that team,” Wu explains. “And after I started to build my own team, I got some of the clients from my previous boss. And that’s the start of my legal career.”

Wu has internalized this ranking-focused strategy: “I learned how to get a client from him… that’s why I spend a lot of time and effort to get a better legal ranking and attract those best paid clients to come to me, not I come to them.” The results are tangible: Wu “got some legal ranking on Legal 500 nexus.”

The ranking strategy addresses a fundamental challenge in emerging markets: how to reach premium clients who aren’t in your immediate geographic network. For Chinese companies making decisions in Beijing or Shanghai about African legal work, rankings provide a selection mechanism that transcends local reputation. It’s a strategy particularly suited to serving expatriate business communities rather than local enterprises.

The approach also reflects Wu’s understanding that quality work in Tanzania or other markets doesn’t automatically translate to new business there. If four clients can’t justify an office, they also can’t generate the word-of-mouth necessary for organic growth. Rankings become the alternative visibility mechanism.

About the Speaker: Pengfei Wu is a Partner at Tian Yuan Law Firm and one of LexisNexis 2025’s 40 Under 40 winners for Mainland China. Wu has established a unique practice focused on China-Africa legal services, with experience spanning approximately 25-30 African countries. His work includes serving as a court interpreter in Kenya and translating crucial African legislative documents into Chinese. Wu maintains a Nairobi office serving 60-80 Chinese companies annually while coordinating legal services across fifteen African jurisdictions through a curated network of local law firms. As a contributor to LexChina Forum discussions, he brings practical insights on building legal infrastructure in emerging markets.