Member Spotlight: Meet Meg Utterback
People’s University 1985 School ID
It was 1985. I applied through the Chinese Embassy in Washington DC to study law in China. I was accepted for graduate study at China People's University in Beijing. After 5 years of studying Chinese, I was finally headed to China. Rather than elation, my relatives expressed concern for my well being and mental health. I was from a small town on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and going to Beijing seemed just short of flying to the moon.
China in the mid-80s was far from developed. The Cultural Revolution had just ended in 1979 and Deng Xiaoping would not do his southern trip that promoted China's opening to the West until 1986. Life in university in China was not easy in the 80s. Beijing was cold in the winter and so we wore layer upon layer of longjohns, and at night got a small bucket of coal embers to set under our bed for warmth. We had hot water for 30 minutes twice each day and religiously filled our big thermoses with boiled water, as that was the only drinking water to be had. Summers were hot and dusty. We rode our bikes around the streets of Haidian with the sound of cicadas echoing in the trees, occasionally stopping for a red bean ice on a stick to cool down. As the Chinese said in those days, one learns to "eat bitterness" or “吃苦” （chi ku). But for every bitter or challenging moment, there were also equal parts of joy and excitement. My Chinese improved. I learned the legal system and came to understand China in a unique way that would serve me in my career.
I returned to the US in 1987 to work and attend law school. I graduated in 1991 and began practicing as a litigator in Washington DC, trying cases before judges and juries. I always longed to return to Asia. In time, I began to get more cross-border cases-- an arbitration in India, a securities fraud case in Beijing, a fraud and embezzlement case in Johannesburg, South Africa, and more. I took an assignment in Shanghai starting in 2003 but the commuting was impossible. Thanks to a supportive family, we moved to Shanghai full time in 2005. I began practicing corporate law as well as handling investigations and disputes in Shanghai, because Chinese law in those days was still relatively unsophisticated. I helped hundreds of US and European companies navigate the China market. And, I helped Chinese companies with troubles in the US and abroad.
In 2018, my law firm assigned me to London to work on some investment treaty cases and to assist with some firm management issues. In 2019, I was sent to NY to develop our US dispute resolution practice.
I represent clients before federal regulatory agencies, courts, and arbitral tribunals. I also represent US companies in China and in transactions with Chinese parties. My law firm has the largest China practice of any international law firm-- we are 2600 lawyers worldwide, with 1400 lawyers in China and 17 offices in the Mainland and Hong Kong. I know China. I speak Mandarin and read Chinese. I understand how things work in Asia and I can help clients navigate those now troubled waters.
Meg, speaking in Ningbo
I am not your typical Co-Co entrepreneur. I am new to Summit. Fortunately, my neighbor, Judy McLaughlin, knows the Co-Co founders and encouraged me to get involved. The Co-Co community makes me move beyond the Covid haze and isolation, helps me to make new friends, and inspires me to get excited again about where I have been and where I am headed. A little inspiration is a very good thing.
