The Honorable William Zarit advises western multinationals working in the Chinese commercial market and helps Chinese companies navigate the U.S. business environment. A Senior Counselor with The Cohen Group, he is also Chairman Emeritus of the American Chamber of Commerce in China.

Until May 2014 Mr. Zarit was Minister for Commercial Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, in charge of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s trade promotion and trade policy activities in its operations in Beijing, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Shenyang. He retired with the diplomatic rank of Career Minister.

Prior to that Beijing posting, Mr. Zarit oversaw Commercial Sections in U.S. Embassies and Consulates worldwide as Deputy Assistant Secretary, International Operations, for the U.S. Foreign Commercial Service (FCS), which is the Federal Government’s front line trade agency, promoting both U.S. exports and foreign investment into the U.S., and protecting U.S. commercial interests overseas. Before that he served as the FCS Regional Director for East Asia/Pacific. Prior positions included Senior Commercial Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Deputy Senior Commercial Officer both at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing and at the American Institute in Taiwan.

Before to joining the U.S. Commercial Service Mr. Zarit was Economic and Commercial Program Officer for the New York-based National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, preceded by his work as Marketing Manager/China for Pacific Bell’s international operations. He had earlier as Project Manager for the first IBM PC dealer in China, China Business Associates. Mr. Zarit also served as a Mandarin Chinese Interpreter for the U.S. State Department Language Services.

He earned an M.B.A. with Honors from the University of California, Berkeley, and a B.A. with Honors in Political Science from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio.

Kenneth Zhou is a partner in the firm's Asia Corporate Practice Group. He joined the firm in 2004.
Mr. Zhou's practice focuses on foreign direct investment, cross-border mergers and acquisitions, private equity/venture capital, joint ventures and strategic alliance, general corporate, anti-trust and regulatory matters, FCPA and investigations, and international dispute resolution. He has advised many foreign companies in high-tech, media and entertainment, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, banking and financial services, publishing, consumer product and services industries with respect to their strategic expansion, investments and business operations in China. Mr. Zhou has also advised leading Chinese companies on their outbound investments, M&A and strategic expansion in the U.S. and Europe. In addition, he is also experienced in capital market, foreign trade and WTO matters.
Mr. Zhou is a former governor and General Counsel of AmCham China. He currently serves as Chair of the Outbound Investment Forum of AmCham China.
Mr. Zhou is the author of the Business Organization Chapter published in Business Law in China: Trade, Investment, Operations and Finance. ICC Publ. No. 672, 2d rev. ed. He is also one of the authors of China’s Anti-Monopoly Law – The First Five Years, published by Wolters Kluwer in 2012. He has written articles in such periodicals as China Law & Practice, Asia Pacific Antitrust and Trade Review, Capital and others on a wide range of topics including M&A, corporate restructuring, private equity/venture capital investment, foreign direct investment in China, tax and regulatory matters.
Mr. Zhou was interviewed and spoke at events organized by CNN, Bloomberg, CCTV, The American Lawyer, Cai Jin Magazine, South China Morning Post, American Chamber of Commerce China, 21st Century, Top Capital, Association of Insolvency and Restructuring Advisors (AIRA), Asia Risk, and others on a variety of topics including cross-border M&A, anti-monopoly filings in China, equity financing, outbound investments of Chinese companies, dispute resolution, PE/VC investments, Internet law, SOE restructuring, qualified foreign institutional investors (QFII), qualified foreign limited partnership (QFLP), VIE structures, anti-monopoly law and national security review.