Feb 8 (Reuters) - When lawyers from King & Wood, one of China's largest law firms, gathered to celebrate its merger with an Australian law firm late last year, the firm's two namesakes -- Messrs. King and Wood -- never showed up. And for good reason: They don't exist.

"There was no Mr. King and no Mr. Wood" when the firm was founded in 1993, Mark Schaub, an attorney at King & Wood, said in an email.

The practice of making up law firm names out of thin air is broadly prohibited in the United States, where legal-ethics rules generally require that the surnames in firms reflect those of partners who work there -- or did before they retired or died. No such strictures exist in China, where firms are free to pick any name they imagine will resonate in the international marketplace.

King & Wood is just one of many Chinese law firms that have embraced that creative freedom, selecting names that might be more comforting than Chinese names to international clients and Western law firms seeking to affiliate with them.

This desire, apparently, explains the surplus of firms named for that venerable but imaginary Chinese barrister Mr. "Bright." The name Bright, said Joseph Chan, a partner in the Shanghai office of Chicago-based Sidley Austin, is a popular choice because it connotes prosperity. "As in 'bright future,'" he said.

So at Bright & Right, a 12-lawyer firm based in Beijing, there is neither a Bright nor a Right anywhere in sight. Michael Liu, the firm's founding partner, explained that he chose the name to represent "talent, rich knowledge, magnificence and prosperity."

Then there's Broad & Bright (no relation), which has always been Broadless and Brightless. There's never been a Bright at AllBright, a 100-lawyer firm with several offices across China, nor at Ever Bright in Shanghai.

CREATIVE NAMING CAN BE GLOBAL ASSET

China's private legal community is still relatively small, since Chinese law only began allowing for private law firms in the mid-1980s. According to the All China Lawyers Association, there are now 200,000 attorneys in China, or one for every 6,500 Chinese residents. By comparison, there are 1.2 million American lawyers serving a population of just over 300 million -- or one lawyer for every 257 residents.

Like most firms with Western names, King & Wood also has a Chinese name, Jin Du, but those words are not identified with people either. Jin means gold, and Du can mean earth or wood. According to King & Wood, the firm's logo also contains references to fire and water, so that all five Chinese elements are represented.

"I do not know if I believe it myself, but it is consistently told this way," King & Wood's Schaub said.

Even native Chinese speakers sometimes get perplexed. Simon Fang, a partner at the Grandall Law Firm, said in an email: "I don't know where (Grandall) is from, but for sure it is not any attorney name. Maybe it is just the basic meaning from 'Grand + All.'"

In any event, an evocative law firm name can be a big asset. King & Wood's name choice was "a very smart move," said Stuart Fuller, global managing partner of Mallesons, the Australian law firm that is merging with King & Wood to form King & Wood Mallesons; it will be one of the 10 largest firms in the world when the merger is completed next month.

"It was symbolic of King & Wood's approach to position itself as a firm with a heavy international focus," Fuller said.

Mallesons's clients are comfortable with the appellation, Fuller said, because King & Wood has strong name recognition in the region. Under Australia's legal-ethics rules, Mallesons is not prohibited from using the King & Wood name.

RHYMING IS 'IMPORTANT FACTOR'

There has so far been no outcry over how Chinese firms name themselves, but some practitioners say the permissive approach reflects the wide gulf between China and the West in legal practice and ethics.

For instance, out-of-court communications that would be clearly unethical for U.S. lawyers and judges are part of "Guanxi," the Chinese business culture in which relationships are central to getting things done. Gifts from lawyers to officials that would be barred in the United States are not unusual.

"Ethics in China are still in an early stage of development," said Tony Angel, global co-chairman of DLA Piper, which has offices in Hong Kong and Shanghai.

Ethics aside, Chinese firms that want to advertise with a Western name often must consider multiple factors, including greater ease of pronunciation and familiarity to non-Chinese clients. Law-firm marketing professionals are rare in China, so choosing names, logos and website content is basically a function of what the lawyers dream up.

Bright & Right's Liu explained that his firm's Chinese name is composed of three characters, each of which has multiple meanings, including "good virtues and high moral standards" and "flourishing water and enhancing water."

In an email explaining the naming process, Liu said, "The rhyming between 'Bright' and 'Right' has been an important factor in the English word choice." And "right," he said, "has many meanings in English and it plays the key role in the legal profession."

(Reporting by Leigh Jones in New York)

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