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After China has acceded to the World Trade Organization, it is a general trend for China's legal service market to be further opened to the outside world and to merge in a all round way with the international legal service market. China's legal profession is confronted with both a hard-to-meet chance and a severe challenge. In order to build up a high-quality contingent of lawyers which may meet China's economic development and democratic and legal construction after its accession to the WTO, we hereby propose the following opinions regarding the further acceleration of the reform and development of the legal profession after China's accession to the WTO in light of the spirit of the "Suggestions of the CCCPC on Formulating the Tenth Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development" (hereinafter referred to the "Tenth Five-Year Plan"): I. BEING FULLY AWARE OF THE GOOD CHANCE AND SEVERE CHALLENGE THAT CHINA'S LEGAL PROFESSION IS CONFRONTED WITH IN ITS DEVELOPMENT AFTER CHINA'S ACCESSION TO THE WTO The judicial administration organs and the lawyers' associations at all levels as well as numerous lawyers should be fully aware that: after China's accession to the WTO, China's opening to the outside world will be carried forward in all directions and in a wide range, and China's economy will merge with the main stream of the world economy more quickly. More and more Chinese enterprises are extending overseas market, taking part in international economic cooperation and competition. The entry of large quantities of foreign investment, the flourishing of knowledge-based economy and the carryout of the strategy of developing the Western Region will extend wider areas and space of services for Chinese lawyers; after China's accession to the WTO, the lawyers' occupational functions and social influence will be continuously strengthened and their practicing environment will be continuously optimized with the continuous deepening of the reform of China's governmental institutions as well as the accelerated adjustment of the mechanisms of economic operation and social management and the continuous improvement of the judicial system; after China's accession to the WTO, the development trend of global economic integration and international legal service globalization as well as the pressure of competition brought by the deep opening of China's legal service market will urge Chinese lawyers to meet the market demands in respect of concept, knowledge and ability, to accelerate improving their professional competence and overall level, and to increase their competitive ability; after China's accession to the WTO, a large number of foreign law firms will enter China to provide foreign legal services, which has not only promoted extensive exchanges and cooperation between Chinese and foreign lawyers, but also created opportunities for Chinese lawyers to take part in the competition of international legal services. Meanwhile, the advanced experiences and some mature measures in the foreign legal services profession will provide good references for us to further emancipate our minds and renew our concepts, scientifically and reasonably make planning for the development strategy of the legal profession, and accelerate to set up the Chinese lawyer system meeting the requirements of international competition. However, China's legal profession has a short history and has a thin base, and the overall level of the lawyers is still unable to meet the development needs in the construction of market economy, democracy and rule of law after China's accession to the WTO: First, the law firms are mostly small in scale, and whole lawyers are insufficiently experienced in respect of knowledge structure, professional ability, service standards, especially in the provision of legal services in new economic areas, and are unable to meet the needs in providing legal services in all directions, at all levels and professionally in economic globalization. Second, Chinese lawyers are weak in handling international legal business, and China lack talents who can excellently handle foreign-involved legal services, and the lawyers competitive capacity in the international legal service market are weak; with the gradual removal of the market access barriers and of the restrictions on national treatment after China's accession to the WTO, foreign law firms will take their advantages in information, management, brand and service to win larger shares. Third, Chinese lawyers have ossified management concepts and laggard system, and most of them remain at the stage of emphasizing administration in the mode of planned economy, instead of adapting to the self-discipline feature of the legal profession and the internal law of development under the new situation. II. ACCELERATING THE DEVELOPMENT, TRYING TO IMPROVE THE COMPREHENSIVE QUALITY AND INTERNATIONAL COMPETITIVE STRENGTH OF CHINESE LAWYERS As "development is the absolute principle", to accelerate the step of reforming and developing the legal profession is the key to urge the lawyers to improve their competitive strength. Facing the situation of the 21st century when the globalization trend of the legal service business is strengthened, the merger and restructuring of foreign law firms are being quickened, that corporative operation, group development and the range of legal business are being carried out in an all-round way, and when the competition is becoming more and more rigorous, we should unswervingly implement the "Tenth Five-Year Plan", seize the chance, work energetically with a firm will, and accelerate the step of reform and developing the legal profession so as to realize a new rapid development of the legal profession. 1. We should earnestly strengthen the Party construction and the ideological and political work in the contingent of lawyers, further improve the lawyers' political quality. We should be guided by Comrade Jiang Zemin's "Three Represents" to further strengthen the Party construction among the lawyers, and to give full play to the role of Party organizations as forts in battles and the vanguard and exemplary role of the Party members; we should insist in carrying out the study of current political affairs and education of international situation for the lawyers, lead the lawyers to have strong sense of commitment and sense of social responsibility in their practice, to increase their political keenness, to be good at finding and cautiously dealing with the phenomena hidden in various legal disputes but endangering the State's and the people's fundamental benefits, and to maintain the State's fundamental benefits as well. 2. We should take effective measures to attract talents, intensify occupational training, and accelerate to educate a group of high-quality lawyers who may meet the needs after China's accession to the WTO. The education of high-level lawyers who can well understand foreign languages, science and technologies, rules and dispute settlement mechanisms under the WTO is an urgent need in the development of the legal profession after China's accession to the WTO. We should strengthen the education of lawyers specialized in international legal business so as to enlarge the group of lawyers in this field. The judicial administration organs and lawyers' associations in coastal big cities should make full use of the advantages of developed regional economy and comparative concentration of the foreign-involved legal talents, and should take various preferential measures to attract excellent legal talents into the legal profession as soon as possible; we should improve the continuing education of the practicing lawyers, strengthen the education and training of the lawyers in respect of newly arising economic and legal knowledge, scientific and technological knowledge, and foreign language ability. We should open various training avenues, select excellent talents to accept trainings abroad, and meanwhile take corresponding measures to guarantee those lawyers selected for overseas studies will come back to China to provide services. We should do our utmost to make the quantity and quality of China's foreign-involved lawyers reach a level in line with the demand of China's market economic construction and development by the year 2010. 3. We should accelerate the progress of forming large-scale, specialized and internationalized law firms, and form a group of law firms with large scale, strong capabilities and international competitive strength as soon as possible. Cities, where possible, should lose no time in supporting and educating a group of law firms with international competitive strength, and should encourage lawyers with high professional level and good foreign language ability to flow to the said law firms to practice; they should lead the law firms to realize optimized allocation of resources, support and encourage the restructuring, merger and combination of law firms, establish large-scale law firms, and make use of the advantage of multi-specialty and multi-level work, so as to expand the range of legal business, reduce costs, and create brands. Law firms are encouraged to divide the work according to specialties, and the law firms with concentrative specialties and a good base at present should operate as specialized law firms. We should further push ahead the policy of "go global", and encourage Chinese law firms to establish branches abroad, to provide services to Chinese enterprises carrying out trans-national operations or processing trade or developing resources abroad and to foreign investors who invest in China, and to enhance their international competitive strength. 4. We should accelerate the setup of modern means and office conditions in law firms, and raise the level of modern management. Some large law firms should gradually introduce the management mode of separating decision from daily management, set up and improve the system of guaranty for work quality, the system of compensation and insurance for the liability for wrongs, the system of examining conflicts of benefits and other modern law firm management systems, and improve the overall service quality and social prestige of the legal profession. We should lead law firms to make wide use of the internet and other modern office communication means, to strengthen the internal management, and to improve the efficiency and quality of lawyers' services. 5. We should, in light of the actual situation of all regions, apply classified guidance and leveled management by distinguishing the development of the legal profession in different regions, and form a structure that large, middle and small law firms exist simultaneously throughout the country, so as to meet the multi-level and diversified needs in the legal service market; we should, by adopting some specific policies and measures, encourage lawyers in different regions to practice various forms of cooperation, shorten the distance between them, and give impetus to the integral development of the whole profession. 6. We should deepen the reform of lawyer management system and further regulate the practices of lawyers so as to meet the demands of the self-discipline feature of the lawyer management and regularized practicing under the WTO frame. The judicial administration departments should shift their focus from stressing daily administration to the supervision of the whole legal service market, give prominence to exert the functions of industrial associations. In the places where possible, such work presently administered by the judicial administration departments as annual inspection and registration should be gradually transferred to the lawyers' associations, and the cohesiveness and social influence of lawyers' associations among lawyers should be enhanced. We should take the measures of the international legal profession for reference to formulate a set of laws and regulations on lawyer management that is suitable for the development of international legal services. We should lose no time in amending the "Lawyers Law", improving the regulations and rules in respect of lawyer institutions, legal business, and lawyer management, including the "Measures on the Examination of Conflicts of Practicing Benefits of Law Firms", the "Measures on the Compensation Due to Law Firm Liabilities" and the "Measures on Insurance of the Liabilities for Lawyers' Practice", and further regulate the lawyer's practicing activities and acts. 7. We should continue pushing the opening of the legal service business to the outside world, further strengthen the exchange and cooperation between Chinese and foreign lawyers, and regulate the administration of the legal business activities carried out by foreign lawyers inside the territory of China. After China's accession to the WTO, we will, on the one hand, implement our commitments to the WTO, continue introducing some large foreign law firms with rich management experiences and high international prestige to come to China to establish representative offices, so as to attract more transnational companies to treat China as an investment base and world trade center. The judicial administration organs in cities where the representative offices of foreign law firms concentrate should make full use of this advantage to encourage Chinese and foreign lawyers to strengthen work exchange and cooperation, and should lead domestic law firms to study and draw on their advanced legal service techniques, management modes and internal operation mechanisms; on the other hand, we should strengthen the regulation and administration of the representative offices. The relevant administrative regulation on foreign lawyers' practicing in China will come out very soon. After the new regulation comes out, we should, when lawfully guaranteeing the representative offices of foreign law firms and foreign lawyers in their provision of foreign legal services in China, intensify our efforts to supervise their practices in China, and severely punish the unfair competition acts they commit and the unlawful legal business they engage in, so as to ensure China's legal service market to develop healthily, orderly, fairly and regularly. |
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