连续第九年，ALB评选出了中国市场上杰出的企业总法律顾问。我们一路见证总法律顾问们拓宽角色边界、塑造自身价值、在挑战中实现成长，他们不但是所在企业的宝贵财富，也不断用优异的成绩，书写浓墨重彩的人生。

如何定义“总法律顾问”？在逐渐收紧的监管环境、变幻莫测的国际局势之下，优秀的从业者正在不断用自身经历，重塑总法律顾问角色所囊括的职能，以及所能提供的价值。

今年登上ALB China榜单的十五位总法律顾问正是这方面的佼佼者。他们所在企业的性质不同（包括央国企、民营企业、外资企业），所属行业庞杂（包括能源、航空、TMT、生物医药、机械制造、金融、消费品、传媒文娱、新能源、基础建设、环保等），北上深之外，还有多位总法来自济南、南京、成都、长沙、天津几座城市，虽然有着不同的从业环境，他们身上却散发出近似的光芒。

扎实的法律专业基础已不必多谈，他们谙熟行业和企业，思考的是如何将规则更巧妙地嵌入到真实的业务流程之中；基础合规体系的搭建已是昨天的话题，他们正带领团队走在合规理念的最前沿，探索新的制度可能性。

单纯的起诉应诉已显得“入门”，他们的目标是搭建完善的纠纷管理体系，将风险的火苗吹灭，让诉讼也具备价值；简单的商标专利管理也已达成，他们早就和研发并肩作战，站在了企业创新的第一排。

部分上榜总法和ALB分享了他们对于自身职业边界拓展的观察，这给他们带来了怎样的挑战，以及怎样的职业乐趣感和成就感。

走上总法之路

周媛是康希诺生物股份公司的法务与合规部、内审部高级总监，在担任生物医药行业的法务负责人之前，她和许多总法一样，有过律师以及其他行业的法务从业经历。回顾职业道路，她认为不同阶段积累的经验都在帮助她成为一名更好的法务负责人。

入行时，周媛先是选择成为一名律师，主要从事金融、并购重组、上市等商事业务。“这帮我完成了从法学生到专业律师的角色转变。我在特定领域的专业能力得到了整体提升，同时作为乙方，在面对客户的过程中得到了与人交往沟通的锻炼，这些都是宝贵的收获。”她回忆到。

后来，周媛进入企业，成为了金融领域一家期货公司的法务合规负责人。“三年的经历让我在合规领域收获颇多，我学到了很好的合规管理思维和逻辑。”

2019年，带着这些“财富”，周媛加入康希诺。她笑称自己是“从基层做起来的总法”：入职时只有自己一人，如今团队规模扩展到17人，在法律、合规、知识产权、内控内审等各方面为公司提供支持。

周媛告诉ALB，来到康希诺后自身快速的成长，其实得益于公司和所在行业近年的飞速发展。如今，她已深深喜欢上了生物医药行业，决心在这一领域的法律职业赛道上不断扎根。同时，伴随团队规模和职能的扩大，她感到自己的管理能力也在不断提升，“实际上过去一年多时间，我都在尝试调整内部组织架构，使管理更合理，这给我带来很大的乐趣，对管理能力也是很好的锻炼”。

周本强是中国水利水电第八工程局有限公司的首席合规官、总法律顾问，他在水电八局从事法务工作已有16年，并在过去十年担任法务负责人，过程中也在不断探索、加深对总法角色的理解。

如今，周本强如此描述一位合格总法律顾问所应具备的特质，即“战略布局高远、专业能力过硬、管理能力出众”。

他具体解释道：“战略眼光高远，意味着总法应该从企业大局出发，对任何一个法律事务做出精确的判断，为企业领导提供准确的决策依据和参谋分析。同时还要具备一定的战略布局眼光，能够创新工作理念方法，带领团队可持续发展。”

“专业能力过硬则是安身立命之本，总法需要熟悉掌握公司的各项业务，在为企业把好风险关的同时，更重要的是要积极推动和促进企业的业务发展。”他说，“最后，总法还应当具备企业家的管理能力，处理问题不仅要从专业角度去分析法律风险，还要从企业管理的角度综合考虑公司发展过程中的实际需求。”

拓宽的边界

伴随自身能力的不断提升，加之过去几年外部环境变化所引发的“时代的召唤”，总法律顾问们都深刻感受到了职业边界的不断拓宽。

“这几年确实有一个深刻的感受：总法在公司内所承担的职责不断拓展。以我个人为例：我是总法律顾问，同时也是首席合规官，承担了公司法治与合规两项职责，而且还有其他管理职责。”周本强说，“职责拓展体现了国家对法治与合规的重视，但也给总法带来挑战，加大了执业风险。因此，要做到职责拓展且‘不越界’就很关键，这也是我未来探索的方向。”

在周媛看来，总法职责的拓展呼应着时代的要求。“如果倒退5到10年，很多板块，例如内控审计会放在财务部门管理，知识产权放在研发部门管理，现在的趋势则是都放在总法向下管理。国家近年提出‘内控合规风险法务一体化建设’的说法，这是很有高度的，我们确实发现，很多事情只有放在总法向下才能够更好地拉通。”

此外周媛指出，所在行业及公司的特别情况，也赋予了法律人职能边界拓宽的可能性。例如她所在的强监管的医药行业，需要在业务各个环节建立起合规理念，并且面对个人数据保护、人类遗传资源管理等新问题，不断将新规融入到公司的业务流程之中。

具体到康希诺，周媛认为，作为一家生物医药公司，康希诺伴随企业发展阶段不断打造更为完善的法务合规职能模块，实际上为行业提供了一个典型案例。

她解释道，前期融资阶段，公司在职能部门上没有做太多设置，她的工作也集中在法务上；而生物医药公司到了一定阶段会普遍寻求资本市场发展，康希诺也是在2019和2020年分别登陆港股和A股，周媛的工作立刻加入了内控职能，随后伴随公司商业化，再增加了合规、审计职能。

伴随公司走向成熟，尤其启动了从Biotech向Biopharma的转型，周媛的工作又增加了知识产权管理板块，“对知识产权进行全流程管控，包括建立专门的IPR团队，同时整合了对专利、商标、knowhow（专有技术）、技术秘密、商业秘密的管理”。

一路走来承担起更多责任，周媛对于自己作为法律从业者的能力也有了更深刻的理解。如今她可以很自信地说：“你可以随着公司业务的需求、自己的成长性来拓宽业务，这是完全能做到的，当然过程中也需要学习非常多东西。”

“看得见的法务”

随着职能模块的增加，周媛的另一大感悟是：法务如果不能让业务“看见”，就难以把工作做好。

“法务是一个伏案工作，经常坐在电脑前改文件、回邮件，怎么能把这些伏案的内容和业务真正融合在一起？”这是她一直在思考的问题。

周媛为部门打造了一句口号：严谨就是关爱。“我们会在每一封内部沟通邮件里附上这个口号，逐渐扭转业务看到我们时的心态，首先拿掉他们的防备心。”

其次，周媛要求团队把工作做专业、做细致，通过主动沟通让业务“看见”。“例如我们做了每周一期的内部法律通讯，已经坚持了三年，其中囊括和公司业务相关的方方面面，很多同事和部门领导都反馈内容很有意思。”

此外，团队还主动牵头，对公司不同类型业务进行法律风险评估，“评估过程中涉及和业务部门的互动，他们就能清晰看到我们在做什么，我们还努力把许多标准前置，指导业务展开前期评估，项目后期就可以进展得比较顺利”。

对此，周本强指出，过去几年他一直在思考法务的定位与边界问题，所做的探索也和周媛有异曲同工之处。“我一直探索法商融合模式，将法务与企业发展战略、企业业务管理、企业文化深度融合，让法务职能从‘服务部门’转向‘价值创造部门’，从后台走向前台。”

“经过多年努力，我们成效显著，如今公司法务一样能够为公司创造价值，同市场、生产经营部门一样跑市场、拿项目、创效益。”他说。

合规的挑战

如周本强所说，职能的拓展意味着乐趣，也带来更大的挑战，在过去一年中也是如此。

“过去一年最令我们难忘的挑战就是“合规”，如何让公司在合规的轨道上实现高速发展是一大难题。”周本强坦言，“水电八局是一家国际化的建设工程公司，公司业务遍布亚非拉，涉及水利水电、火电、光伏、市政、铁路、公路、冶炼、石化、农业基础设施等诸多领域，并且公司的商业模式跨多个行业，涉及的法律问题复杂。”

“因此，我们需要协同其他业务部门共同探索和研究新领域前沿法律问题，及时为公司高质量发展提供法律服务支撑，同时确保其合法合规。回头来看，可以说我们出色地应对了各类挑战。”

对于周媛来说，过去一年最难忘的挑战也发生在合规领域，具体来说，是“营销合规体系的建设”。

这同样是来自时代的课题。生物科技公司原本在医药行业中是“小而美”的存在，经历着按部就班的发展，但过去三年的疫情突然把行业顶到了风口浪尖，“我们在短期之内走完了过去可能好几年才能走完的发展之路，在商业化、市场化，继而是内部合规性管理上面对了巨大挑战”。

周媛回忆道，2020年，她和团队实际上已经为公司搭建了基础营销合规体系，“但面对真的枪林弹雨时才发现有多么弱不禁风”。过去12个月，伴随业务快速发展、商业模式的不断创新，这一体系迎来了业务部门的挑战，对合规的压力更大、要求更高，“我们就一点点去做融合”。

好在这段挑战的风浪已顺利渡过，周媛告诉ALB，下阶段他们将着重思考“形成公司的标准化体系，不断修正标准，和业务贴合，寻找规则和发展之间的平衡，让合规在具体的业务项目中落地”。

下一步规划

对于优秀的总法律顾问来说，他们不会停留在眼下的成绩，而总是积极展开对未来命题的思考。

谈到下一步的工作规划，周本强坦言：想做的事情太多。“我将带领团队聚焦人工智能、智慧合规等业务领域，持续引进更多的法律人才，探索和创新人才培养机制，重点强化对投融资、法律合规专业人才的培养，加强‘法律产品输出’，打造一支一流的复合型法商人才团队。”

周媛则把未来的关键词总结为三个：支持、风险、创新。“未来我将长期支持公司的目标、支持业务发展，尤其在生物科技行业普遍遭遇挑战的当下，我们在市场或技术端都有很多工作要做。”

“二是风险，我们要强调识别法律、合规风险，展开评价，最后制订具体的风险管控措施并保障落地。”她说，“最后是创新，尤其合规领域的创新，对于法律工作管理者也非常重要。”

把这些做好的过程中，周媛说，她也会积极享受总法律顾问角色给自己职业及人生带来的丰厚成就感。“作为法律人，我的从业边界和视野都被大大拓宽了，我不再只就着法条、案例说话，而能真正结合业务和实践，把规则内化在方方面面。”

“同时，这份职业也带给我个人和家庭很大的荣誉感。还记得疫情期间，有天我和海外合作伙伴开会到晚上11点，当时我3岁的孩子问：妈妈你在干什么？我说：我在帮其他小朋友和大人不生病。她说：Mummy, you are my hero!那一刻我感到：这份职业真的是我人生中浓墨重彩的一笔。”她说。

---

2023 ALB CHINA TOP 15 GCs

For the ninth consecutive year, ALB has selected outstanding general counsels in the Chinese market. Throughout this journey, we have witnessed general counsels expanding their role boundaries, shaping their own value, and achieving growth amidst challenges. They are valuable assets to their respective companies and continuously script a remarkable life story with their outstanding achievements.

 

How to define a "general counsel (GC)"? Amid an increasingly stringent regulatory environment and ever-changing geopolitical landscape, exceptional professionals are continuously reshaping the scope and value of the GC role through their own experiences.

The fifteen GCs who made it to this year's ALB China ranking are true exemplars. They come from diverse corporate backgrounds (including state-owned enterprises, private companies, and foreign-invested firms), spanning various industries (such as energy, aviation, TMT, biotech, manufacturing, finance, consumer goods, media and entertainment, new energy, infrastructure, and environmental protection). These GCs hail not only from Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen but also from cities like Jinan, Nanjing, Chengdu, Changsha, and Tianjin. Despite working in different professional environments, they radiate a similar brilliance and passion for their roles.

Some of the ranked GCs shared their observations with ALB on expanding their professional boundaries, which has brought them challenges and a strong sense of professional fulfilment and achievement.

THE ROAD TO GC

Christy Zhou serves as the senior director of legal & compliance and internal audit departments at pharmaceutical company CanSino Biologics. Before taking on the role of legal head in the biotech industry, like many GCs, she has experience in various legal roles. Reflecting on her career path, she believes these experiences accumulated at different stages have contributed to her growth as a better legal leader.

At the onset of her career, Christy Zhou chose to become a lawyer. "This allowed me to transition from being a law student to a professional lawyer. I gained overall improvement in my expertise and, as the counterparty, developed valuable skills in communication while dealing with clients," she recalled.

Later, Christy Zhou joined a futures company as the head of legal and compliance. "The three-year experience allowed me to gain a lot in the compliance field, and I learned good compliance-management thinking and logic."

In 2019, armed with this wealth of experience, Christy Zhou joined CanSino. She describes herself as a "grassroots-raised GC": starting as the sole member of the legal team and now expanding to a team of 17, providing support to the company’s legal, compliance, intellectual property, internal controls, and internal audit departments.

Christy Zhou tells ALB that her rapid growth after joining CanSino was due to the company's rapid expansion and the industry in recent years. As the legal team’s size and functions expand, she feels her management skills continue to improve. "In fact, for over a year, I have been trying to adjust the internal organisational structure to make management more reasonable. This has brought me great joy and has been a good exercise for my management abilities."

Zhou Benqiang is the chief compliance officer and general counsel at Sinohydro Engineering Bureau 8. He has been part of the company’s legal team for 16 years, serving as legal head for the past decade, during which he continuously explored and deepened his understanding of the GC role.

Today, Benqiang describes the essential qualities a qualified GC should possess as "strategic vision, strong professional competence, and exceptional management skills."

He explains, "Having a strategic vision means that a GC should start from the big picture of the company and make accurate judgments on any legal matter, providing precise decision-making support and strategic analysis for the company's leadership."

"Strong professional competence is the foundation for our profession," Zhou adds. "A GC needs to be familiar with and master all aspects of the company's business."

"Finally, a GC should have the management capabilities of an entrepreneur. When handling problems, they should not only analyse legal risks but also comprehensively consider the actual needs of the company's development from a management perspective," he concludes.

EXPANDED FUNCTIONS

With the continuous improvement of their abilities and the "call of the times" prompted by external environmental changes in recent years, GCs have keenly felt the widening of their professional boundaries.

"In recent years, there has indeed been a profound feeling that the responsibilities of a GC within the company keep expanding. In my case, for example, I am responsible for both legal and compliance matters, in addition to other management responsibilities," says Benqiang. "The expansion of responsibilities reflects the importance placed on the rule of law and compliance, but it also brings challenges and increased practice risks for GCs. Therefore, achieving responsibility expansion while 'staying within the boundaries' is crucial, and it is also the direction I will explore in the future."

In Christy Zhou's view, the expansion of GCs' responsibilities responds to the demands of the times. "If we go back 5 to 10 years, many aspects, such as internal control and audit, would be managed by the finance department, and intellectual property would be managed by the research and development department. However, the current trend is to centralise them under the GC, and we have indeed found that many matters can be better coordinated when placed under the GC," she says.

Specifically for CanSino, Zhou believes that as a biotech company, CanSino has been continuously developing more comprehensive legal and compliance functions along with the company's growth stages, which also serve as a typical example for the industry.

She explains that the company had few functional departments during the early financing stage, and her work primarily focused on legal matters. As the biotech company reached a certain stage and sought development in the capital markets, CanSino went public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2019 and the A-share market in 2020. Zhou's responsibilities immediately expanded to include internal control functions. Compliance and audit functions were also added to the company's commercialisation progress.

As the company matured, especially during the transition from biotech to biopharma, Zhou's responsibilities expanded again to include intellectual property management. "We control the entire intellectual property process, including establishing a dedicated IPR team and integrating the management of patents, trademarks, know-how, trade secrets, and business secrets."

Through this journey of taking on more responsibilities, Zhou has gained a deeper understanding of her capabilities as a legal professional. Today, she confidently says, "You can expand your business according to the company's needs and your own growth potential; This is entirely achievable, although it also requires a lot of learning along the way."

VISIBLE ROLES

With the expansion of functions, Christy Zhou's key realisation is that legal work must be made visible to the business to be effective.

"As legal professionals, we often work at our desks, making document changes and replying to emails. How can we truly integrate these desk-bound tasks with the business?" This has been a question she has been pondering.

Zhou has created a motto for her department: ‘precision is care.’ "We include this motto in every internal communication email to gradually change the business' perception of us. By removing their defensiveness, we can establish a better connection."

Furthermore, Zhou emphasises that her team must carry out their work with professionalism and attention to detail, actively communicating to make the business "see" their efforts. "For example, we have been publishing a weekly internal legal newsletter for three years, covering various aspects of the company's business. Many colleagues have provided positive feedback, finding the content interesting."

In addition, the team takes the initiative to lead legal risk assessments for different types of businesses within the company. "During the assessment process, we interact with the business departments, and they can clearly see what we are doing. We also proactively provide guidelines to assist with pre-evaluations before projects begin, ensuring smoother progress later."

Zhou Benqiang points out that he has also been contemplating the positioning and boundaries of legal work in the past few years, and his perspective aligns with Christy Zhou's approach.

"I have been exploring the integration of legal work with corporate development strategies, business management, and corporate culture. This shift transforms legal from a 'service department' to a 'value-creating department,' moving from the background to the forefront," he explains.

"After years of efforts, we have achieved significant results. Now, the company's legal department can create value for the company, just like the marketing and production departments, by participating in the market, securing projects, and generating profits," he adds.

COMPLIANCE CHALLENGES

As Zhou Benqiang mentioned, the expansion of responsibilities brings fulfilment and greater challenges, especially in the past year.

"The most memorable challenge of the past year was compliance. How to ensure the company achieves rapid development on a compliant track was a major question," Zhou Benqiang admits. "As Sinohydro Engineering Bureau 8 is an international construction company with business spread across Asia, Africa, and Latin America, involving various fields such as hydro power, thermal power, solar power, municipal engineering, railways, highways, smelting, petrochemicals, and agricultural infrastructure, the legal issues we face are complex."

"Therefore, we need to collaborate with other business departments to jointly explore and study cutting-edge legal issues. Looking back, I can say that we have handled various challenges remarkably well."

For Christy Zhou, the most unforgettable challenge of the past year also occurred in the compliance field, specifically, the "construction of a marketing compliance system."

This, too, was a question posed by the pandemic-era. Originally, biotech companies were "small but beautiful" players in the pharmaceutical industry, progressing step by step. However, the past three years saw the industry thrust into the limelight due to the pandemic, pushing them to go through years of development within a short period. This rapid transformation brought significant commercialisation, marketisation, and internal compliance management challenges.

Zhou recalls that in 2020, her team had already built a basic marketing compliance system for the company. However, they realised its vulnerability when faced with real-world challenges. Over the past 12 months, with rapid expansion, the system faced numerous challenges from various business departments. Additionally, CanSino explored a new CSO business model beyond self-operation, adding even more pressure on compliance. "We had to integrate everything gradually," she says.

Fortunately, they successfully weathered this challenging period. Zhou tells ALB that in the next phase, they will focus on "establishing a standardised compliance system for the company, continuously refining the standards to align with business needs, seeking a balance between regulations and development, and ensuring compliance is implemented in specific business projects."

NEXT STEPS

Exceptional GCs always focus on current achievements and actively contemplate future challenges.

Zhou Benqiang confesses that there are so many things he wants to do regarding the next steps in work planning. "I will lead the team to focus on AI, intelligent compliance, and other business areas. We will continuously bring in more legal talents, explore and innovate talent development mechanisms, and emphasise cultivating talents in investment, financing, and legal compliance. We will strengthen 'legal product output' and build a top-notch team of versatile legal and business professionals."

Christy Zhou summarises her key themes for the future in three words: support, risk control, and innovation. "In the future, I will provide long-term support for the company's goals and business development, especially in the face of challenges prevalent in the biotech industry. We have a lot of work to do in the market or technological aspects."

"Secondly, we will emphasise identifying legal and compliance risks, conducting evaluations, and ultimately formulating specific risk control measures to ensure their implementation," she says. "Lastly, innovation, especially in the compliance field, is crucial for GCs."

While achieving these goals, Zhou says she will also actively enjoy the sense of accomplishment that the role of a GC brings to her career and life. "My scope and vision as a legal professional have greatly expanded. I no longer speak solely in terms of laws and cases but can truly integrate rules into all aspects of business and practice."

"Additionally, this profession brings great honour to me, personally, and my family. I remember during the pandemic, one day, I had a meeting until 11 pm. My 3-year-old child asked, 'Mommy, what are you doing?' I said, 'I'm helping other kids and adults not get sick.' He said, 'Mummy, you are my hero!' At that moment, I felt that this profession truly leaves a significant mark in my life," she says.