The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) has formed its 12th Public Offering Review Committee, which consists of 25 members. Among them, five are partners of private practice law firms with leading securities practices. They are Zhang Xiaotong (Commerce & Finance), Zhang Shaohua (JunZeJun), Xiang Zhenghua (Jingtian & Gongcheng), Dai Qingong (DeHeng (Beijing) Law Office) and He Xianbo (Guangdong Huashang).

A busy year for CSRC's review committees

According to CSRC's statistics, from June 2009 to April 2010, CSRC had approved 242 companies' IPOs (including 84 IPOs on the new ChiNext board), and 154 companies' follow-on financing. In addition, it had reviewed and approved 56 listed companies' major assets restructuring, involving RMB369bn in total, and 20 listed companies' overseas acquisitions, involving RMB53bn in total.

The five partners have been selected from the 15 candidates recommended by the All China Lawyers Association. According to CSRC's selection criteria, the candidates must be partners from the top 15 law firms by revenue from the securities business within the nation, excluding the 15 firms whose partners currently sit on CSRC's committees. Only one candidate can be recommended from each of these top 15 firms.

During the committee's one-year term, starting from May 2010, all five lawyers have to suspend their private practice to give full support and top priority to the committee's work. 

CSRC reportedly pays each member about US$30,000 as annual compensation for their service. The compensation is negligible compared to partner incomes at law firms, but working for the CSRC can bring significant prestige to capital markets and securities lawyers and firms. ALB