今年上榜的十五位GC来自不同的背景与行业，但他们也有一些共同点：保持好奇、保持学习、保持敏感。时代推移的过程总是带来新的挑战，而这些杰出的总法律顾问也总是能给出最与时俱进的答案与解决方法。

 

如果说合规是一家企业长期稳定发展的基石，那么总法律顾问（GC）就是这枚基石的领头缔造者。今年入选榜单的十五位GC中有不少都为企业从零到一地建立起以业务运营为本、以合规为原则的体系。例如，中国国际金融股份有限公司的合规总监、法律合规部负责人周佳兴牵头建设了法律合规工作平台和反洗钱监测管理平台，帮助公司实现降本增效；好丽友中国区总法律顾问张剑君在根据公司业务变化和发展情况以及法务应对的问题和难点，打造了一套为好丽友量身定制的法务管理体系，其中不仅包括公司法务管理体系，还涵盖了知识产权管理体系；上海君正物流有限公司首席合规官兼法律部总经理徐婕牵头完成了上市公司君正集团及君正物流的合规体系框架建设，并在海外反腐败合规、国际进出口业务与制裁合规方面，为公司创新量身打造了适应于不同业务板块的合规管理体系，尤其是在液体化学品运输、国际能源精细化工运输领域，在缺乏前人范例可参照的情况下，她建设的合规体系受到业内认可。

除了合规相关的工作，不少GC还积极参与到公司重要决策中，透过扎根于法律、立足于商业的视角，为公司献计。北京首创生态环保集团股份有限公司总法律顾问邵丽同时担任董事会秘书，参与企业重大经营决策，确保公司发展到哪里，法律服务就跟到哪里；勃林格殷格翰（ 中国）投资有限公司大中华区法务合规副总裁姚晶同时还是大中华区领导团队的一员，直接参与到公司的多项战略制定和实施过程中，帮助公司在大中华区市场取得长远发展，勃林格殷格翰大中华区CEO曾评价她是“ 我们组织内外非常受人尊敬的领导者和专家。”

部分上榜的GC向ALB分享了他们在过去一两年里对行业的观察、工作方面的感悟，以及对未来的展望。

新业态、新机遇

信息通信行业在过去一两年里迎来了多项国家制定的利好政策。长飞光纤光缆股份有限公司法律合规中心总监、首席法律顾问梁霏告诉ALB，以5G和千兆光网为代表的“双千兆” 通信网络建设不断加速，5G行业发展日益迅猛，长飞公司加大5G用新型光纤的研发，继续巩固主营业务的领先地位；在通信光纤领域，长飞公司全球首创了用于5G前传的色散平坦光纤，其自主研发的多芯少模光纤全球领先，高端多模光纤被国内外客户广泛用于大型数据中心建设。

“接下来，长飞公司将强有力地支持国家‘双碳’战略和‘东数西算’工程中的网络互联；在特种光纤领域，长飞公司研发的有源三包层光纤取得技术突破，打破海外垄断。”梁霏补充道。

同样身处5G行业的还有小米集团。该集团法务部总经理刘振表示，从4G到5G的变迁需要企业能够在技术的演进中不断创新，才能为消费者提供“感动人心”的产品。他说：“在‘技术为本’的战略牵引下，小米集团持续加大研发投入，并制定计划在五年内累计投入超过1000亿元研发资金，进一步加大科技创新力度，死磕‘硬科技’。力争在5G通信、人工智能及物联网等核心技术领域获得突破。”

易商是物流地产行业的佼佼者。该集团法务总监兼中国法务总监寿文溢告诉ALB，易商在过去的十几年中经历了多次业态调整，从最早的重资产运营向轻资产管理模式转型，从单一的物流仓储地产，到围绕物流仓储地产进行上下游拓展或全方位深度运营模式调整。据她观察，近年来，电子商务行业的迅速发展、持续的数字化转型以及供应链管理的结构性转变，继续带动客户和资本合作伙伴对新经济地产（即物流地产和数据中心）的强劲需求，这一趋势也将持续下去。

“尤其值得强调的是在快速的数字化时代，数据中心在新经济中发挥着越来越重要的作用，易商凭借自身的核心竞争优势，即一流的选地、设计、建筑施工，为运营商及大型客户提供关键的数码基础设施。”寿文溢说。

GC扮演的角色

在梁霏看来，企业法务和GC对于公司而言应该是多面体的结合，“是公司健康经营和整体可持续增长的建议者、支持者、保护者和平衡者。”她解释道，具体到日常实践中，法务应具备较强的服务意识，而且不能仅停留在解释法规和揭示风险，更重要的是跟进防控，并提出应对方案，并不时回顾总结、强化公司内部培训、加深与业务单元的沟通，从而提升企业内部的风险管理意识，培养对风险管理内容、质量标准、角色分工的共识，适时新建和改进流程。GC的立场要始终秉承公正和客观，着眼公司整体和长远利益，思维也要开阔，在坚持专业意见的同时，总法也要结合商业思维与公司战略，把握恰当的沟通强度。

小米的刘振则认为，法务负责人应该成为法律、技术和商业三者之间的桥梁。他说：“要实现这一目标，则需要打造一支多元化的团队。同时，在面对每一个法律问题时，将法律条款与技术方案准确映射，进而，形成商业上可行的合规/诉讼方案。”

寿文溢近年来的感悟是，GC和法务的意义随着公司发展而不断得到丰富。她告诉ALB，随着公司规模的不断扩大以及业务模式的持续创新，尤其是在ESR收购拥有多元化业务的ARA集团后，公司的整体能力、业务范围和市场地位均进一步加强，“ 在这一过程中我们也明显地感觉到，法务的价值不再仅仅是传统意义上‘ 所谓守住法律底线维护公司商业利益’，更是需要承担起助力公司开疆扩土的任务。作为集团法务总监，我的首要职责是带领公司的法务团队顺应这些变化，成为集团多方位扩张的强有力的助力。”

为了很好地履行这样的职责，寿文溢保持敏锐的嗅觉，通过与管理层保持沟通，了解公司的发展战略和方向，以最快的速度通过法律市场获取最新最好的资源与团队成员分享；同时，她还会根据团队成员的业务专长和能力水平，对他们结构职责进行充分整合优化。

“这一点在ESR收购ARA集团后尤为重要，”寿文溢坦言。她表示，两个集团都拥有行业中的尖端人才，因此她需要在不增加公司运营成本的前提下整合现有团队以充分发挥所有成员的能力优势。事实上，寿文溢在组织架构合理配置方面的能力早在收购过程中就有所凸显：她牵头优化了集团授权和审批流程，既满足上市公司的监管要求，亦使得ESR顺利整合组织结构、审批流程、业务线等与之存在差异的ARA集团，从而使公司的运营决策机制得以在收购完成时立即开始顺利运作。

疫情下的企业出海

尽管疫情爆发后，企业走出国门难度加大，但受访GC的企业还是在海外市场取得了亮眼的业绩。长飞公司过去一年中完成了多个海外收购、新建公司和生产基地等项目，为了助力项目的顺利开展，梁霏做出了多方面工作：亲力亲为带队工作在一线，关注团队专业能力的提升，在工作实战中演练、积累经验；从总部外派人员轮驻海外，以加强当地的法务力量；针对不同法域和专业领域，建立起多层级的律师库，以形成强大的外部资源支持，并将外部经验转化为内部沉淀。

“法务团队成功应对了国外厂商发起的美国337调查、完成了首个海外收购、支持欧洲生产基地的快速建成投产和多个海外集成项目，有力支持了公司海外业务收入2021年同比增长约46.8%。”梁霏说。

刘振告诉ALB，多变的国际形势及持续的新冠疫情，给集团的全球供应链安全及核心业务的平稳运行带来重大挑战。“面对复杂的外部环境，法务团队持续监控所在市场的法律及合规政策变化，及时输出与之匹配的业务实施方案。并且，通过信息化手段，将合规及业务流程相融合，保证合规工作的覆盖面及效率。”

易商近年来在亚太地区持续进行市场扩展，寿文溢表示，该公司在在中国、日本、韩国、澳大利亚和印度等核心市场已占据领先位置。在这个过程中，她和法务团队一方面快速和持续学习适应不同法域的法律和监管规则以及交易惯例，另一方面在相关国家和地区配备了熟悉当地法律的法务人员，主要负责跟进易商在当地的各类资产收购及剥离、基金募集等各类交易项目，并且处理其他公司日常运营过程中的法律问题，提供涉及架构设计、尽职调查、交易文件谈判和定稿以及交割等所有环节的法律支持，“这些成员与当地业务团队密切合作，对项目的法律及合规风险进行评估，顺利推动各类交易项目的落地。”

未来展望

对于未来，梁霏向ALB分享了两大工作重点：“一是聚焦团队建设，争取两到三年内通过辅导锻炼现有团队中的高级顾问和引入外部人才，使团队除年轻后备梯队外，还稳定拥有两到三名全面成熟独挡一面的后继者，并可随时支持公司业务的爆发增长；二是进一步加强法律部门整体在公司的影响力和贡献度，全面提升全员风险管理意识和专业能力。”

刘振则表示，随着数据安全和个人信息保护成为每个企业的合规重点，可以预见的是，中国大陆地区将会在已经颁布的《数据安全法》《 网络安全法》及《个人信息保护法》的基础上出台一系列更为细致的监管政策。

此外，刘振还指出，智能终端及电动汽车企业在未来都将持续面对日趋增多的“标准必要专利”争议。对于SEP许可中的核心问题，如FRAND原则的适用、许可费率的计算方式、禁令的授予条件，不同法域间仍存在巨大的认知差异。这些问题可能会在未来的诉讼案件中逐渐形成相对统一的规则。

“因此，在法律工作方式方面，小米会加快信息化及智能化工作。如，推进协议条款的智能控制及争议案件的智能管理。最大化地减少流程化工作，提高效率。”刘振说道。

寿文溢对ALB表示，作为近年来深入参与了企业业务规模拓展和模式变迁的法律工作者，每次看到企业所获得的巨大成就都感到非常自豪。在法律行业耕耘的这十六年中，尤其是最近几年，她深刻感受到社会商业环境和政治环境的不断变化给企业法务人员提出了许多值得关注的新课题，以供他们进一步深耕和挖掘，例如快速发展的数字化时代下数据中心业务的逐渐兴起、地缘政治关系所引发的外商投资相关的限制性政策、企业危机管理中的法律应用等。

“法律并非一成不变，我们的工作方法更加不是，我们只有通过不断地精进业务能力，才能为企业创造更大的价值。我希望包括自己在内的法务团队成员永远保持在学习的路上，不断增强并且时刻保持对时事趋势的敏锐度，努力走在行业发展的前沿，在术业钻研的基础上进一步提高解决复杂问题的能力，进一步顺应时代的发展。”寿文溢说。

 

2022 ALB CHINA TOP 15 GENERAL COUNSEL

The 15 winning general counsel come from a variety of backgrounds and cover different industries, but there are a few key things that they all have in common: a sense of curiosity, a habit of learning, and a sharp business mind. As time evolves and new challenges pose themselves, these GCs always have the most up-to-date solutions.

General counsels (GCs) are the primary gatekeepers of compliance, which is the cornerstone of a company’s long-term and stable development. Many of the 15 GCs on this year’s list started from scratch to establish a business-operation-oriented and compliance-based system for their organisations.

Joe Zhou is the compliance director and head of legal and compliance department of China International Capital Corporation Limited (CICC). The CICC developed its legal compliance work platform, and its anti-money laundering monitoring and control platform, under his direction, which helped the company cut expenses and improve productivity.

ORION China’s general counsel, Zhang Jianjun, has designed and developed a legal affairs management system for the company, which includes intellectual property management, in order to deal with the company’s business changes and development, as well as respond to legal challenges and difficulties.

Shanghai Junzheng Logistics is a subsidiary of the Junzheng Group, which is a publicly traded corporation in China. Xu Jie, as the chief compliance officer and legal director, led the construction of the compliance system framework for Junzheng Group and Junzheng Logistics, and created a compliance management system tailored to different business segments of the company, covering over-seas anti-corruption compliance, inter-national import and export business, and sanctions compliance. It’s worth noting that she invented the industry-recognized compliance management system for liquid chemical transportation as well as worldwide energy and fine chemical transportation.

In addition to compliance-related work, many GCs are actively involved in their companies’ important decision-making processes and contribute to the business development strategy based on their solid legal expertise. Beijing Capital Eco-Environment Protection Group’s general counsel Shao Li also has the role of secretary of the board of directors, and she ensures that the company’s development is accompanied by legal services by participating in significant business decisions for the company. Another good example is Sandy Yao, the vice president and head of legal compliance of Boehringer Ingelheim (China) Investment, who is also a member of the company’s Greater China operation’s management team, where she is directly involved in the formulation and implementation of the company’s various strategies, assisting the company in achieving long-term growth in the Greater China market. The CEO of Boehringer Ingelheim Greater China comments: “Yao is a recognised leader and specialist inside and beyond our business.”

ALB invited some of the GCs on the list to share with us their insightful industry observations over the past couple of years, and their prospects for the future.

INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENTS

The central government has formulated and implemented a number of favourable policies for the information and communication industry in the past year or two. Liang Fei, GC of Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable Joint Stock Limited Company (YOFC), tells ALB that with the accelerated construction of “dual-gigabit” communication networks (which means 5G and gigabit optical networks) and the rapid growth of the 5G industry, YOFC has increased investments in the research and development of new optical fibres for 5G to continue to consolidate its leading position in its main business; and in terms of communication optical fibres, the company has invented the world’s first dispersion-flattened optical fibre for 5G fronthaul, its independently developed multi-core few-mode optical fibre occupies the leading position in the world, and its high-end multimode fibre products have been widely used large-scale data centre construction by customers home and abroad.

“Next, YOFC aims to provide strong support to the national ‘two carbon’ strategy (i.e., carbon peak and carbon neutrality) and the east-data-west-computing project; and in terms of special optical fibres, YOFC will make technological breakthroughs in the active triple-clad optical fibre to break up the related international monopoly,” Liang adds.

Xiaomi Corporation is also a player in the 5G sector. Xiaomi corporation’s general manager of legal department Liu Zhen says that the transition from 4G to 5G requires a company to continue to innovate in the process of technological evolution so that it can provide products that “truly touch the hearts” of consumers. “According to the ‘technology-based’ strategy, Xiaomi Corporation has continued to increase investment in research and development, arranging to invest over RMB100 billion in R&D over the next five years to further enhance technological innovation and ‘hard technologies’, striving to make breakthroughs in core technologies such as 5G communications, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things,” Liu says.

ESR is a leader in the logistics real asset industry. Zoe Shou, group general counsel and PRC general counsel at ESR, tells ALB that ESR has undergone several business adjustments over the last decade, from a business model with asset operation as the core to a model that no longer stresses asset management, from a single logistics warehousing real asset to an all-round in-depth operation model that expands its business upstream and downstream around the logistics and warehousing real properties. According to her observation, the rapid development of the e-commerce industry, the ongoing digital transformation and the structural transformation of supply chain management have continued to drive strong demand for new economy real assets (i.e., logistics real assets and data centres) from customers and capital partners in recent years. And this is set to continue.

“Of particular note is the increasingly important role data centres are playing in the new economy as we are in an era of rapid digitisation. With its core competitive advantages in siting, design, and construction, ESR is providing operators and large customers with critical digital infrastructures,” Shou says.

THE ROLE OF GC

In Liang’s opinion, legal counsels and GCs should be multi-faceted, playing the roles of “advisor, supporter, guard and balance to ensure the company’s healthy operation and overall sustainable growth.” She explains that in daily practice, legal counsels should have a strong sense of service, meaning that their work should not be limited to interpreting regulations and revealing risks; following up on risk prevention and control, proposing countermeasures, reviewing and drawing lessons from past experiences, strengthening internal training, and having better communication with business departments, these are the more important roles for GCs, so that they can assist their companies in enhancing the risk management awareness, fostering a consensus on risk management content, quality standards, and division of functions, and creating and improving workflows in a timely manner. GCs should always take an impartial and objective view of issues and focus on the company’s overall and long-term interests. Meanwhile, they should be broad-minded to communicate legal advice appropriately based on business thinking and company strategy.

Liu believes that a GC should be a bridge between legal, technical, and business issues. “It takes a diverse team to achieve this goal. When faced with a legal issue, legal provisions should be matched with technical solutions on a case-by-case basis to form a commercially viable compliance/litigation plan,” he says.

According to Shou, the roles of GC and legal counsel are expanding in tandem with the growth of businesses. She tells ALB that the company’s overall strength, business breadth, and market position have all improved as it continues to expand and reinvent its business model, particularly since ESR purchased the ARA Group, which has varied lines of business. “We recognised during the acquisition process that the value of legal counsels is no longer limited to ‘preserving the company’s business interests by assuring compliance with laws and regulations;’ it also requires GCs to aid the company in commercial expansion. My principal role as the group’s legal director is to guide the legal staff in adapting to those changes and becoming strong support for the multi-dimensional expansion of the group,” Shou says.

Shou says a sharp mind helps her fulfil her responsibilities. She maintains close communication with the management team in order to fully comprehend the company’s development strategy and direction, and she rapidly collects the most up-to-date and best legal resources and distributes them to the rest of the team. In the meantime, she combines and optimizes the structural tasks of team members based on their expertise, experience, and capabilities.

“This is especially relevant now that ESR has acquired ARA Group,” Shou says that both groups have top talent in the industry, so she must merge the existing team’s manpower to fully utilise the capabilities of all members without increasing the company’s operational expenditures. During the acquisition process, Shou demonstrated her ability to arrange for the best-fit organisational structure: she directed to optimise the group’s authorisation and approval process, allowing ESR to successfully integrate with ARA group, despite the fact that the two groups had very different organisational structures, approval processes, and lines of business, while meeting the regulatory requirements for listed companies. Following the completion of the acquisition, the company’s operational decision-making systems began to function smoothly.

GOING ABROAD

Companies have found it difficult to extend their operations worldwide since the pandemic, yet the companies of the interviewed GCs have still achieved remarkable results internationally. YOFC has executed a number of overseas acquisitions and developed new companies and manufacturing sites in the recent year. Liang has put in a lot of effort to ensure that various jobs are completed smoothly. She led the team to work on the front lines and to help the entire team enhance their professional talents by practicing and gaining experience in real-world situations. She also directed the construction of a multi-level lawyer database for different jurisdictions and professional sectors to form strong external resource support, as well as the building up of internal teams by drawing on external experiences, and she dispatched team members from the headquarters to work overseas in turn in order to increase the legal strength in the local facilities.

“Our team successfully handled a Section 337 investigation initiated by a foreign manufacturer, assisted the company in completing its first overseas acquisition, supported the rapid completion and operation of its European manufacturing base, and strongly supported the company in achieving year-over-year revenue growth of approximately 46.8 percent from its overseas operations in 2021,” Liang says.

The changing international landscape and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic pose significant challenges to the Xiaomi Corporation’s global supply chain security and the sound operation of its core business. “In the face of the complex external environment, our legal team continuously monitors changes in laws and compliance policies in the market and provides timely solutions to business units in response to these challenges. In addition, we integrate compliance work with business processes through information technology means to ensure coverage and efficiency,” Liu tells ALB.

In recent years, ESR has continued to develop its market in the Asia-Pacific area, taking the lead in key markets such as China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and India. Shou and her team quickly learned to adapt to the laws, regulatory standards, and commercial practices of several jurisdictions during the business expansion. They also engaged legal professionals who are conversant with local legislation in key nations and areas and are principally responsible for ESR’s local transaction projects, such as asset acquisitions and divestitures, as well as fundraising. They also manage legal challenges in other regular operations and give legal support for all linkages, including structure design, due diligence, transaction document negotiation and finalisation, and delivery. “These members collaborated closely with local business teams to identify project legal and compliance concerns, and effectively enabled the implementation of various transaction initiatives,” Shou explains.

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

Liang has two priorities for the future. “One goal is to focus on team building. We aim to train senior consultants in the current team and introduce external talents so that in addition to the young talents, we will have two to three mature and independent successors, who can support the explosive growth of the company at any time; The other is to further increase the legal department’s general influence and value in the company, as well as to improve all employees’ risk management aware-ness,” Liang says.

Liu believes that as data security and personal information protection are becoming major compliance issues for all companies, it is foreseeable that mainland China will enact more detailed regulatory policies based on the data security law, the cybersecurity law, and the personal information protection law.

Liu also points out that smart terminal and electric vehicle companies will face more and more disputes over standard essential patents (SEPs) in the future. There are still huge cognitive differences between different jurisdictions regarding the core issues in SEP licensing, such as the application of the FRAND principle, the calculation method of royalty rates, and the conditions for granting injunctions. Relatively uniform rules on these issues may gradually emerge in future litigation cases.

“Therefore, Xiaomi’s legal department will accelerate the work of information and intelligence. For example, we will promote the work process of intelligent control of agreement terms and intelligent management of dispute cases to reduce process-related work and improve work efficiency,” Liu says.

Shou has been heavily involved in the company’s business development and management strategy in recent years as a legal specialist. She is quite proud of the company’s incredible successes. Changes in the social, business, and political environments have raised many notable new issues for legal counsels to further explore and find solutions, particularly in recent years; for example, the emerging data centre business in the rapidly evolving digital age, restrictive policies related to foreign investment due to geopolitical relations, and the application of laws in corporate crisis management, to name a few, Shou tells ALB.

“Laws aren’t carved on stone tablets; they evolve over time, as does the way we work. We will only be able to add more value to the company if we continue to improve our skills and capacities. My hope for our team members, including myself, is that we will continue to learn, stay current on current events, seek to stay on the cutting edge of industry development, improve our ability to tackle complicated challenges, and adapt to the changing times,” Shou says.

 

THE LIST