中国科技媒体通信（TMT）行业的蓬勃发展离不开来自律师的推动力。ALB祝贺入选今年“十五佳TMT律师”榜单的律师，也期待他们在未来继续见证并参与到中国TMT行业的发展浪潮之中。
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曹宇 陈进进 龚炜炜 李勤 李伟 林邦 马林艳 邱建 阮振宇 王筱东 王新锐 王毅 吴涵 张新阳 张岩 |
今年的十五佳TMT律师们在充满挑战的2020年里依旧取得了卓越的成就。他们帮助企业把握投融资的利好条件与机遇，并始终以颇具前瞻性的眼光关注TMT行业监管动态，为企业提供与时俱进的法律服务和解决方案。ALB采访了部分上榜律师，聆听他们分享对TMT行业的观察和思考。
TMT行业监管动态
近年来，中国TMT行业迎来了快速发展的黄金期。2020年，尽管新冠疫情在第一季度给TMT行业的投资规模带来不小的冲击，但从第二季度开始，随着疫情逐步受到控制、国家出台各项扶持政策，TMT行业迅速回升，并表现出势不可挡的发展劲头。根据普华永道发布的2020年下半年中国TMT企业首次公开募股（IPO）数据，2020年全年，中国内地TMT企业IPO数量总计164起，较2019年全年增加近百分之五十八，共获得融资额约人民币3,468亿元，较2019年全年大幅增加近一倍。与此同时，TMT行业的法律监管也随之加快脚步。金杜律师事务所合伙人吴涵律师告诉ALB：“从法律监管的视角来看，基于行业有序经营与健康发展之目的，为更好地服务于国民经济与市场需求，TMT行业也将进入开放与监管并重的深水时代。”
“总体来看，TMT的行业监管环境呈现出‘多视角、多维度和多层次’的客观变化趋势，”吴律师说。他解释道，首先，TMT行业监管不再满足于传统意义上的企业资质证照、反垄断和反不正当竞争审查，以及个人信息保护等基本视角。随着云计算、5G、人工智能等技术水平的不断进步，TMT企业的生产经营多体现出业务上复杂的内部联动性，TMT行业监管也逐渐向整体产品或者服务模式渗透的多维度合规方向发展。
其次，TMT行业监管的手段方式日趋多样，监管部门的执法“工具箱”不断丰富。自去年以来，随着《数据安全法》《个人信息保护法》以及《网络交易监督管理办法》等法律或法规草案的相继出台，监管主体被进一步赋予了监管权力与更多元的监管手段。与此同时，以市场监督管理部门、网信部门、工信部门以及各行业主管部门为代表的主要监管主体形成了专业化人才梯队，企业需要面临的合规风险也逐渐呈现出层次化的特征。
第三，TMT行业的监管也在加快与国际接轨。“随着国际社会对于TMT行业监管的多视角关注和TMT行业内贸易投资的分工合作深化，一些国际市场上通行的TMT贸易、投资与数据保护规则与国内监管趋势更多地呈现出对标与接轨的姿态，”吴律师说。
在此背景下，吴律师认为，TMT行业律师应该发挥其在专业领域内的法规政策信息优势，在充分了解与掌握时下监管热点、难点和痛点的基础上，结合客户的实际经营机制与合规需求，以全球市场一体化经营的眼光，有针对性地提供专业的法律咨询意见乃至整套合规设计方案。
“以金杜在网络安全、数据合规及资产治理相关领域内为客户提供的法律服务实践为例，”吴律师分享道，“为满足客户业务模式合规论证与差距整改需要，金杜团队在紧跟行业内监管风向的前提下，主动把握App个人信息保护专项执法的刚性要求，同时将法律专业服务定位到回归数据主体控制和资产合法化管理的高度，并且充分结合时下热议的数据要素市场资源配置及其背后的政策考虑，为客户提供个性化的、具备国际市场发展视野和行业前瞻性的法律合规服务。”
TMT投融资：机遇更多，难度更大
聊及近年来TMT投融资项目的特点，通商律师事务所高级合伙人张新阳律师表示，近年来，他和团队所从事的交易项目所涉及的业务形态发生了明显变化，业务类型主要集中在反垄断申报合规问题、在美中概股赴香港二次上市、港股分拆A股上市等，涉及极为复杂的境内外法律问题，这给法律服务行业带来了不小的挑战。
张律师举例说道：“例如，在某一A股下属的港股公司至A股上市项目中，针对发行人与大股东之间的同业竞争问题，我们根据丰富的A股经验，结合境内外监管规则、实践案例，基于企业所处的行业特点，就其与大股东因参股的第三方企业而形成的竞争关系，在符合上市规则和业务发展需求的前提下，进行了创新性的分析和灵活处理。在监管环境和资本市场日益变化的情况下，法律人需要密切关注最新政策动态，坚持一线工作，以应对资本市场和客户需求的变化，提出切实可行的合规解决方案。”
安理律师事务所高级合伙人王新锐律师及其团队一直为行业中占据领先地位的科技公司提供投融资相关的法律服务。在过去的两年里，王律师最明显的感受是“股权融资交易的难度在变大，投资方对于创业公司的要求普遍比之前要苛刻，而大额融资集中度也更高，创业公司的‘贫富分化’变得严重。”在此背景下，王律师认为，对于律师而言，无论是担任公司律师还是投资人律师，都要对时间窗口有准确判断，否则容易因小失大。
“我们在服务过程中会和客户进行深度沟通，了解其所在细分领域的竞争格局，帮助企业准备更灵活的交易安排，预留好多个接口，这样可以迅速而灵活地调整方案。以我们最近参与的股权融资项目为例，有一家公司原先的计划是境外融资，但最后调整方案，完成了境内股权并购，并整体进行了融资，”王律师分享道。
吴律师观察到，在TMT细分领域中，TMT企业上市、合并以及股权投融资交易项目近年来不断增多，以互联网科技公司和大数据、人工智能创新企业为代表的客户，得益于算法技术、数据资产等核心竞争力，逐渐成为了全球资本交易市场的“宠儿”。除此以外，吴律师的另一大感受是：“企业客户数据资产的合规性价值日渐凸显，成为投资者和上市交易或者自由市场竞争监管者的重点关注对象。”
这样的特点正在推动着法律专业服务模式本身的转向乃至变革。基于金杜团队协助某数据驱动型大型企业成功上市的项目经验，吴律师表示：“一方面，基于投融资监管与合规性审查的严格要求，数据作为企业资产与经营资源的合规性法律问题愈加突出，如何在现阶段法律法规框架内实现合法合规经营，亟需正视与优先解决；另一方面，作为客户顺利上市的专业法律服务团队组成之一，我们还需要扮演好双重角色，即在合规性问题探讨之外，需要与客户一道就优化商业经营模式的合法化框架，以及新技术发展和商业化变现能力的可持续性问题进行充分研讨，给出符合客观法律发展趋势的专业化意见。”
高效的知识管理帮助律师成为TMT行业专家
TMT行业的技术革新、企业发展与相关法制进程都处在飞速的发展之中。因此，知识管理对TMT律师的重要性不言而喻。王律师表示：“要想加深对TMT行业的理解，自己的学习只是入门的基础，一定要和行业的领先者在一起，在服务中向他们学习。”
在多年服务客户的过程中，王律师及其团队不断从客户那里获得高质量的信息输入，比如具有行业共性的问题和需求，这使得他们持续不断地进行相关知识积累、梳理和输出。
“仅去年一年，我们给客户写的专题研究报告就超过百万字，”王律师说。
安理律师事务所内部也高度重视知识管理，王律师告诉ALB，经过多年沉淀，他们已经形成了定期更新的十余份法律汇编和典型案例汇编、客户问题字典、行业实践库。“我们每年也会拿出不少时间精力用于翻译域外各类指引、报告，并进行整理、拆解，从中得到很多启发。另外，我本人也在北大、清华兼职讲授法律实务相关课程，也是一个系统梳理的过程，需要将实务中遇到的问题提炼成课堂上可以讨论的话题。”
吴律师也表示，经过多年的执业实践与经验沉淀，金杜在知识管理方面形成了基本满足于解决客户日常需求的知识信息获取与反馈的一套成熟的体系，并根据细分行业的不同客观需求，不断调整、完善和适应法律专业服务的变化与发展。在法律服务的智能化与平台化知识管理面向中，金杜已经为各专业细分领域的执业律师提供了强大的法律科技支持背景，极大地提高了法律专业服务工作的效率。
以金杜网络安全、数据合规与资产化治理等领域的专业团队为例，吴律师说：“在日常解决客户难题、服务客户法律需求的过程中，进行必要的技术经验提炼和知识要点总结亦是不可或缺的过程。我们金杜团队时常针对TMT企业客户中常出现的实践难点，结合法律法规的修订与监管趋势的实际变化，在进行一定的专题研究和内部研讨沟通后，形成针对类型化合规问题的知识体系。该套体系辅助我们为客户的潜在需求形成专业化的合规认知和规模化的经营解决方案，由此形成金杜团队在数据合规与治理业务方面独特的行业知识信息研究优势，以及专业法律服务特色。”
为企业出海保驾护航
随着越来越多的TMT企业走出国门，跨境合规成了许多企业所面临的问题，而TMT律师对境内外法律监管环境的了解，及其执业律所所拥有的国际化法律服务网络则成为了解决问题的关键要素。王律师告诉ALB，他和团队所服务的客户中，有多家都在主攻海外市场，在多个国家拥有数以亿计的用户，其中有不少企业都涉及横跨多个法域的数据保护相关合规工作。
“我们团队中有长期在国际律所工作的合伙人，我们和境外律师也有着紧密的工作联系，一些顶级国际律所也会推荐客户给我们。对于各国复杂的本地法律问题，我们还是会和当地律所合作，但不会只把境外律师直接介绍给客户，而是会负责很多沟通工作，协助境外律师理解中国公司的特点和业务需求。此外，我们也会给客户提供一些经过检验的同行实践案例作为参考，并以此帮助他们了解境外的法律要求。”
以出海企业的数据跨境合规为例，吴律师表示，金杜的数据法律服务团队形成了梯队化专业团队建设，并且积累了跨境经营领域内相当的实战经验，协助了国企、央企和其他出海科技企业满足不同司法辖区的数据合规法律要求，并在项目深入开展的后期阶段，从顶层设计的视角高度提供专业法律意见和可持续化商业方案。
此外，吴律师还告诉ALB，作为一家分布于全球29个城市的综合型国际律师事务所，金杜团队借助统一的全球平台优势和专业力量支持，实时掌握各司法辖区的法律更新与政策风向，为客户安全、顺利地“走出去”积极捕捉各国或地区数据保护监管政策的趋势研判并做出应对，高规格、实打实地满足科技监管法律要求，识别乃至规避潜在的商业经营风险。
未来展望
对于未来几年的工作计划，张律师表示，他和团队将结合监管环境变化以及企业发展特点，以具有前瞻性的视角看待问题，继续为客户提供兼具创新性和可行性的解决方案和法律服务。
王律师表示：“接下来的几年，由于可预见的立法进程和监管趋势，TMT领域各类合规和纠纷解决业务都会有爆发式增长。我希望能带领团队在大潮中冲大浪，当然这就需要先练好基本功。”
吴律师告诉ALB，数字经济领域的产品创新是法律服务的蓝海，为契合“数字化转型”新经济产业生态特征，金杜团队将跳出传统局限的法律服务解决方案，积极寻求数字经济业务领域、专业模式和服务类型的创新，不断拓展新型法律服务产品和业务机会。此外，为形成体系化的数字法律服务方案，金杜团队还将积极拓展数字经济创新产品的法律保护面，基于数据算法、人工智能产品等互联网科技领域中的法律实践难题，提供数字化的知识产权、商业/技术秘密保护等资产保护方案和反不正当竞争市场战略设计。
“究其根本，从数字时代向智能时代跨越，是人类社会生产力发展的历史规律。希望通过金杜团队在专业范畴内的积极尝试与坚持努力，通过优化蕴含了商业技术可持续发展顶层方案的高质量法律专业服务，我们的客户能够更自信从容地迈向商业智能时代，”吴律师说。
2021 ALB China Top 15 TMT Lawyers
In spite the challenges of 2020, the practitioners named in the 2021 ALB China Top 15 TMT Lawyers list recorded outstanding achievements – taking advantages of favorable conditions to help companies grasp good opportunities for investment and financing, constantly observing TMT industry regulatory trends with a forward-looking perspective, and providing companies with legal services and solutions that are in tune with the times. We spoke with some of the ranked lawyers to hear their observations and thoughts on the TMT industry.
REGULATORY TRENDS
China's TMT industry has entered a "golden period" of rapid development in recent years. Despite the great impact by the COVID-19 pandemic in the first quarter of 2020, the TMT industry has quickly rebounded and regained momentum since the beginning of the second quarter as the pandemic gradually came under control and the authorities introduced various support policies. According to the data released by PricewaterhouseCoopers on initial public offerings (IPOs) of Chinese TMT companies in the second half of 2020, the number of IPOs of mainland TMT companies totaled 164 in 2020, which is nearly 58 percent higher than that in 2019, and the total amount of financing is about 346.8 billion yuan ($53 billion), which nearly doubles that of 2019. The TMT industry regulation has also been further intensified at an expedited speed amid the rapid growth of the industry. "Speaking of regulation, the TMT industry is entering the 'deep-water' zone, where regulation and opening-up are equally emphasized with a view to ensuring the orderly operation and health development of the industry and better serving the national economy and market demand," Han Wu, partner at King & Wood Mallesons (KWM), tells ALB.
"The TMT industry regulatory environment sees a trend of objective changes, featuring multiple perspectives, dimensions and levels," Wu says. First, the TMT industry regulation is no longer the regulation in the traditional sense, which is limited to the basic matters such as checking enterprise qualification certificates, anti-trust and anti-unfair competition review, and personal information protection. With the continuous technological advancement of cloud computing, 5G, and artificial intelligence, complex internal business linkages are the new feature of the production and operation activities of TMT companies. Given that, the TMT industry regulation has gradually penetrated the multi-dimensional compliance of the overall product or service model.
Secondly, the regulatory authorities use more diversified means and "toolbox" in the TMT industry regulation. With the promulgation and implementation of the Data Security Law, the Personal Information Protection Law, the Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Online Transactions, and several other related laws or draft regulations since last years, regulatory bodies are further empowered and equipped with more diversified regulatory measures. Meanwhile, given that the specialized echelons have been formed at the main regulatory bodies including market supervision and administration departments, cybersecurity and informatization departments, industry and information departments, and competent departments of industries, TMT companies are faced with the compliance risks with a hierarchical characteristics.
And finally, the authorities endeavor to accelerate the process of bringing TMT industry regulation in line with international standards. "As the TMT industry regulation has been a main concern of the international community which involves different perspectives of matters, and the division of work and cooperation in trade and investment within the TMT industry have been further clarified and strengthened, we observes a trend that China's TMT industry regulatory rules are gradually brought in line with those prevailing TMT trade, investment and data protection rules in the international market," Wu says.
Wu points out that in this context, it is very important for TMT lawyers to keep abreast of and fully understand the current regulatory hot spots, and difficult and pain points, and leverage their expertise and good understanding of the industry regulations and policies to give legal opinions or even provide clients with a complete set of compliance solutions in light of clients' actual operating mechanisms and compliance needs and from the perspective of global market integration.
“Take KWM's legal practices in the areas of cyber security, data compliance and asset governance for example," Wu shares with ALB. "A client approached us and asked us to help them with business model compliance demonstrations and gap rectifications. KWM's team, based on the in-depth understanding of the prevailing industry regulatory trend, actively grasped the rigid legal requirements for Apps concerning personal information protection, provided the legal services with the focus on data subject control and asset legalization management, and fully took into account the hotspot issues concerning the allocation of resources in the data element market and the related policies. By doing so, our team provided the client with customized and industry forward-looking legal and compliance services with an international market development perspective."
TMT INVESTMENT AND FINANCE BECOMING MORE COMPLEX
Talking about the characteristics of TMT investment and financing projects in recent years, Xinyang Zhang, senior partner at Commerce & Finance Law Offices, observes that the transaction projects have undergone remarkable changes – most of the transactions involved anti-trust declaration compliance issues, China Concepts Stocks listed in the U.S. return to Hong Kong for a secondary listing, and Hong Kong listed companies spin off subsidiaries for A-share listing – which involved extremely complex domestic and foreign legal issues, posing great challenges to the legal profession.
"For example, we did a project in which a Hong Kong listed subsidiary of an A-share company intends to list on the A-share market, but there is horizontal competition between the stock issuer and the major shareholders. Given that, we carried out a lot of researches on domestic and overseas regulatory rules and real cases, and then did innovative analysis based on our rich A-share experience and in light of the industry characteristics and the fact that the competitive relationship between the issuer and the major shareholders was formed through their capital participation in a third-party company, and finally we came up with a flexible solution for the client which complies with the listing rules and business development needs. In the context of the ever-changing regulatory environment and capital market, legal professionals need to keep abreast of the latest policy developments and endeavor to gain firsthand experience, so as to quickly respond to or adapt to changes in the capital market and clients' needs, and propose practical and feasible compliance solutions," Zhang says.
Xinrui Wang, senior partner at Anli Partners, leads his team to provide investment and financing related legal services for top technology companies. Wang says that in the past two years, what impressed him the most is that "equity financing transactions have been more difficult to deal with, and investors in general have posed more stringent requirements for startups than before; and meanwhile large project financing has been more concentrated than ever, and the problem of 'the polarization of wealth' among the startups has become quite serious." He believes that for lawyers, whether serving as corporate lawyers or investors' lawyers, they must have an accurate judgment on the 'time window,' otherwise a minor mistake might lead to a major loss.
"We believe that effective communication with clients is an important way to understand the competition landscapes in their niche markets, based on which we can help them prepare more flexible transaction arrangements, and set up a number of interfaces allowing quick and flexible adjustments to the plans. We recently participated in an equity financing case, in which the company originally planned for an overseas financing project, but in the end, it adjusted its plan and completed domestic equity mergers and acquisitions, and then carried out the financing as a whole," Wang says.
Wu observes that the TMT industry sees more and more listings, mergers, and equity investment and financing transactions in recent years. By virtue of algorithm technology and data assets as their core competitiveness, Internet technology companies as well as big data and artificial intelligence innovation companies have gradually become the global capital trading market darling. "Furthermore, the compliance value of corporate client data assets has gradually become one of the major concerns of investors and regulators of listed transactions and free market competition," Wu adds.
These TMT project characteristics are in fact driving the transformation or reform of the legal service mode. KWM assisted a large data-driven company to successfully go public (this year), "from which we learnt that, on the one hand, because of the strict requirements of investment and financing regulatory and compliance review, the compliance issues related to using data as corporate assets and operating resources become increasingly prominent, therefore, how to ensure the legal and compliance operation within the current framework of laws and regulation was our first priority; on the other hand, as one of the legal service teams helping with the successful IPO of the company, we played a 'dual role' – while ensuring the compliance operation, we ought to work together with the client on seeking the legal framework for optimizing the business operation model and ensuring the sustainability of the new technology development and commercialization – so as to give professional advice objectively which is in line with the legal development trend," Wu says.
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT CRITICAL
The TMT industry is undergoing rapid development, including technological innovation, enterprise development, and related legal processes. Therefore, knowledge management is of great significance for TMT lawyers. "To gain better and in-depth understanding of the TMT industry, we need to work together with the industry leaders and learn from them while providing services," Wang says.
While serving their clients, Wang and his team have continuously obtained high-quality information inputs from their clients, such as common problems and needs of the industry, based on which they have been carrying out the related knowledge accumulation, sort-out and outputs.
"Last year alone, we prepared special research reports for our clients with more than a million words," Wang says.
Anli attaches great importance to knowledge management. The firm has a well-established knowledge management system, including more than ten periodically-updated law collections and typical case collections, a dictionary on clients-related issues, and an industry practice database. "Each year, we devote a lot of time and energy to translating various types of overseas guidelines and reports, and then sort them out according to our needs. In addition, I teach part-time at Peking University and Tsinghua University the legal practice-related courses. When preparing the lessons, I sort out the knowledge, information and practices systematically to come up with questions for classroom discussions," Wang shares with us.
Based on years of practices and experiences, KWM has set up a complete knowledge management system covering knowledge and information acquisition and feedback, which can meet the day-to-day needs of clients. Furthermore, the firm continuously updates the system in light of the different needs of different industries to adapt to the changes and development of legal services. By setting up smart platform for knowledge management, KWM provides its practicing lawyers with strong legal technology support covering all its practice areas, enabling the lawyers to greatly improve their work efficiency.
Taking the cyber security, data compliance and asset management teams of KWM for examples, Wu says: "When helping clients solve their problems and serving their legal needs in the day-to-day work, it is necessary to summarize what we have learnt from those experiences, as well as the key knowledge points. At KWM, we regularly have special studies and internal discussions on difficult problems encountered when providing legal services for TMT companies, and come up with solutions in line with the revisions of laws and regulations and the actual changes in regulatory trends, and then include the solutions under different categories of compliance issues in our knowledge system. This system enables us to address clients' potential needs in compliance, and help them to develop feasible and compliance large-scale business solutions. By virtue of this system, KWM has built its unique strength in industry knowledge and information research in areas of data compliance and governance business, and provides legal services with distinctive characteristics."
LOOKING OVERSEAS
Cross-border compliance poses challenges to Chinese TMT companies that intend to go global. An in-depth understanding of the regulatory environment at home and abroad and establishing a strong international legal service network have become the key to helping Chinese TMT companies to tackle the challenges. Wang of Commerce & Finance tells ALB that many of their clients mainly target the overseas markets since they have hundreds of millions of users in foreign countries, and some of them need the firm to provide data protection related compliance services involving a number of jurisdictions.
"As we have partners on our team who had years of experiences working at international law firms, and meanwhile we have been working closely with lawyers of foreign firms, some top international law firms would recommend clients to us from time to time. When handling cases involving complex local legal issues of foreign countries, instead of directly referring the clients to foreign firms, we would work closely with those firms, helping Chinese companies to communicate with the foreign firms, and meanwhile helping foreign lawyers to understand the characteristics and business needs of Chinese companies. In addition, we provide our clients with some proven peer practice cases as a reference to help them understand the legal requirements of foreign countries," Wang says.
According to Wu, KWM's data legal service team has built specialized echelons to provide cross-border data compliance services for Chinese companies that are going global, accumulated considerable practical experience in the cross-border operations, and helped State-owned enterprises, central enterprises, and other technology companies to meet the data compliance legal requirements of different jurisdictions in the process of going global. Furthermore, the team provides clients with legal advice and sustainable business solutions from the top-down perspective after the projects have landed and gone into later-stage implementation.
As a comprehensive international law firm with offices in 29 cities around the world, KWM has built a unified global platform to provide its lawyers with strong supports in their practice areas, enabling them to keep abreast of the law updates and policy trends in various jurisdictions in real time, and to make good judgments on the data protection regulatory policy trends in different countries. With the support, KWM lawyers are able to help clients pave the way for "going global" in terms of satisfying the regulatory requirements for the technology sector in a high-standard and practical manner, and identifying and avoiding potential business risks, Wu says.
BRIGHT FUTURE
Regarding the work plan for the next few years, Zhang says that he and his team will continue to keep up with the changes in the regulatory environment and look at issues from a forward-looking perspective, and provide clients with innovative and feasible solutions and legal services in light of enterprises' development characteristics.
"Given the foreseeable legislative process and regulatory trends, we predict that all types of compliance and dispute resolution business in the TMT industry will see explosive growth in the next few years. I hope that we would ride the tailwinds of the rapid development of the TMT industry to make greater achievements. Of course, we need to build solid basic skills first," Wang says.
Wu says that product innovation in the digital economy is the blue ocean of legal services. With a view to tailoring their services to the ecological characteristics of the "digital transformation" in the new economy industry, KWM team will no longer limit their services to providing traditional legal solutions; instead, they will actively seek innovation in the digital economy business areas in terms of service models and service types, and continuously develop new legal service products and seek new business opportunities. In addition, in order to form a systematic digital legal service plan and address legal practice challenges in the field of Internet technology such as data algorithm and artificial intelligence products, KWM team will actively expand the legal protection of innovative products in the digital economy, and provide services such as formulating schemes for the protection of assets such as digital intellectual property rights and trade/technical secrets, and designing anti-unfair competition market strategy.
"The digital era is evolving into the intelligence era, which is the law of the development of human social productive forces. We will endeavor to continuously optimize our services and provide our clients with top solutions for the sustainable development of business technology, so as to help them thrive in the coming new era," Wu says.
To contact the editorial team, please email ALBEditor@thomsonreuters.com.
