尽管2020年挑战重重，中国的诉讼律师们依然取得了非凡成就，不仅在疑难复杂案件中力挽狂澜，为客户赢得有利判决，还在法律服务过程中提供了高品质客户体验。2021新年伊始，这些杰出的诉讼律师们也期待着更加精彩的未来。
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陈若剑 黄荣楠 李皓 李立坤 李昭 秦悦民 孙彬彬 王家路 王囝囝 姚晓敏 尤杨 臧洪亮 张光磊 周劲龙 周曦 |
如果用一个词来形容今年上榜的诉讼律师，那就是坚韧。在疫情的重压之下，他们依旧步履不停地保持高效工作、持续学习，并快速适应线上办案的工作方式，不仅为客户赢得有利判决，还在案件办理的过程中为他们极佳的法律服务体验。我们与部分上榜律师聊了聊他们在过去的一年中所感受到的变化与发展，以及对未来的期待。
新冠疫情对诉讼业务的影响
2020年的新冠疫情对诉讼律师的业务产生了深远的影响。上半年，很多案件处理程序都难以避免地受到拖延甚至处于停滞阶段。然而，律师们的脚步并未因此停下。兰台律师事务所高级合伙人姚晓敏律师表示，她和团队在此期间高效学习研究了民法典、九民纪要以及各种司法解释，每周组织团队交换学习成果和学习经验，以不断扩充的知识储备武装头脑。海润天睿律师事务所高级合伙人周劲龙律师也表示，他们的团队会就专业问题进行更多的深入研究，定期撰写分析文章，在团队内部进行共享。
“我们响应客户在经济发展过程中的新变化，当涉及合同履行障碍相关的问题时，我们的工作重心已经从过去的合同条款设计、交易结构设计、合同条款解读转移到如何帮助客户化解合同履行风险，甚至有时还要帮助客户解决破产重组以及债券兑付等问题。这就要求律师提高综合解决问题的能力，而不是简单地给客户一个是否能打赢官司的预判。”
—姚晓敏，兰台律师事务所
疫情带来的另一大影响则是合同容易因此产生履行障碍，从而导致合同纠纷案件明显增多，且涉及多个领域，案情也更加复杂，对律师提出了更高要求。姚律师说：“我们响应客户在经济发展过程中的新变化，当涉及合同履行障碍相关的问题时，我们的工作重心已经从过去的合同条款设计、交易结构设计、合同条款解读转移到如何帮助客户化解合同履行风险，甚至有时还要帮助客户解决破产重组以及债券兑付等问题。这就要求律师提高综合解决问题的能力，而不是简单地给客户一个是否能打赢官司的预判。”
为了应对这样的挑战，中伦律师事务所权益合伙人孙彬彬律师在2020年伊始就带领团队紧跟法律更新的脚步，持续地开展内部的业务研究。同时，结合最高院和各地中、高院、各仲裁机构对于案件审理的不同要求乃至不同特点，优化团队承办各类商事案件规范和细节，提升案件的办理质量，全方位多角度地实施代理策略，有效地实现客户的诉求，赢得了众多客户持续的信赖和行业内的优秀口碑。
“我们始终坚信，争议解决律师是一项需要日积月累的工作，唯有愈加专业才能不断超越。”孙律师说。
除了业务量的增多，竞天公诚律师事务所合伙人张光磊律师还表示，在新冠疫情爆发后，虽然国际商事交易不如往常频繁，但市场环境的突变导致了很多新型争议的产生，例如，在投资并购交易中，受市场因素的影响，对赌条件触发，产生大量股权回购和业绩补偿有关的争议；在国际贸易中，因防疫物资出口引发的争议亦频繁发生；因国际体育赛事取消，与之相关的场馆租赁、门票发售及商业代言等争议亦随之产生。
“在裁判规则参考较少的情况下，如何适用现有法律有效解决争议，是裁判者面临的挑战。因此，争议解决律师应从规范、学理到实践做细致的研究，深入分析相似案件的裁判原理，以具有说服力的分析论证帮助裁判者寻求新的裁判思路。”
—张光磊，竞天公诚律师事务所
“在裁判规则参考较少的情况下，如何适用现有法律有效解决争议，是裁判者面临的挑战。因此，争议解决律师应从规范、学理到实践做细致的研究，深入分析相似案件的裁判原理，以具有说服力的分析论证帮助裁判者寻求新的裁判思路。”张光磊律师说。
除了对业务产生影响，新冠疫情还催生了工作方式上的改变——线上办案。天同律师事务所高级合伙人李皓律师表示，疫情推动了争议解决机构线上办案系统的大范围使用，而疫情导致的流动性障碍也导致线上办案需求激增，线上开庭、谈话、质证的应用越来越广泛，这将有可能改变律师今后的工作模式，律师行业需要尽快适应。
通商律师事务所合伙人王家路律师也有同感。他指出，线上开庭俨然已由新生事物转变为“新常态”，这就对律师与法庭打交道的方式、律所对办公室软硬件环境的打造提出了新的要求。
从现场“交锋”变成线上“对决”实属不易，但是，几位律师在采访中均表示，通过快速适应、及时调整，工作依然可以有条不紊地进行下去。周律师在团队内部进行了线上模拟开庭的形式来“练兵”，不仅保持了律师与当事人之间的沟通，让客户看到律师的工作并没有因为疫情而中断，还有效地对庭审进行预判，做出周全的准备。这样灵活的工作方式也收获了积极的客户反响。
取胜的关键
胜诉率是评判一名诉讼律师最直接的标准之一，甚至影响着其案源、口碑和行业影响力，其重要性不言而喻。那么诉讼律师如何才能提高胜诉率、最大化客户的获胜可能性？几位上榜律师在采访中分享了各自的经验。
“要坚持用法律关系、请求权基础和法律思维的逻辑方法来看待案件，善用请求权基础和法律关系处理案件，有时能对撬动案件的走向起到四两拨千斤的效果。”
—孙彬彬，中伦律师事务所
孙律师表示，致胜要求律师具备极为扎实的基本功、对案件事实的精准把握以及对细节的一丝不苟。“最为重要的是，要坚持用法律关系、请求权基础和法律思维的逻辑方法来看待案件，善用请求权基础和法律关系处理案件，有时能对撬动案件的走向起到四两拨千斤的效果。”
李律师指出，客观来说，有相当数量的案件的结果是可以稳定预期的，在处理这类案件时，律师的主要工作是把基础工作做扎实，避免出现失误；另一部分案件则处于不稳定状态，受到事实、法律、政策等多重因素影响，但这部分案件也最能体现律师的工作价值。对于此类案件，律师要尽可能地挖掘事实细节，将事实固定到牢不可破的状态。
李律师曾在一起金融案件中，将客户方涉及交易的所有相关工作人员，从基层员工直至副总裁逐一进行访谈，制作表格进行比对，发现差异点，再逐一进行核实确认。“这种笨功夫能把事实的不确定性降到最低，为后续的法律论证打下坚实基础。”李律师说。
此外，他还指出，作为诉讼律师，庭审是关键。对于疑难案件，他和团队采用模拟法庭的方式进行庭审演练，通过攻防互换，查缺补漏，精雕细琢庭审的每一个环节。“诉讼代理是一项系统的工作，一名优秀的代理律师需要各方面的能力：细心、专业、善于表达、敏于应变……这些能力综合起来，才能在每个案件的代理中，将不确定渐渐转变为确定，直至胜诉。”李律师总结道。
王律师分享了成功三要素：当事人有理、律师高度专业、团队的执行力强。
对于第一个要素，王律师解释道：“当事人请我评估的案件，很多都是已经经历了两审程序，甚至已经经历过重审或再审。有的案件，虽然当事人有理，但是法院考虑到已生效判决的‘既判力’和纠错的成本，不一定会采取撤销原审判决的纠错方式，所以当事人继续往下走法律程序，得到支持的可能性也许只有1%。我经常说，虽然看上去只有1%的胜诉几率，但如果我们不出击，胜诉的可能性就是零。所以，对于这类疑难案件，当事人若想获得胜诉结果，首先要找到对的律师，其次是要充分信任律师的专业性，之后才有提起程序、制订并执行方案，进而获得有利结果的可能。”
那么什么样的律师才算是“对”的律师呢，这就涉及到王律师提出的第二个要素：足够专业的律师。他说：“执业几十年来，我研究、评估过的诉讼案件得有数千起。有的案件明明当事人很有道理，却从一审打到再审也没有取得理想的效果；也有的案件看上去困难重重，却实现了当事人诉求，取得了使其满意的效果。可以说，代理律师的水平在案件的处理过程中起到了至关重要的作用。好的律师不仅要专业技能过硬，更要懂交易、有全局意识；律师全面了解客户在诉讼案件之外的交易目的，对案件的成功处理具有重要作用，也更有助于律师向法庭解释清楚案件的内在逻辑和是非曲直。优秀的律师必须能敏锐迅速地捕捉案件的核心，在繁杂的信息和证据中快速找到切入点和关键线索。”
对于第三个要素——团队的执行力强，王律师表示，评估案件、制订诉讼方案只是开始，后续的案件推进、流程把控，都需要法律服务团队全面统筹、及时跟进，任何一个环节都不能疏忽。另外，相关机构和新闻媒体对司法活动的监督有时也对案件取胜具有一定的作用。
过程与结果同样重要
除了取得有利的判决结果，客户近几年来对法律服务过程中的体验也提出了更高的要求。正如孙律师所说：“律师职业的基本属性即是运用专业的法律方法为当事人提供法律服务。对于服务的接受者，也就是当事人来说，除了案件的结果之外，对于案件进程的了解和信赖感也是评价法律服务的重要指标。”因此，保持良好的沟通成为优化法律服务体验的关键。
孙律师分享了她和团队的做法：“一方面要对案件取得最有利的结果穷尽洪荒之力，一方面也需要让客户对不断发展的案件进程有明确的了解。这就需要对客户的需求进行精准识别；对于案件办理过程中取得的发展要及时向客户沟通，并要能结合丰富的办案经验给予客户准确的预期判断、帮助客户及时作出决策。这种对客户高度负责的工作方式，不仅对案件的全流程管理有所裨益，而且增强了客户的信赖和认可，使得我们成为客户商业发展中的重要支持力量和可靠的纠纷解决专家。”
李律师也采取了类似的做法。他说：“我的一贯做法是坚持流程化作业，将不同代理阶段的每一份工作都及时向客户进行报备。这一方面能有效缓解客户因对代理情况不了解而产生的担忧，另一方面也有利于律师内部形成规范化的作业流程。经检验，客户对这种工作方式的反馈都是积极的，也确实有助于降低我们与客户之间的沟通成本，增加他们的信赖感，让代理工作变得更为顺畅。”
张律师也强调了及时沟通的重要性。在办案过程中，张律师坚持与客户保持密切的沟通，就客户提出的问题给予及时耐心的解答；从案件策略的制定、证据的收集到法律文书的起草，皆适时向客户做必要的解释并征求客户的意见。
“与客户保持良好的沟通，是律师职业伦理的要求。”张律师说。
除了保持沟通，姚律师还提出，要让客户深度参与到案件办理的过程中来，在使其深切感受到案件复杂程度的同时，诉讼律师也要善于学习客户的智慧。今年，姚律师及其团队代理了某银行的诉讼案件，在准备期间，客户专程从昆明赶来，参与到模拟庭审的过程中，与律师共同进行研判，预判了对方有可能提出的观点。在正式开庭的过程中，几乎没有超出姚律师及其团队预判的情况，极大地提振了客户信心。最终，在为客户赢得有利判决的同时，也增强了客户对其团队的信赖。
周律师也认同并采取让客户参与到案件研讨和预判过程中来的做法。他指出：“这样做有两大好处：一是把客户的力量调动起来，二是更容易与客户建立起深入的沟通和了解，也能够避免最终判决结果成为客户评判律师工作是否尽责的唯一依据。”
聊及未来发展，孙律师指出，随着营商环境的不断提升和经济市场的风云变幻，未来的商事争议必会更加专业化、复杂化。“我们一直致力于打造高水平的专业争议解决团队，因而持续更新我们的专业储备，增强卓越的专业应战能力，积累丰富的实践经验将是我们始终不变的发展方向。未来，我与我的团队将进一步以优化纠纷解决方案为目标，将多元化的争议解决路径在更多的复杂案件中贯彻实施，进一步提升争议解决领域业务精细化程度，保持争议解决领域团队的卓越表现。”
李律师未来将继续深耕金融、公司、担保等方向的争议解决业务。通过结合今年《公司法》修订，他将持续钻研公司法领域前沿实务问题，致力于让团队在这一方向上做到理论与实务齐头并进。
“我总有一个想法：律师作为法律共同体的一员，有能力也有义务做些理论贡献。”李律师说。
周律师表示，未来，希望在工作方法，尤其是市场拓展方面取得更多的突破，也期待和同行、媒体有更多交流与合作。此外，周律师还说：“我们正在考虑就同类型的案件推出一个相对标准化的法律服务产品。目前，这一想法还在论证阶段，也将是我们未来研究的方向之一。”
张律师的未来计划则结合了诉讼实务与法学教育：“未来五年，我会一如既往地坚持做好一名争议解决律师，并努力在跨境争议解决领域有所进步。同时，我在担任法学院导师的过程中，会尽己所能，与学生分享知识和经验，帮助他们了解争议解决律师的职业特点，解答他们职业规划中的困惑。长远而言，我希望以自己的专业表现和执业风格影响更多的人，为中国律师在跨境争议解决领域的发展贡献更多的力量。”
王律师分享道：“做律师30年，我最深切的体会是‘守正’重于‘创新’。就业务而言，留住老客户，永远比开拓新客户更重要；就团队而言，做好既有成员的培养和发展计划，永远比盲目地壮大队伍更重要。所以，未来20年乃至更长的时间里，我仍然希望亲手培养出一代代优秀的年轻诉讼律师，并与他们一起，为很多当事人那1%的胜诉几率而争取、奋斗。对于业务开发模式，现在很多律所尤其是一些新兴律所借助‘互联网+’的新经济东风，通过各种创新形式做宣传推广。这一定程度上倒逼我们这些‘老同志’也要做出一定程度的革新。我的想法是，传统的律师‘坐等’模式需要一些新经济下的其他形式的创新补充。比如可以通过第三方资助的形式为优质客户和优秀律师搭建沟通桥梁；另一方面，充分利用新方式进行信息交换和宣传的同时，还是要适当注意，避免过度宣传以及与同行恶性竞争。还是那句话，‘守正’重于‘创新’，基于‘守正’进行“创新”。”
姚律师表示，她的团队一直以成为市场上最一流的金融法律服务团队为目标，每一年都在用具体的、可分解的方法去实现这一目标。受益于兰台一体化的机制，诉讼律师也会参与到一些非诉的交易中来，从而更加深刻地理解当今错综复杂的金融产品及其本质上的法律关系；同理，非诉律师也会参与到一些诉讼案件的处理中，从而了解风险点，在起草合同时抓住关键点，更好地规避风险。这种打通团队的做法，将帮助兰台的诉讼和非诉律师共同组成一流的金融法律服务者。
2021 ALB China Top 15 Litigators
Despite the challenges in 2020, China’s litigators still achieved great results by winning positive results for their clients and delivering high-quality service experiences during the process. And with 2021 well and truly underway, these outstanding litigators are looking to an even brighter future.
The litigators ranked this year perfectly illustrate one word: Resilience. In spite of the enormous pressure COVID-19 pandemic placed on the industry, these lawyers continued to work efficiently, kept learning, and quickly accommodated themselves to the new working way – handling cases online. They not only obtained favourable judgments for their clients, but also provided them with excellent legal service experience. We talked with some of the winners to hear their views about changes and developments in the past year, and their expectations for the future.
COVID-19 IMPACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound and far-reaching impact on the litigation business. Given the pandemic, many cases handling procedures had to be delayed or even suspended during the first six months of 2020. But the lawyers never stop working actually. Yao Xiaomin, senior partner at Lantai Partners, says that she and her team used that period of time to carefully study the Civil Code, the Minutes of the National Work Meeting on Civil and Commercial Court Trials, and all related judicial interpretations. And every week, Yao organized her team members to share with each other what they have learnt and how they thought about it every week, to help all members continuously expand their knowledge reserves. Zhou Jinlong, senior partner at Hai Run Law Firm, tells ALB that during that time, his team did more in-depth researches on some specific issues in the practice, regularly wrote analysis articles, and then shared them with the whole team.
"We always quickly respond to the changes in client demand in the process of economic development. When our clients have problems related to performance of contracts, we immediately shifted our work focus from the design of contract terms, the design of transaction structure and the interpretation of contract terms, to helping our clients resolve contract performance-related risks, or sometimes helping them solve problems such as bankruptcy, restructuring and bond redemption. So, we always try to give our clients comprehensive solutions, instead of simply giving clients a pre-judgement on whether they can win the lawsuit."
—Yao Xiaomin, Lantai Partners
The COVID-19 pandemic also brought a lot of contract issues, especially the execution of contracts, which has led to a significant increase in contract dispute cases. These cases are usually very complex and involve many sectors and fields, posing greater requirements for lawyers. "We always quickly respond to the changes in client demand in the process of economic development. When our clients have problems related to performance of contracts, we immediately shifted our work focus from the design of contract terms, the design of transaction structure and the interpretation of contract terms, to helping our clients resolve contract performance-related risks, or sometimes helping them solve problems such as bankruptcy, restructuring and bond redemption. So, we always try to give our clients comprehensive solutions, instead of simply giving clients a pre-judgement on whether they can win the lawsuit," Yao says.
In response to the challenges, Sun Binbin, equity partner at Zhong Lun Law Firm, led his team to start internal business researches in line with the pace of legislation updates, since the beginning of 2020. Sun led his team to carefully study and different requirements and characteristics of the Supreme People's Court, as well as medium and high people's courts and arbitration institutions at different places in terms of the hearings of cases, and then optimized the norms and details of all types commercial cases undertaken by the team, thereby improving the quality of case handling. Furthermore, under Sun's leadership, the team implements an all-round agency strategy to effectively realize the demands of clients, and wins the continuous trust of many clients and great reputation in the industry.
"We believe that what makes a good dispute resolution lawyer is the accumulation of knowledge and work experience; and what makes a better dispute resolution lawyer is the continuous growth in expertise," Sun says.
In addition to the increase in the number of contract dispute cases, there have been many cases involving new types of disputes, says Zhang Guanglei, partner at Jingtian & Gongcheng. Although international commercial transactions reduced in number since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the sudden changes in the market environment have led to many new types of disputes. For example, in investment and M&A transactions, Valuation Adjustment Mechanism (VAM) agreement conditions were triggered due to market factors, which led to a large number of related disputes; in international trade, disputes arising from the export of epidemic prevention supplies occurred frequently; and due to cancellation of international sports events, there were also many disputes related to venue leasing, ticket sales and commercial endorsement deals.
"Given that there are not many adjudication rules can be referred to, how to apply prevailing laws to effectively resolve disputes is a challenge faced by adjudicators. Therefore, dispute resolution lawyers need to carefully study the norms, legal principles, and practices, and conduct in-depth analysis of the adjudication principles of similar cases, so that they can present persuasive analysis and argumentation to help adjudicators seek new adjudication ideas."
—Zhang Guanglei, Jingtian & Gongcheng
"Given that there are not many adjudication rules can be referred to, how to apply prevailing laws to effectively resolve disputes is a challenge faced by adjudicators. Therefore, dispute resolution lawyers need to carefully study the norms, legal principles, and practices, and conduct an in-depth analysis of the adjudication principles of similar cases, so that they can present persuasive analysis and argumentation to help adjudicators seek new adjudication ideas," Zhang says.
In addition to the impact on business, the COVID-19 pandemic has also changed the way how litigation lawyers work –– handling cases online. Li Hao, senior partner at TianTong Law Firm, says that because of the pandemic, many dispute resolution agencies launched online systems, which have been widely used due to lockdowns and travel restrictions. More and more court sessions, conversations, and cross-examination are conducted online nowadays. It might bring permanent changes to the working mode of lawyers, requiring the legal industry to adapt quickly.
Wang Jialu, partner at Commerce & Finance Law Offices, echoes Li's opinion. He points out that online court sessions have already become a "new normal", posing new requirements for law firm and lawyers in terms of the way interacting with courts, and the office software and hardware environment.
It is not easy to change from having "arguments" face to face to doing it virtually. But the lawyers interviewed say that through quick adaptation and active adjustment, the work can still proceed in an orderly manner. Zhou led his team to conduct online imitation trials to help the team to get used to the new mode quickly. They also involved their clients into the online work to maintain close communication with them, letting their clients see that the related work was not stopped by the pandemic, and their lawyers were making thorough preparations for court sessions and making rational pre-judgements. These flexible working modes received positive responses from clients.
KEYS TO WIN
For litigation lawyers, the number of cases they win is one of the most direct assessment criteria, and even may have an impact on their sources of clients, and their reputation and industry influence. How to increase the "win rate" in trials and maximize possibility for clients to win cases? The lawyers interviewed share with us their experiences.
"The most important thing is that we must adhere to the logical approach of legal relations, the basis of claim rights and legal thinking, and make good use of the basis of claim rights and legal relations to handle cases, which can sometimes change the direction of the cases rather easily."
—Sun Binbin, Zhong Lun Law Firm
To win a case, it requires lawyers to have very solid basic skills, precise grasp of the facts of the cases, and careful attention to details. "The most important thing is that we must adhere to the logical approach of legal relations, the basis of claim rights and legal thinking, and make good use of the basis of claim rights and legal relations to handle cases, which can sometimes change the direction of the cases rather easily," Sun says.
Li points out that the results of a considerable number of cases are actually predictable. When handling those cases, the most important thing is to do everything in a careful and solid way to avoid mistakes. There are also cases in which the results are affected by factors such as facts, laws, and policies, and therefore unpredictable. But the value of lawyers' work is best manifested in such cases. When handling these cases, lawyers should try their best to dig out the details of the facts, and make sure the facts are solid and irrefutable.
Li shares with us one financial case he handled, in which he talked with all the relevant staff of the client who were involved in the transaction, from basic-level employees to the vice president, one by one, and then made a comparison tables to find different points, and verified the points one by one. "This kind of intricate work can minimize the uncertainty of the facts and lay a solid foundation for subsequent legal arguments," Li says.
Li also points out that as a litigation lawyer, court sessions are the key. When handling difficult cases, he and his team would first carry out imitation trials to test theories or experiment with each other, so as to find out the weak points and deficiencies, and carefully design each link in the court sessions. "Representing clients in litigation is a systematic work. An excellent lawyer needs have various abilities, to name a few, attentive, professional, good at expressing, and quick to respond. A litigation lawyer needs use all these abilities comprehensively to ascertain facts, solve problems, and ultimately win the lawsuit," Li summarizes.
Wang points to three elements of success: the party concerned has justifiable grounds, the lawyers are highly professional, and an agile team works efficiently.
Regarding the first element, Wang says: "many clients came to me to evaluate cases that have gone through the first and second instances. Some of the cases even have undergone retrial. In some cases, although the parties concerned have justifiable grounds, the court might not make corrections by revoking the judgement that has come into force, considering the "res judicata" of the effective judgment and the cost of making corrections; therefore, if the parties concerned continue with the legal process, and the probability of getting the court's support may only be 1%. But I often say that although it seems that there is only 1% chance of winning the case, if we give up, the probability of winning is zero. Therefore, for those difficult cases, if the party we represent wants to win the case, they must first find the right lawyers, and secondly, they must fully trust their lawyers' professionalism, and then they can initiate the procedures, formulate and implement plans, and then work toward the possibility of winning favourable results."
Then what makes a “right" lawyer, which comes to the second attribute in Wang’s theory: professional expertise. According to Wang, “Over the past few decades of practicing law, I have studied and evaluated thousands of litigation cases. There are cases where the client made an assertion on obviously reasonable grounds, however, the litigation ends without the desired result despite tedious efforts made from the first instance to retrial. Contrarily, some cases seemed beset with difficulties, but the claims filed by the client were supported, delivering satisfactory results. To conclude, the professional expertise of the attorney at law is crucial to the processing of litigation cases. A good attorney is required to develop excellent professional capabilities, have an awareness of the deals involved, and stay focused on the big picture. Keeping informed of the objectives of the client in a deal, an attorney could steer the case in the desired direction, which also enables him/her to, before the court, account for the evolution of the litigation as well as the intrinsic logic behind it. A good lawyer shall be adept in nimbly and swiftly capturing the core focus in a case, and rapidly identify a starting point and key clues amongst sheer volume of information and evidence.”
Taking of the third attribute – strong execution of the team, according to Wang, it requires the legal service team to stay abreast of the full picture on resource allocation, follow up with all steps and procedures involved in the litigation, and closely watch on each step, whilst assessing the cases and developing litigation plans are just early-stage actions. Besides, sometimes supervision over judicial practices by competent authorities and the news media plays a role, to some extent, in winning the cases.
PROCESS MATTERS TOO
In addition to obtaining favourable verdicts, clients have demanded, over recent years, a higher level of experience in the legal service process. As Sun puts it, "The legal profession, by its fundamental nature, is to render legal services to clients with professional approaches. As to the recipient of such services, that is, the clients, in addition to case outcomes, being informed of the evolution of the case and forging a sense of trust are also important metrics for assessing the legal services rendered." That said, maintaining good communication is increasingly critical to improved legal service experience.
Sun shares the practices among her team: "We need to exhaust all our efforts to obtain the most favourable outcomes for cases, and meanwhile giving clients a clear understanding of how cases are evolved. To this end, we need to pinpoint client requirements, keep clients informed of the developments of case handling, and guide clients to set accurate expectations as well as make prompt decisions referring to our extensive experiences and capabilities in handling litigation cases. We remain highly accountable to clients. We have won more trust and recognition from clients as this approach helps manage the full workflows, fostering our status among our clients as an important support force for business development and as a reliable dispute resolution expert.”
Li has acted likewise. As he puts it, "As a rule, I adhere to established workflows, and promptly report what I do in each step of representation to the clients. This will effectively calm clients as they may be at a loss about how legal representation works. Besides, it is also conducive to standardizing workflow processes among attorneys involved. Such way of working has been tested to be efficient, as evidenced by positive feedbacks from clients, and it does help reduce the cost of communication with clients, build trust with clients, and increase efficiency."
Zhang also emphasizes the importance of communication. He closely liaises with clients in his counselling work, and often answers the questions of clients with patience and efficiency. He always makes explanations to clients when and as needed in connection with developing case handling strategies, collecting evidence and drafting legal instruments, and seeks clients’ opinions.
"Maintaining good communication with clients is an ethical requirement for lawyers," Zhang said.
According to Yao, in addition to maintaining close communications, lawyers are encouraged to have clients deeply involved in the case handling process, and to have clients perceive the complexity of the cases involved, in the course of which litigation attorneys may be inspired by clients. This year, Yao and her team represented a bank in a litigation case. During their preparation for the lawsuit, the client came all the way from Kunming, and participated in the mock trials. The client, together with the team, studied the case, and listed out the arguments the other party could raise. The formal trial proceeded smoothly, and there were hardly any circumstances beyond what Yao and her team predicted, which greatly boosted the client’s confidence. In the end, Yao and her team won a favourable verdict for the client and gained increased trust from the client.
Zhou also agrees and exercises the practice of involving clients in the case discussion and prejudging process. He points out, "This may benefit us from two aspects: first, it mobilizes the clients to get involved, and second, it is easier to forge a closer tie with clients and facilitate in-depth communication. By doing so, clients may no longer take the final verdict as the sole and only basis to measure if the attorneys have dutifully performed their tasks.
LOOKING INTO THE FUTURE
Talking about future development, Sun said that in the coming years, commercial disputes are poised to be increasingly specialised and complicated in the context of improving the business climate and rapidly changing economic landscape. “We have always been committed to building a high-level professional dispute resolution team. To that end, we will constantly update professional expertise and skillsets, enhance professional responsiveness, and build extensive and wide-ranging practical experiences. Looking ahead, for purpose of better dispute resolution experience, my team and I will practice diversified dispute resolution paths in more complicated cases, offer a higher level of granularity in offering professional expertise needed in dispute resolution area, and therefore maintain the excellence of our dispute resolution team.”
In the future, Li will continue to be fully committed to dispute resolution practices that involve finance, corporate and guarantee areas. Following amendments to the Company Law this year, he will continue to study the practical issues in connection with the company law that comes to the fore and devotes his team to make both theoretical and practical progress in this area.
"I always have had the thought that lawyers, as part of the legal community, are able to and obliged to make some theoretical contributions." Li said.
Zhou hopes to make breakthroughs in work approaches to earn more business in the future, and also expects to communicate and cooperate more with peers and media. He adds: ”We are planning to launch a standardized legal service product for cases of the same type. For now, this idea is being contemplated, and it represents one of the focuses in our future researches.”
Zhang's plan incorporates both litigation practices and academic development. He says: "In the next five years, I will, as always, do my work well as a good litigator in the area of dispute resolution and endeavour to build a presence in the area of cross-border dispute resolution. Also, in my role as a law school mentor, I will do my best to share my knowledge and experience with students, help them gain an understanding and awareness of career features of a dispute resolution litigator, and address/alleviate the concerns in their career planning. Over the long run, I expect to gain an extensive impression among more people with my expertise and practices and contribute more to the development of cross-border dispute resolution sector in China."
Wang says, "After 30 years’ career as an attorney, what impresses me most is ‘quality service’ carries more weight than ‘innovation’. As far as business is concerned, it is always more important to retain existing clients than to acquire new ones; while in cases of team cultivation, a better talent cultivation and training plan focusing on existing team members always carries more weight than blindly expanding the team. For that reason, in the next 20 years and beyond, I will continue to train young litigators and develop a team force composed of outstanding litigation lawyers, and together with my team, fight for our clients in litigation cases even if the odds of winning is 1%. As for business development, we will adopt Internet technology means to create innovative ways of promoting, but at the same time avoiding overdoing so. Like I said, quality service carries more weight than innovation, and innovation should be based on quality service.”
Per Yao, she has been committed to building the best financial legal service team in the market and breaks down this target to concrete and individual tasks each year. Thanks to Lantai’s talent integration mechanism, litigation lawyers are sometimes involved in non-contentious transactions, and therefore have the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the sheer variety of existing financial products in the market as well as the legal relations behind them. Likewise, non-litigation lawyers who get involved in litigation cases will gain knowledge about areas that may lead to risks, and are therefore able to grasp the key points in drafting contracts, thus better avoiding risks. This approach of team integration helps Lantai leverage the strengths of both litigators and non-litigation lawyers and therefore establishes it position as a first-class financial legal service provider.
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