一年一次，工作于中国的律所员工们再次评选出了他们所青睐的雇主。上榜律所在充满挑战的2022年所展现出的人文关怀得到了员工认可，而面对重新开放的2023年，员工们也在期待雇主做到更多、更好。
今年，有超过2600位工作于中国内地的律师事务所合伙人、律师、支持人员参与了ALB的年度雇主调研，从工作满意度、薪资、培训制度、职业发展前景、IT技术水平、生活工作平衡等角度，对所在律所做出评价。
自媒体时代，“人人都是意见领袖”，人人也都是律所品牌的承载。员工的首肯不仅意味着律所制度的健康、可持续，也成为了对于律所品牌的极佳传播。
今年登上ALB China 年度雇主榜单的律所共有15家，其中有6家是新上榜律所。上榜者中包括2家国际律所、10家中国全国性律所，以及3家总部位于北京、上海之外的律所——分别来自吉林、成都、广州三座城市。
“挑战之年”的经验
本次榜单的评价阶段以2022年为主。时至今日，那12个月的防控记忆或许正变得模糊，但律所在此过程中所体现出的担当和关怀却在员工心里留下痕迹，成为他们做出正面评价的重要依据。
正如中伦律师事务所管委会委员及COO 崔瑜律师所说：“每个亲历者在疫情期间都经历了不少变故，大家的心态也多少受到影响。我们观察到，员工表现出了对机构更强的信赖感，并更为关注工作的稳定性，对于工作与生活的平衡、灵活办公等也越发关心。”
上榜律所告诉ALB，2022年，它们几乎都通过维持薪资、灵活办公、心理辅导等形式，在挑战中持续为员工提供支持。
例如中伦，崔瑜律师分享道，律所在疫情期间坚持不降薪不裁员、工资奖金正常发放，同时组织培训，在非常时期中帮助大家“练内功”。律所还邀请心理专家举办讲座，并通过线上文化活动、所内网格化互助组等解决员工的身心问题。此外，线上线下灵活的工作安排也兼顾了大家的健康和业务的正常运转。
中闻律师事务所同样如此。中闻执委会主席王鑫律师指出，2022年是中闻“疫情中最难的一年”，但仍坚持“给员工最好的体验”，例如在不降薪、不裁员的基础上保持了往年的文体建设预算；在员工患病时给予最大程度的隐私保护及关爱等。
广悦律师事务所在过去一年的艰难时刻中也推出了“暖心计划”。广悦副主任杨杰律师告诉ALB，除了不裁员不降薪，全员同舟共济共克时艰，广悦还及时推出了“《告全体员工书》，并在防疫物质缺乏的情况下，利用海外资源为大家购买药品、抗原等，让律所成为大家安心温暖的依靠”。
关爱是首要原则，对此天同律师事务所管理委员会委员、深圳办公室负责人陈耀权律师也颇有感触。陈律师告诉ALB，除了采取灵活办公等措施，天同去年在保障安全的前提下，坚持组织了年度旅游和年会庆典，“给小伙伴们带来了非常好的感受”。
伴随疫情结束，诸般“非常措施”也许暂时告一段落，但陈耀权律师指出，过去三年对天同触动最大的，实际上是“在极端社会事件影响下，律所的应急机制和渠道是否通畅”，例如紧急情况下的物资采购、为非常状态下的员工提供服务等，“都对天同提出了新的命题和挑战”。
对此，天同专门组织合伙人会议进行复盘，并提出了具体解决措施，包括在机制上设立应急供应小组、完善员工补充保险，并在内部将医疗等资源打通，“未来再遭遇紧急情况，就有抓手、有路径解决问题，”陈律师说。
魔鬼在细节中
管理者常说，律所是一门“关于人的生意”，实际上，员工和律所之间又何尝不是一种“人和”的关系？除了各项宏观制度，有时律所关注于微观的一两项改善举措也会让员工倍感暖心，从而增强与机构之间的粘性，可谓“魔鬼在细节中”。对此上榜律所也有不少感触。
例如在天同，过去一年律所致力于从各个层面做出改善，提高员工的工作和生活质量。在北京总部，天同是少有的设有内部食堂的律所，陈耀权律师告诉ALB，天同食堂在过去一年中做了分区，并在储存区安装监控，保证食品安全。此外，去年食堂开始根据膳食要求推出每周食谱，并定期更换配搭，既营养，又满足了大家对于餐食的期待。伙食升级外，今年伴随春天回暖，天同四合院里的运动项目也恢复起来，“要重建我们的毽球文化”。
工作层面，天同也积极解决大家提出的问题。陈律师举了个例子，过去在天同的辅庭律师和业务秘书之间存在工作分配不合理的情况，“人力资源部为此开了专题研讨会，计划单独增设法律助理岗位，既从事行政性事务，又帮助辅庭律师承担部分基础性法律事务，解决团队工作效率问题”。
在繁忙的工作中，如何保障大家的声音能够被律所听见，并做出有效应对？陈耀权律师指出这需要制度、文化两个层面的努力。天同实行团队分管合伙人负责制，“每周有例会，大家会把在工作、生活中遇到的问题向分管合伙人反映，再由他们传达到每周的合伙人例会上，如果是普遍问题，就在整所层面解决。在天同，合伙人时时刻刻和小伙伴在一起，每一个节点遇到的问题都可以和合伙人随时交流，大家的诉求也就更容易通达到律所层面。”陈律师说道。
在中闻的王鑫律师看来，律所能否察觉到细节问题并有所回应，实际上是人文关怀程度的直接体现，在此方面中闻也有颇多实践。例如中闻专门开发了一个call center后台，收集急需“救火”的大事小情，例如门禁出现问题、车位被占、移动硬盘丢失等，既解决了问题，又避免将摩擦火花带入工作关系之中，营造了更和谐的内部氛围。
另一项举措被王鑫律师称为“执业风险防范教育”。“我们观察到，年轻律师在执业时很容易出现草率的行为，在毫不知情的情况下触犯职业纪律，导致职业污点。”于是，从对客人迎来送往的礼数、商务着装要求，到面试技巧等，中闻都组织资深律师展开授课，“毫无保留地把经验传授给年轻律师”。
在广悦律师事务所，律所则创新性地推出了行政服务系统“小悦同学”，借助便利的手机APP形式助力行政服务。杨杰律师分享道，通过“小悦同学”，律师可以报名参加Gateway训练营——这是由合伙人、高级顾问或特邀嘉宾定期对律师开展的能力培训、经验交流、商务礼仪和心理健康讲座等活动，并且可以通过参与培训来积分，用于兑换各种实体奖励或福利，深受大家喜爱。
“机构与个体共同前进”
过去几年，面对变化的市场趋势和客户要求，律所努力通过优化制度、策略，维护优势地位。不过，任何新策略的执行最终都要落实在个体身上，只有在变化中获得员工的理解和支持，才能推动机构和个体共同前进。
在这方面，中伦给出了很好的范例。中伦2019年开始筹划、2021年全面实施了专业化升级建设，在此过程中，律所调整了业务管理的组织架构，根据新的业务布局和发展趋势，按业务分类重构了业务部门，并新设了六大行业委员会。
“业务部门调整后，中伦着手按新的业务体系重新梳理事务所知识管理库，并帮助年轻律师尽快熟悉和了解本部门的基础业务体系和法律服务产品。”崔瑜律师说，“业务部门也结合不同年级律师的工作需求，根据各自业务特点组织业务轮训，帮助大家熟悉、适应新部门的工作和要求。”
正是在这样的努力下，律师们更快体会到了中伦展开专业化升级的用心，以及升级给自身带来的赋能。“愈加规范的立案管理体系，使律师工作的专业化程度进一步加强。与此同时，新设立的行业委员会向资深律师提供了更聚焦行业知识的学习内容和市场信息，令他们在掌握良好的专业法律技能的同时，能对相关行业有更深入的理解，在精通专业的基础上更加熟谙行业知识并深度利用行业资源，使律师的服务和解决方案更具针对性和附加值了。”
在天同，近年面对市场变化，律所则较为集中地展开了全国一体化布局，目前已经设立了8家办公室。“组织规模扩大后，一体化也遭遇了一些问题，我们在积极思考强化不同办公室小伙伴对于天同一体化的感受。”陈耀权律师坦言。
陈律师将这些问题总结为两点：渴望更多的跨办公室交流；渴望更资深的专业指导。对此天同已经思考了部分解决措施。“第一，在办公室以外设立纵向的专业委员会，让各个办公室的合伙人参与进来，打破地域壁垒，实现业务条线上的一体化协作、培训，甚至是团队凝聚力建设；第二，我们要求合伙人对天同文化及价值观传播负起责任，定期对小伙伴进行宣导，同时鼓励更多北京的合伙人往区域办公室跑一跑，留上一两天，和当地同事做交流。”陈律师说。
“更受年轻人欢迎的机构”
伴随“80后”逐渐成为业务中坚、“90后”成为业务主力，过去几年，律所愈发关注年轻世代对于律所的各项评价标准，并有针对性地推出面向年轻律师的内部企划，期待从制度和文化层面，成为“更受年轻人欢迎的机构”。
杨杰律师告诉ALB，在此层面，过去一年广悦尤其做出了各种努力。
首先是通过“成立战略规划发展、业务提升与人才培养、品牌宣传与市场拓展、文化与公益四个工作委员，鼓励青年律师参与到事务所发展中来，在此过程中实现自我成长，并通过年轻人的献计献策来增强事务所活力，让平台上的年轻人更有奔头，也让平台本身更具吸引力”，杨律师说。
其次，广悦观察到，“员工对律所规模、品牌影响力一直有着更大的期待”，更强的律所声誉也能激励年轻人的荣誉感和投入度。在此方面，广悦重新确立了“立足湾区、协同港澳、面向世界”的发展定位，开设了悉尼办公室，其深圳办公室也即将迁入平安金融中心，市场声响更大了。此外，广悦也发力打造其在涉外服务领域的领先形象，过去一年引入了9位涉外人才并申请成为涉外示范机构，“核心业务领域持续申报国际奖项，得到了市场认可”。
最后，针对年轻人重视的透明内部机制和文化，广悦尤其优化了晋升机制，“让每位年轻律师都知道在事务所成长和努力的方向”。杨杰律师分享道，“去年广悦增加了授薪合伙人层级， 让更多有业务专长，成长较快的年轻人有更多元化的成长空间。在晋升考核纬度上，我们强化了参与律所发展事务工作小时、主动担当培训分享师等指标，让年轻人知道，晋升不仅是对专业能力的认可，更是一种和事务所共同发展的责任感、使命感”。
以技术促升员工满意度
今年初以来，ChatGPT的横空出世使许多法律人正视起人工智能技术对法律执业的影响，实际上，大型律所早以不同形式采纳了技术工具，以效率提升保障员工的满意度。与此同时，越来越多被称为“网络世代”的年轻人也渴望律所能够不断与时俱进、升级技术工具，这成为了他们评定雇主优秀与否的重要因素之一。
过去一年半，天同所使用的天工系统升级到了2.0版本，“提升或者新增了数据化处理、线上编辑、知识管理等功能”，例如在线上编辑方面实现了实时编辑和保存，并留存所有的文件更改痕迹，有利于信息追溯和团队整体业务能力的提升。此外，陈耀权律师告诉ALB，伴随天同的业务下沉，开始代理大量一审案件，“2.0版本也丰富了工作场景设置，例如一审涉及的保全、执行等，都能够通过天工系统完成操作”。
在中伦，律所则在技术领域致力于为员工提供“全流程IT服务”。崔瑜律师说，目前中伦IT服务团队不仅配有直接向业务同事提供日常技术支持服务的常规IT技术工程师，还配备有专门的运维工程师、软件开发工程师、应用支持工程师以及IT培训师等不同类别人员。
她具体解释道：“运维工程师保障了IT系统的安全，软件开发工程师和应用支持工程师使IT系统更贴合我们自身的工作需求，使更多新技术运用到事务所的工作和管理中。IT培训课程则帮助我们的同事更快地理解和运用好各类产品、提高工作效率。业务同事们对科技服务法律有着更高的期待，一线的需求正在不断推动着IT服务团队进步。”
提供更贴合律师需求的IT服务也是中闻进行内部技术升级的要义。王鑫律师告诉ALB，一方面，中闻计划在新员工培训中特别加上一节IT课，“培训使用工具，而不是让大家摸索着来”；另一方面，目前中闻IT团队中有一部分专门负责“智慧中闻”项目，“他们更像是大厂的程序员，同时兼具律师的工作背景，会像产品经理一样研发更适合中闻律师的工具”。
更好的雇主：永远在路上
2023年，伴随生活和工作基本恢复常态，律所也期待重启许多在疫情下难以展开的内部活动，提升在过去三年因种种原因有所消散的亲密与团结。
中伦的崔瑜律师告诉ALB：“今年大家的工作生活已逐步步入正轨，线下聚会、旅行都已放开，中伦的社团俱乐部活动、文化讲座、运动会、集体旅行等各项文化活动都已纳入全年工作计划，会稳步推进。我们希望通过更多常规化的安排和活动，让大家尽快回归正常的工作和生活节奏。”
提升内部凝聚力也是天同今年聚焦的话题。陈耀权律师说，除了各项活动，天同也会在微信公众号里重启原来颇受欢迎的“天同文化”专栏，进行律所软文化的输出展示。
此外，技术层面，天同也在思考启动天工系统3.0版本的升级。陈律师坦言：“看到很多律所在元宇宙、人工智能方面有所投入，我们也有一些深入的思考，未来天工系统3.0版本应该是什么样子？要结合目前的技术趋势做充分的计划。”
恢复内部活动和提升技术水平也是中闻今年的关注重点。王鑫律师告诉ALB，中闻不久前入选了政府相关部门联合展开的“律所IT升级计划”，在相关部门的指导与帮助下，中闻计划在未来三年升级所有IT硬件、进一步实现办公智能化，“把所有服务都提升一个档次”。
同时更多的社团活动也在中闻的计划之中，“通过社团，同事可以互相认识，甚至很多会基于社团中建立的亲密关系再去展开业务合作，这样的关系更紧密、更有凝聚力，”王律师说。
2023年，广悦也期待以更多样的活动形式提升律师们的身心健康。“我们的文化与公益委员会会定期举办文体活动，如摄影大赛、AI云上运动会、咖啡品鉴会、花艺沙龙等。此外，广悦与其他律所建立了良好的交流合作机制，共同举办读书会、业务交流会、篮球赛等活动，鼓励律师‘走出去’，拓宽眼界和思维，为广悦发展提供向上力量。”杨杰律师说。
2023 ALB China Employer of Choice
As in other years, law firm employees in China were invited to vote for their favourite employers. This year’s winners won the hearts of their employees by showing genuine care throughout the challenging year of 2022. However, their work is far from done, as employees’ needs continue to change.
This year, more than 2,600 law firm partners, lawyers and support staff working in Mainland China participated in ALB’s annual Employer of Choice survey, delivering report cards on their firms in areas such as job satisfaction, remuneration, mentorship, career development prospects, IT level, and work-life balance.
The era of social media has turned everyone into a KOL (key opinion leader). As a result, every employee is an ambassador for their own firm. Employee recognition not only means that a firm is operating healthily and sustainably but is also an excellent way to spread the word about the firm’s brand.
Fifteen firms have made it to this year’s ALB China Employer of Choice ranking, with six new entries. Among the winners are two international firms, ten domestic national firms, and three regional firms, headquartered in Jilin, Chengdu and Guangzhou, respectively.
LESSONS LEARNT
The period covered by this year’s survey is mainly 2022. Although the memory of those 12 months of pandemic lockdowns may have faded away by now, the sense of responsibility and care shown by the firms then have left lasting impressions on employees, becoming essential parameters for their positive evaluation.
As Cui Yu, management committee member and COO of Zhong Lun Law Firm, says: "Everyone who has experienced the pandemic has gone through many changes during those days, and their mentality has been affected to some extent. We have observed that employees have shown greater reliance on their employer, have started to pay more attention to job stability, and have begun to value work-life balance and flexible work arrangements more."
Winning firms tell ALB that in 2022, almost all of them supported employees amid challenges by maintaining pay levels, offering flexible work arrangements, providing psychological counselling etc.
Wang Xin, chairman of the Zhongwen Law Firm’s executive committee, points out that despite 2022 being Zhongwen’s most challenging year throughout the pandemic, the firm continued to "provide employees with the best experience". For example, without cutting pay or laying off staff, Zhongwen even maintained its budget for cultural and sports activities as in previous years. Employees who got infected were also given the greatest degree of privacy protection and care.
With the pandemic subsidising, all kinds of "extraordinary measures" may have ended temporarily. However, Chen Yaoquan, management committee member of TianTong Law Firm and head of its Shenzhen office, points out that what has struck TianTong the most in the past three years is, in fact, "whether the emergency response mechanism and channels of the firm can function smoothly when affected by extreme social events", such as the procurement of materials during emergencies and the provision of services for affected employees, "all of which have posed new tasks and challenges for TianTong".
In response, the firm organised special partner meetings to review the measures taken and proposed specific solutions, including setting up an emergency supply team, beefing up employee supplementary insurance, and unblocking medical and other resources internally, so that "we know where to start and how to start to solve issues amid future emergencies," says Chen.
DEVIL IN THE DETAILS
Apart from rules and systems, sometimes one or two minor improvements that firms turn their attention to can go a long way towards winning the hearts of their employees. As a result, firms have begun looking more closely at the details of processes, and this year’s winners have a lot to share.
TianTong Law Firm made great efforts to improve its operations at all levels last year to raise employees' quality of work and life. TianTong is one of the few firms with an in-house canteen in its Beijing headquarters. According to Chen, partitions were erected in the canteen last year, and monitoring devices were installed in the storage area to ensure food safety. In addition, the canteen began to launch weekly recipes according to dietary requirements last year and regularly changes the mix to ensure meals are both nutritious and appetizing.
Apart from catering upgrades, as spring comes this year, TianTong has also resumed sports activities, aiming to "rebuild its badminton culture.”
When it comes to work, TianTong also actively solves the problems raised by employees. Chen gives an example. Previously, work between junior associates and secretaries could have been distributed more reasonably. "The human resources department held special discussions and made plans to create a separate role of paralegals who can not only perform administrative work but also help associates with some basic legal work, solving work efficiency issues for the team."
How can firms ensure everyone’s voice is heard and responded to, even amid busy work schedules? Chen believes this requires both systems and culture. In TianTong, the partner in charge of each team bears primary responsibilities. "We have a regular weekly meeting where everyone reports the problems encountered during work and life to the partners in charge who will then relay them at the regular weekly partners’ meeting. If the problems reported are across the board, they will be solved at the firm level. In TianTong, partners are always with their subordinates, who can talk to the partners at any time about any issue they have. In this way, it is easier for everyone’s thoughts and demands to reach the management level."
According to Wang of Zhongwen, whether a firm can notice details and respond to them is a direct manifestation of the degree of care shown by the firm, and Zhongwen has done a lot of work in this regard. For example, the firm has developed a call centre to handle urgent "fire-fighting", such as access control issues, unauthorised occupation of parking lots, lost mobile hard drives, etc. The call centre not only solves problems, but also prevents friction from being brought into the working relationship between colleagues, helping to create a more harmonious atmosphere within the firm.
Wang describes another initiative as "practice risk prevention education.” "Based on our observations, younger lawyers are prone to reckless behaviours during practice, such as unknowingly breaching professional discipline, resulting in unfavourable professional records." Therefore, Zhongwen organises senior lawyers to give training on client reception, business attire, interview skills, etc., and senior lawyers "impart their experience to younger generations without reservation".
Guangzhou-headquartered Wang Jing & GH Law Firm has launched its innovative administrative service system called "Xiaoyue", facilitating administrative services with the help of a convenient mobile app. Yang Jie, the firm’s deputy director, shares that "Xiaoyue" lets lawyers sign up for Gateway training camps which are regular activities conducted by partners, senior counsel or special guests regarding professional skill training, experience exchange, business etiquette and mental health. Lawyers can also earn points by participating in such trainings and exchange the points earned for various material rewards or benefits, making the Gateway training camps very popular among team members.
HAND IN HAND
In the past few years, faced with changing market trends and client requirements, firms have worked hard to maintain their market dominance by optimising strategies. However, the execution of any new strategy ultimately hinges on individuals. Organizations and individuals move forward together by gaining the understanding and support of employees amid the transformation.
Zhong Lun Law Firm is a great example. The firm started planning for professional upgrading in 2019 and fully implemented this strategy two years later. During this process, it adjusted the organisational structure for practice management, restructured practice teams according to practice classification in response to new business needs and development trends, and set up six new industry committees.
"After adjusting practice teams, Zhong Lun started to reorganise its knowledge management database according to the new practice framework, and has been helping young lawyers to get familiar with and understand the basic business system and legal service products of their teams as soon as possible. Each practice team also organises regular training to help everyone get familiar with and adapt to the work and requirements of the new team, taking into account the work needs of lawyers of different seniority," says Cui.
Through such efforts, lawyers were able to more quickly appreciate the firm’s intention behind professional upgrading and how such upgrading can empower their work. "The newly established industry committees have been providing senior lawyers with more industry-focused learning contents and market intelligence, enabling them to gain a deeper understanding of relevant industries on top of solid legal skills. An excellent legal foundation, coupled with deeper industry knowledge and more effective tapping of industry resources, has enabled our lawyers to provide services and solutions that are more targeted and have higher value-add,” says Cui.
TianTong Law Firm, on the other hand, has launched nationwide expansion in a relatively concentrated manner in the face of market changes in recent years, setting up eight offices across the country so far. "With expansion come some issues in integration. We are actively thinking about how to enhance the sense of integration among different offices," says Chen.
He summarises those issues into two aspects: the desire for more cross-office communication and the desire for more sophisticated professional guidance. TianTong already has some solutions. "First, we have set up vertical practice committees that transcend the office structure, which allows partners from different offices to participate in the committee and break down geographical barriers, to achieve integrated collaboration, training and even team building in each practice area.”
Chen continues: “Second, we ask partners to shoulder responsibilities for spreading TianTong's culture and values, and to regularly promote our culture and values to colleagues. We also encourage more Beijing-based partners to visit other offices and spend a day or two there to talk to local colleagues."
POWER OF YOUTH
With millennials gradually becoming business backbone and Gen Z becoming the main force, law firms in China have been paying more attention in recent years to the remarks by the younger generations and have launched initiatives targeting younger lawyers, hoping to become "more popular among young people" at institutional and cultural levels.
Yang of Wang Jing & GH shares the firm's various work in this aspect in the past year.
First, "we encourage young lawyers to participate in the development of the firm through the establishment of four working committees: strategic planning and development, business improvement and talent training, brand promotion and market expansion, and culture and public welfare undertakings. In this way, young lawyers can achieve self-growth while the firm can benefit from greater vitality through the ideas of young lawyers, both energising our young people and making the firm a more attractive platform," says Yang.
Second, as young lawyers place more emphasis on a transparent internal mechanism and culture, Wang Jing & GH has made particular efforts to optimise its promotion path to "let every young lawyer see the direction of growth within the firm and where he/she can work on".
According to Yang, "we added the level of salaried partners last year, allowing more young people who have expertise and are growing fast to have a more diversified space for development. In terms of promotion criteria, we increased the weightage on indicators such as hours spent on market development for the firm and hours spent on proactively providing training and sharing expertise, so that young lawyers appreciate that promotion is not only a recognition of financial competency, but also means a sense of responsibility and mission to grow together with the firm."
ENHANCED TECHNOLOGY
The emergence of ChatGPT at the beginning of this year has made many legal professionals face up to the impact of artificial intelligence on legal practice. In fact, large firms have long adopted technology tools in different forms to raise efficiency and improve employee satisfaction. However, more and more "Internet-native" young people are also eager for their firms to keep pace with the times and upgrade technology tools, which becomes one important factor in employer assessment.
In the past year and a half, TianTong Law Firm upgraded its Tiangong system to Version 2.0, which "enhanced or added functions such as data processing, online editing and knowledge management". For example, real-time editing and saving are now possible with online editing, and all file changes are tracked and saved, which is conducive to tracing information and improving the team's overall business capabilities.
In addition, Chen shares that as TianTong begins to act for a large number of first-instance cases, "Version 2.0 has included more work scenarios, and measures such as preservation and enforcement involved in first-instance procedures can all be completed through the Tiangong system".
Zhong Lun Law Firm is committed to providing employees with "whole-process IT services". According to Cui, at present, Zhong Lun’s IT service team has not only regular IT technical engineers who directly provide daily technical support but also dedicated IT roles to serve on other aspects of the technology tools the firm uses.
She explains: "Operation and maintenance engineers ensure the security of the IT system. Software development engineers and application support engineers design the IT system to make it move closer to our work needs, so that more new technologies can be applied to the work and management of the firm. IT training courses help colleagues to understand and use various products faster to improve work efficiency. With higher expectations from colleagues for technology to serve the law, the needs at the frontline are constantly driving the progress of the IT service team."
Providing IT services that better meet the needs of lawyers is also the essence of Zhongwen Law Firm’s internal technological upgrading. Wang tells ALB that, on the one hand, Zhongwen plans to add a special IT course in new employee training to "train them on the use of tools, rather than letting them figure out on their own".
On the other hand, Zhongwen’s IT team currently has some members specifically responsible for the "Smart Zhongwen" project. "They are like programmers who also have lawyers' work background. They will work like product managers to develop tools that are more suitable for Zhongwen lawyers."
AN ONGOING PROCESS
As life and work largely return to normal in 2023, firms are looking forward to resuming many difficult activities due to the pandemic, boosting the intimacy and unity that have dissipated due to various reasons in the past three years.
Cui of Zhong Lun tells ALB: "Everyone’s work and life have gradually returned to normal this year. In-person gatherings and travels have all re-started. Zhong Lun’s club activities, cultural lectures, sports events, group trips and other cultural activities have all been included in this year’s work plan and will be steadily rolled out. We hope to let everyone return to the normal work and life rhythm as soon as possible through more regular activities."
Enhancing team cohesion is also the focus of TianTong Law Firm this year. According to Chen, in addition to various activities, TianTong will resume the popular "Tiantong Culture" column on its WeChat platform to showcase its soft culture.
At the technological level, TianTong is considering upgrading its Tiangong system to Version 3.0. Chen says frankly: "Seeing that many firms have invested in the metaverse and artificial intelligence, we are also having some in-depth thinking: what should Version 3.0 of the Tiangong system look like in the future? We must plan properly based on current technological trends."
Resuming team activities and raising the technological level are also priorities of Zhongwen this year. Wang tells ALB that Zhongwen has recently been selected for the "Law Firm IT Upgrading Program" jointly launched by relevant government departments and plans to upgrade all IT hardware in the next three years to realise smart office operations further, "uplifting all services to a higher level".
More club activities are also in Zhongwen's plan. "Through clubs, colleagues get to know each other, and many even start work cooperation by the close relationship established through club activities. This kind of relationship is more intimate and more cohesive," says Wang.
In 2023, Wang Jing & GH also looks forward to improving the physical and mental health of lawyers through more activities. "Our culture and public welfare undertakings committee regularly organises cultural and sports activities, such as photography contests, coffee tasting sessions, flower art salons, etc. In addition, we have good relationships with other firms to jointly hold professional meetings, book clubs, basketball matches, etc. to encourage our lawyers to ‘venture out’ to broaden their horizons and thinking, and drive the further development of our firm," says Yang.
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2023 ALB China Employer of Choice 2023 |
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