深圳这座城市从来不乏“新事”，这点不仅表现在过去40年的特区历史上，也体现在近年深圳频现的市场、制度革新，以及法律服务日新月异的变化中。在这篇报道中，我们回顾了新产业如何在深圳萌发、壮大，也总结了深圳法律服务在内容、模式上的诸多演变。
2020年对于深圳来说是重要的一年：今年，深圳迎来了特区设立的第40个年头；2019年中国提出的“粤港澳大湾区”纲要及建设深圳“先行示范区”意见在这一年里全面铺开实施；此外，2020还是中国“十三五计划”的收官之年，其中提出的诸多建设目标在这一年加速了实现步伐。
然而在诸多机遇之中，2020年也呈现出了跌宕起伏的面貌。中美贸易摩擦余波未平，年初的一场“新冠”疫情在给实体经济带来冲击的同时，也给未来蒙上了另一层不确定的色彩。
在这样的大背景下，深圳经济总体呈现出了韧性十足的态势，这很大程度上得益于过去十余年中深圳进行的产业改革。深圳的产业改革之路自2008年开启，到2018年，其现代服务业、先进制造业、高技术制造业等发展明显，城市经济表现出了鲜明的创新型经济特点。自2014年起，深圳的GDP增速已快于北上广，即使在2019年全球经济放缓的背景下，当年上半年，深圳的GPD增速仍达7.4%，居全国首位。
创新之都
深圳作为“创新之都”的形象已经深入人心：华为、中兴、大疆、腾讯等都是深圳孕育的本土企业。根据中国综合开发研究院编制的《2019年深圳上市公司发展报告》，截至2019年上半年，深圳上市公司中信息技术和金融行业公司占深圳上市公司总市值比重超70%，反映了深圳经济“科技+金融”双轮驱动的显著特征。
而在这份报告公布的“综合竞争力十强”及“发展潜力十强”上市企业中，高端制造、高新技术、生物医药、互联网类企业则占据了半壁江山。
“创新之都”的名号也为深圳的创新投入所证实：根据德勤和深圳市商业联合会发布的《2019 深圳高科技高成长20 强报告》，深圳是全国唯一一个全社会研发投入占GDP 比重超过4%的城市，其知识产权创造数量也居全国前列。而且深圳的创新呈现出明显的以“企业为主体”特征：深圳90%的创新型企业为本土企业， 90%的科研投入来源于企业，90%的专利生产来源于企业，并有90%的研发机构设立在企业内部。
作为服务于社会及经济的中介机构，深圳的产业及企业特点也明显反映在了当地律师事务所的客户名单上。
“传统制造类企业的客户比重在减少，智能制造、设计、互联网类的客户比重在增加。过去一年的统计结果显示，TMT、科技、金融、地产企业在我们企业客户中占比已达到50%左右。” 北京大成（深圳）律师事务所高级合伙人姚伟琪律师告诉ALB，“我们的客户中有机器人公司、VR设备公司、人工智能领域的软件公司，也有游戏、电子商务和新媒体公司，以及移动互联、生物医药及新型健康技术领域企业。”
而这份名单还在不断变化中，这得益于大湾区纲要和先行示范区意见中对深圳进行的新产业定位。“纲要”中明确点名深圳发展金融科技，而根据“意见”，5G、人工智能、高端医疗等将成为聚集于深圳的新产业。
虽然两份文件颁布不过一年有余，上述产业已经以令人瞠目的速度在深圳落地。以金融科技为例，中国目前的27家金融科技独角兽中，深圳占据6家，仅次于北京。2019年底，深圳本土金融科技企业平安壹帐通还完成了在纽交所的上市。
而在其他领域，广东华商律师事务所首席合伙人高树律师告诉ALB，目前深圳高端医疗企业已达到800余家，人工智能企业约600家。
德恒律师事务所深圳办公室管委会主任刘震国律师则提供了另一组数据：2019年，深圳新一代信息技术产业增长6.6%，数字经济产业增长18.0%，新材料产业增长27.6%，生物医药产业增长13.3%。此外在全国5G概念A股上市公司中，深圳也以26家一马当先。
“正是深圳这片热土，让我们见证了大量客户由初创企业发展成长为伟大的企业，由偶然的商机发展为现象级的商业态势。”
--刘震国，德恒律师事务所
"正是深圳这片热土，让我们见证了大量客户由初创企业发展成长为伟大的企业，由偶然的商机发展为现象级的商业态势。” 刘震国律师感慨道。
政策红利
这样的发展和变化得以快速实现，很大程度上得益于政府不断在深圳释放的政策红利。
2019年夏天，在成为“特区”的第39年，深圳升级成为了“先行示范区”，这个新名头暗示着将有更多制度创新和模式试验在深圳试水。
2020年，一系列制度创新在深圳开启：5月，央行等四部委发布《金融支持粤港澳大湾区建设的意见》，进一步开放大湾区金融创新；6月初，中国第一部个人破产立法在深圳征集意见；6月中旬，深交所创业板正式实施注册制……
在姚伟琪律师看来，“这些立法上的新变化，和世界上发达国家的立法趋势更加一致，使中国企业能够了解、熟悉、运用世界金融市场——包括资本市场治理更加成熟的规则，是中国企业融入全球经济的重要一环。”刘震国律师则认为，这些举措说明深圳在对标国际一流，将优化营商环境改革推向纵深，想方设法地激发市场活力。
高树律师则指出了这一系列改革背后的深层原因。“科技创新和社会改革之间往往呈现出一种平衡态势。如果科技创新到了一定阶段，社会改革还停滞不前，或者在制度层面不能适应，科技创新就会受到很大制约。反过来，社会制度的创新也有赖于科技创新的驱动。”
他继而指出：“今后深圳一定是在科技创新、社会改革、制度创新等领域，呈现出共同发展的局面。”
创新法律服务模式
在这样一个一切都不停向前的地方，法律服务的发展自然也不会停步。
“深圳不乏优秀的企业，它们已经不满足于有问才答的服务方式，需要我们提供更好的法律服务。” 姚伟琪律师指出。
针对高新企业专业化程度强的情况，深圳律所普遍打造了专攻某行业领域的法律团队，并强化了行业领域研究。
以大成深圳为例，律所组建了TMT、航空航天、生物医药等行业组，而且在招揽人才时，也注重引进具备TMT、科技企业、高端医疗、人工智能、5G、云计算、金融科技等相关行业经验的律师。
华商律师事务所则加强了对于专门行业法律问题的研究。例如深圳目前在区块链技术领域也处于全国领先地位，拥有诸多类似鼎铉密码、微众银行这样研发或使用区块链技术的尖端企业，华商于是在2019年成立了区块链法律研究院，请深圳研究区块链的专家、区块链的投资企业代表等一起研究法律问题和需求，以及如何更好地提供法律服务。
区块链之外，围绕深圳的七大产业，华商都要成立相应的研究院，“建立法律服务、产业研究和产业法律服务三位一体的新型法律服务模式，回应高新企业新型的需求”。
当律所不再以法律业务、而转以产业领域搭建业务板块时，交叉部门便也成了必然趋势。一方面，这是由高新企业业务复杂性决定的，例如童新律师告诉ALB，近年来的金融创新有很大部分以5G、区块链技术为依托，这一板块中，信息安全、信息合规是法律服务的重点项目，但其中包含了行政法、民商法、刑法多个维度，广和因此组建了具有针对性的业务部门。
另一方面，高新企业发展迅猛，很多甚至在短时间内成长为独角兽企业，一家企业在生命周期内需要的各类型法律服务被压缩到了极短时间内发生，这就要求律所能组建综合项目组提供全方位服务。以德恒为例，针对高新企业的知识产权保护及融资上市等业务需求，知识产权部和公司证券部会组成多部门合伙人的综合团队，“为客户带去综合法律服务产品，以充分满足客户最高级别的需求”。刘震国律师说。
合规需求激增
在法律服务内容领域，近年来，伴随国内外监管环境不断收紧，以及高新产业企业在技术、业务模式上的特殊性，律所发现，在深圳，合规成为了法律服务领域新的“必争之地”。
刘震国律师告诉ALB：“自2018年美国制裁中兴事件以来，企业合规成为很热门的话题，而企业合规往往涉及刑（事）民（商事）交叉、行（政）民（商事）交叉问题。”
姚伟琪律师指出，在深圳，不同类型的企业根据业务开展的情况，所关注的合规重点并不一样。
“比如互联网、金融科技类企业近年来非常关注数据合规、重视数据治理。此外对互联网企业来说，该领域可能涉及的刑事犯罪也是合规的关注重点，我们传统的刑事辩护板块也成功拓展了非诉讼的刑事合规审查业务。”她说，“传统的金融企业则更关注风险控制。与此同时，其他一些新兴企业甚至具有更强的风险意识，在开始搭建新的商业模式时，就委聘律师进行合规论证。”
高树律师则从“涉内”和“涉外”两个角度，区分了不同的合规服务，华商成立的合规法律服务中心也正是从这两个方面辅助企业面对合规难题。一方面，该服务中心协助企业构建常态化的合规体系；另一方面，中心则关注企业在涉外业务中遇到的合规难题。后者被高树律师形容为在国际贸易过程中“划定边界”，包括与美国377调查相关的知识产权问题，以及商业秘密、反洗钱、反垄断等问题，通过代理和梳理相关案件，为出海的高新企业建立“贸易争端合规方面的防火墙”。
适应“新常态”
不可否认，如高树律师所指出的，深圳领先的高新产业使当地企业具备很高的国际化经营水平——2019年，深圳近四成上市企业的境外收入比重超过10%。而伴随中美贸易摩擦、贸易保护主义抬头和“去全球化”思潮泛起，深圳的国际化如今成了把双刃剑。
以美国公布的“实体清单”为例，其中就有大量深圳本土企业，甚至有人笑称，中美摩擦可以称为美国和深圳南山区粤海街道的摩擦——后者正是不少清单上榜企业的注册地址。
在上文引述的《20 强报告》中，德勤对多家深圳高新企业首席执行官进行了问卷调查，在被问到未来两年内企业在发展过程中面临的最大挑战时，42%的被调查者选择了“不利的政府政策法规”，40%选择了“进一步的国际贸易纠纷和经济动荡”。
而通过强化海外合规等方式，律所也在帮深圳企业适应着此种“新常态”。
姚伟琪律师将此方面律所对企业的协助分为三类。其一是“结合海外，尤其是美国的新规，对客户进行及时的合规风险提示，从而协助科技类及其他相关企业结合自身实际形成恰当的合规体系”。
第二类协助则是“帮助客户对合规扫描、技术研发、生产制造、销售维护等各个环节中的合规风险进行排查、梳理和评估，协助客户锁定高风险环节，制定风险防控措施和合规政策，并不断更新。”
此外，根据大成的实践，律所也会帮助高新企业在遭受管制时，积极采取补救措施，以缓释、解决被列入实体清单或SDN清单的原因事项，甚至积极帮助企业申请移除程序。而企业如果希望寻求替代市场和客户，大成也会帮助其论证新市场和交易的合规性。
姚律师和刘震国律师还都提到了拥有国际触角在协助客户适应“新常态“时的重要性。刘律师指出，在这样的宏观环境下，律所——尤其是具有跨境分支机构或者合作伙伴的律所，会更加着重调动国内外的法律专业资源，通过协作为深圳高新企业出谋划策。姚律师则举出了大成的实例：大成位于美国的很多办公室尤其具有领先优势，中国律师可以与美国同事协同工作，共同服务于此类客户。
竞争激烈
高新产业聚集、政策利好不断、新型企业的法律需求愈发复杂……这些都为深圳当地法律服务市场的高速发展提供了机遇。但正如刘震国律师所言：“随着经济发展，虽然律师业务市场的蛋糕越做越大，但是律所以及律师的规模和数量也与日俱增，往往后者的增长曲线显得更加陡峭，为此，市场竞争是日益激烈。”
根据深圳律协不久前公布的数据，2017到2019年间，深圳法律从业人数每年以约12%速度递增，截至2020年初，深圳共有920家律师事务所、14374名律师。
在这个市场上竞技不仅有广东本土律所。根据ALB的不完全统计，过去一年多内，就有包括北京浩天信和律师事务所、北京安理律师事务所、北京中闻律师事务所、上海汇业律师事务所、上海通力律师事务所、安永旗下上海市瑛明律师事务所在内的多家律所，“南下”开设了深圳分所。
“外来所”的发展速度也不容小觑：根据深圳律协数据，2019年，深圳百人以上的律所共22家，其中12家为本地所，其余10家均为其他地区律所在深圳开设的分所，有些“外来所”甚至在成立不到2年内就达到了200人以上的规模。
此外，外国所和联营所也基于深圳在大湾区的核心地位，加快了在此布局——过去，由于深圳和香港毗邻，在港深两地都开设分支机构被视为不经济的做法。据不完全统计，2019年深圳迎来了美国斐锐律师事务所、英国西盟斯律师事务所、美国博钦律师事务所开设的知识产权代理公司等在此开设代表处；此外，深圳前海自贸区还设立了6家深港联营律师事务所，2020年3月，首家粤港澳三地联营律所也在前海落地。
广和和华商是深圳本土大所，他们对竞争都表现出了积极态度。童新律师告诉ALB：“竞争是市场的必然，也是活力的源泉。外来大所落地深圳，给本土法律服务市场带来了竞争，同时也带来新鲜血液。”
各显神通
在这样的背景下，深圳律所“各显神通”，在提高服务水平的同时，加快了在服务和品牌方面的差异化布局。
刘震国律师将在深圳市场保持领先的秘诀总结为“服务”二字，包括“服务意识强、多领域无缝综合型服务、不断应客户所需开发新服务产品等”。
“差异化的竞争、专业化的服务、团队化的协同，围绕客户的商业战略、为客户提供既专业又综合的高品质法律服务，是在深圳市场保持领先的关键。深圳法律人永远应当具备这样的探索和无畏精神。”
-- 姚伟琪，北京大成（深圳）律师事务所
姚伟琪律师回应了刘律师的看法，在她看来，“差异化的竞争、专业化的服务、团队化的协同，围绕客户的商业战略、为客户提供既专业又综合的高品质法律服务，是在深圳市场保持领先的关键。深圳法律人永远应当具备这样的探索和无畏精神”。
“本土大所具有独特优势，比如在本土网点布置方面更细致、更精准。目前广和在深圳市内有国创总部、龙岗、龙华、前海、光明、深汕六个办公室，且每个办公室具有不同特色的专业优势，这为广和提供了扎实的竞争力。”
--童新，广和律师事务所
而作为本土所，广和指出了“深扎根”在打差异牌时的重要性。童律师说：“本土大所具有独特优势，比如在本土网点布置方面更细致、更精准。”目前广和仅在深圳市内，就有国创总部、龙岗、龙华、前海、光明、深汕六个办公室，执业律师超过500人，且每个办公室具有不同特色的专业优势，为广和提供了扎实的竞争力。
高树律师则指向了保持竞争力的本质：在保持传统领域优势的同时加快创新型服务探索。“传统法律服务领域是我们在深圳多年来积累下的业务常态，这个丢掉了，其他律所就会乘虚而入……此外，科技、社会制度在创新，法律服务也必须创新，否则我们就会大大落后于社会其他领域。”
伴随深圳产业向高度专业化发展，近年也出现了“专家型律师”兴起的风潮——这是指深入某一行业领域，且往往具备跨行业学历及工作背景的律师。
“行业专家型律师毫无疑问是未来的趋势。” 姚伟琪律师说，“我们的人才引进策略也不局限于纯法律背景人才，甚至更欢迎具有其他专业和行业背景的人才加入。”
但姚律师也指出，“专家型律师”不仅指向跨行业能力，更是对法律人深谙商业逻辑的要求。“律师还应当具备优秀的商业思维与趋势判断能力，这样才能为客户提供有针对性的、前瞻和创新的法律服务，也才能赢得客户。”她说。
“律师是否被科技创新型企业所需要，就取决于律师和企业的融合程度，因此法律加科技、法律加商业，这些在将来都是很重要的概念。”高树律师说。
但高律师和刘震国律师也强调：融合能力固然重要，但法律人也不能失去立身之本——即扎实可靠的法律专业基础。毕竟了解跨学科知识是为了对交易或案件有更深刻的认识和更准确的把握，法律专业能力也永远是客户认可律师职业的根本。
除了人才、服务内容、质量等细节的提升，律师们也纷纷指出了更深层改变的重要性。比如姚伟琪律师告诉ALB，和Dentons合并后，大成的文化也受到了潜移默化的积极影响。“我们开始学习西方律所，成立了市场拓展部，把品牌的运营作为律所经营的重要部分重视起来。我认为，这可以看作是律所这个组织体自身走向‘法律＋商业’的尝试，我们也期待可以做得更好。”她说。
高树律师则期待未来在深圳落地更多针对律所的政策扶持。“法律服务也属于社会领域，也期待相应的（制度）创新。”他说，“（因此）政策方面应提供相应保障和扶持，包括人才的引进、税收制度，以及整个行业提升发展的方方面面。”
“做得好，深圳的法律服务市场会成为新的经济增长点。但是反过来，如果做不好，法律服务会呈现出相对落后的态势……我们比较有信心，深圳的法律服务市场将会向更高、更深、更大、更强发展。”
--高树，华商律师事务所
"做得好，深圳的法律服务市场会成为新的经济增长点。但是反过来，如果做不好，法律服务会呈现出相对落后的态势……我们比较有信心，深圳的法律服务市场将会向更高、更深、更大、更强发展。”他说。
ALB China Regional Report: Shenzhen
The southern Chinese city of Shenzhen is a place that never lacks for new things, and this is reflected not only in its 40 years’ history as one of China’s pioneering Special Economic Zones, but also in the rapid social reforms and growing legal market in recent years. Lawyers in this dynamic city say that as new industries take root, the legal services sector is improving accordingly.
The year 2020 is a key year in Shenzhen’s history: this year, the city celebrates its 40th anniversary as one of China’s first Special Economic Zones; also, the Greater Bay Area and Pilot Zone initiatives are kicking into full gear in the city. This year also sees the completion of China’s 13th Five-Year Plan, which means the local government is doing its best to achieve economic and social goals put forward by the plan.
However, 2020 is also a year full of ups and downs. With the Sino-U.S. trade frictions still going on, the COVID-19 outbreak has added another layer of uncertainty to China’s economy.
Facing these opportunities and challenges, Shenzhen has shown its character as a resilient city with its GDP increasing by 7.4 percent in the first half of 2019, surpassing rivals like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. The key reason behind this is the industry reform path adopted by Shenzhen since 2008. In the past decade, new industries like modern services, advanced manufacturing and hi-tech grew rapidly here, and those have shifted the city’s economy to be highly innovation-driven.
INNOVATION HUB
Shenzhen has long built its image as an innovation hub in China, boasting world-famous companies like Huawei, ZTE, Tencent and DJI. According to a recent report published by China Development Institute, in 2019, public-listed companies from the information technology and finance industries accounted for over 70 percent of the market value of all listed companies in Shenzhen.
The same report also released a list of twenty local companies with the strongest competing power and growth potential, among which were many from the advanced manufacturing, high technology, biotech and internet sectors.
Innovation plays a key role in Shenzhen’s economy. According to another report published by Deloitte, Shenzhen is the only Chinese city which invests more than 4 percent of its GDP into innovation. Local companies have been playing a leading role in this scene: in Shenzhen, 90 percent of the research investments are from companies, and 90 percent of the research institutions are set up by companies internally.
These have been vividly reflected in the client lists of local law firms.
“Clients from the traditional manufacturing industry are decreasing, meanwhile those from the intellectual manufacturing, design and internet sectors are increasing. According to last year’s statistics, companies from the TMT, technology, finance and real estate sectors have already accounted for 50 percent of all our clients.” Yao Weiqi, senior partner at Dentons’ Shenzhen office, tells ALB.
And the changes are continuing. Shenzhen has been quickly catching up on cutting-edge areas like fintech, 5G, artificial intelligence and biotech, according to new goals set up by both the GBA outline and the Pilot Zone initiative.
Take fintech as an example. Among the 27 fintech unicorns in China, six are from Shenzhen. At the end of 2019, one of them, OneConnect, completed a $312 million initial public offering in New York.
Achievements of other areas are also dazzling: Shenzhen now has over 800 high-end medical companies and about 600 AI companies. It also has 26 listed companies in the 5G area.
“Shenzhen is indeed a booming land. Only here can we witness startups growing into great companies, and occasional business opportunities becoming phenomenal business models.”
--Liu Zhenguo, DeHeng Law Offices
“Shenzhen is indeed a booming land. Only here can we witness startups growing into great companies, and occasional business opportunities becoming phenomenal business models,” Says Liu Zhenguo, managing partner of DeHeng Law Offices’ Shenzhen office.
POLICY BONUSES
As a city occupying a special place in modern China’s history, Shenzhen’s success has been highly related to various social reforms that happened in the city, combined with policy incentives, and this is still the case till today.
There has been a series of reforms going on in Shenzhen recently: In May, the national government issued a new document concerning providing financial support to and allowing financial innovation measures in the GBA area. In June, Shenzhen drafted China's first personal bankruptcy laws. Later that month, Shenzhen Stock Exchange’s ChiNext board officially launched a registration-based IPO system.
Yao explains to ALB: “Those new legislative and social moves were meant to push China further onto the same competing line with other developed countries. By being familiar with and playing by the same market rules, Chinese companies will quicken their paces on becoming irreplaceable players on the global market.”
Gao Shu, managing partner of China Commercial Law Firm, points to a more profound reason behind those reforms. “Social developments should keep up with technology developments. When imbalance happens or social development stagnates, it will no doubt block the further growth of economy.”
“Shenzhen will continue to see new reforms happening in economy and on social systems for a long time.” Gao adds.
INNOVATIVE LEGAL SERVICES
In a city where nothing stops, legal services also need to keep constantly evolving and improving.
“There are too many outstanding companies in Shenzhen nowadays, and they’re not satisfied with the question-answer mode of legal service anymore. Law firms have to be innovative.” Yao says.
One method has been breaking through the traditional single practice area service mode and begin to build new practices based on popular industries. Take Dentons Shenzhen as an example. Yao tells ALB that the firm has formed new TMT, aviation and biotech teams. When recruiting new talents, they’re now more in favor of lawyers with strong industry experiences, such as people who are familiar with TMT, technology, AI, 5G, cloud computing and fintech sectors.
Apart from building industry-based teams, Gao stresses the importance of conducting in-depth legal researches into those new areas. For example, Shenzhen also holds a leading place in blockchain technology in China and has influential companies like Ding Xuan Crypotography Testing and WeBank. Therefore, China Commercial launched a Blockchain Legal Research Institute last year and invited industry experts and companies to discuss legal issues, as well as their expectations of the legal services.
China Commercial plans to launch seven more institutes to “build a new service model by combining legal services, industry researches and other services together to better meet clients’ needs,” Gao says.
Another trend on the legal market has been building cross-area teams to provide full-lifecycle services to a single client.
Tong Xin, managing partner of Guanghe Law Firm shares an example with ALB: “Many fintech companies rely on the technologies of 5G and blockchain, therefore have high requirements for cybersecurity and data compliance services. But from a legal perspective, these involve complicated legal issues of civil laws, criminal laws and administrative laws. So we need to break the old practice areas and form a new department to serve those clients.”
Also, with the rapid growth of local companies, nowadays a company’s lifecycle might be compressed into just a few years compared to what its predecessor might experience in decades, which requires law firms’ capacity to provide consistent legal services with stable teams. According to Liu, Deheng therefore has formed new legal teams comprised of partners from IP, securities and investment departments to “provide the highest level of service.”
COMPLIANCE BECOMES NEW BATTLEFIELD
Apart from service innovations, with the rapidly changing regulatory environments both domestically and globally, and with local companies’ special usage of cutting-edge technologies and new business models which sometimes require them to walk in legal grey zones, law firms have witnessed compliance service becoming the new battlefield.
“Compliance became a hot topic since U.S. banned trading with ZTE in 2018.” Liu says.
Yao points out that different types of companies usually have different compliance focuses. “For example, internet and fintech companies are focusing more on data compliance in recent years. Criminal compliance is also key to internet companies, and our criminal defense team has successfully developed new businesses in this area.”
“Meanwhile traditional financial institutions are focusing more on risk control. We’ve realized that some companies from new industries are even more cautious in this area, they would include lawyers even at the very beginning when creating new business models,” she adds.
Liu says that sometimes compliance issue could become a matter of life or death to a company. “Data has become the ‘blood’ of many companies, and the regulators’ recent denial of Moji’s and World Online Advertising’s IPO applications has also shown the seriousness of this issue.”
Gao provides yet another perspective to this issue. According to him, law firms can assist companies on both internal and external compliance. By setting up a new service center, China Commercial now helps clients to build complete internal compliance systems, as well as to tackle compliance problems arising from international businesses.
“We’re helping clients to draw lines when doing businesses with foreign companies and in other countries, and we’re doing so by thoroughly reviewing all disputes concerning U.S. 377 investigation, trade secret, anti-laundry and antitrust,” Gao says.
ADAPTING TO THE NEW NORMAL
As Gao has mentioned, Shenzhen companies have high levels of internationalization, which, however, becomes a double-edge sword given the current situation.
Take U.S. government’s entity list as an example, it already includes a bunch of Shenzhen-based companies. Some people even joke that the Sino-U.S. trade frictions are actually frictions between the U.S. and the local Yuehai community in Shenzhen, which is the registration place of many world-famous companies.
Law firms are also helping Shenzhen tech giants adapting to this “new normal.”
Yao tells ALB that those assistances could be divided into three categories: first, law firms can send risk alerts to clients once there are new laws and regulations coming out in foreign markets, especially in the U.S.; second, law firms can help clients to review their full business cycles and provide compliance plans to the weak links.
And finally, “we also help clients to relief or solve the problems which put them into those lists in the first place. If clients want to therefore develop new markets, we’ll also help conducting compliance researches.”
Both Yao and Liu mention the importance of law firms to have international reach. “Only by cooperating with our own overseas offices or with partner firms can we provide long-term strategies to the clients,” Liu says.
FIERCE COMPETITION
Shenzhen’s gathering of new industries and the ever-changing economic and social landscape also provides huge opportunities for law firms.
“The cake is becoming bigger and bigger, which has drawn lots of competitors,” Liu says.
According to the latest statistics published by Shenzhen’s Lawyers’ Association, from 2017 to 2019, the number of legal practitioners in Shenzhen has grown with an annual increase of 12 percent. By the end of 2019, Shenzhen has 920 law firms and 14374 lawyers.
Competing here are not only local firms, but also top-tier firms coming southwards to open offices. According to ALB’s reports, at least six law firms headquartered in Beijing or Shanghai have opened new offices in Shenzhen in the past year.
The newcomers’ ambitions should also not to be underestimated. In 2019, twenty-two law firms in Shenzhen have headcounts of more than one hundred people, among which ten ones are local offices of firms outside of Guangdong province.
Meanwhile, foreign law firms and joint operations are also speeding up in the race. In 2019, at least three foreign law firms had launched representative offices in Shenzhen – this was reckoned as uneconomic previously because of Shenzhen’s neighboring location to Hong Kong. Nowadays there are also six joint operation firms in the Qianhai Free Trade Zone. In this March, the first joint association of firms from three jurisdictions, Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau, also opened here.
Local law firms are holding a positive attitude towards this fierce competition. Gao points out: “Different law firms are bringing different firm culture to the scene, and this is a valuable chance for Shenzhen’s legal market to improve its overall service quality. But it also poses great challenges to local firms.”
What are the keys to stay competitive in this market? Different law firms have different answers.
Liu summarizes the winning secrets to just one word: service, which includes “strengthening the awareness of service, providing more seamless services, and developing new service products according to the clients’ needs.”
“The keys to stay competitive in the Shenzhen market are providing differentiated services, building seamless teamwork, and addressing to the clients’ pain points. The exploring spirit and bravery are in Shenzhen lawyers’ blood.”
--Yao Weiqi, Dentons
Yao echoes Liu’s viewpoints. “The exploring spirit and bravery are in Shenzhen lawyers’ blood,” she says.
“We have our own advantages, one of which is having a finer network of offices within the city. Take Guanghe as an example, we now have six offices in Shenzhen with more than 500 lawyers, and each office has its own specialties,”
--Tong Xin, Guanghe Law Firm
As the managing partner of a leading local firm, Tong points out the importance of differentiating one’s services. “We have our own advantages, one of which is having a finer network of offices within the city. Take Guanghe as an example, we now have six offices in Shenzhen with more than 500 lawyers, and each office has its own specialties,” he says.
Shenzhen is also experiencing the rising of so-called “expert lawyers”, the word refers to lawyers who have in-depth understanding of certain industries and are often of cross-discipline education or working backgrounds.
“No doubt expert lawyers are now leading the future,” Yao says, “the leading partners of our TMT, aviation and cross-border transaction teams are all young and innovative people in their early thirties. We’re also more in favor of talents of cross-discipline backgrounds when hiring.”
But she also points out that “expert lawyer” not only refers to one’s understanding of another industry, but also one’s acute business sense. “Sometimes a lawyer has to think as a businessman and has the judgement of where the wind is blowing. Only by doing so can he or she address to the clients’ pain points and win their trust.”
“Whether a lawyer is needed by an innovative company depends on whether he or she could actually merge into the client’s business. Therefore, ‘law plus technology’ and ‘law plus business’ are very important concepts in the future,” Gao adds.
Besides those details, lawyers also mention the importance of the changing of legal practitioners’ mindset. Yao tells ALB that after merging with Dentons, they’re now learning from western law firms about building the firm’s own culture.
“We’ve launched our own business development department and are seeing branding as one of our priorities. For me, this is a trial on the organization level to follow the route of ‘law plus business’,” she says.
Meanwhile, Gao expects that law firms could also enjoy some policy bonuses in the future. “We expect of innovations from a higher level, for example preferential tax measures and preferential policies for talent recruitment specifically designed for law firms.”
“If we’re doing right, legal business could become Shenzhen’s new growth pole, otherwise we’ll fall behind other sectors… I’m quite confident that the local legal market would become stronger, bigger and better.”
-- Gao Shu, China Commercial Law Firm
“If we’re doing right, legal business can become Shenzhen’s new growth pole, otherwise we’ll fall behind other sectors… I’m quite confident that the local legal market would become stronger, bigger and better,” Gao concludes.
To contact the editorial team, please email ALBEditor@thomsonreuters.com.