Tell us about your career so far.
When I first joined the China Life Group, I was with the company’s asset management division. Later, I moved to the China Life Investment Holding Co. to set up that company’s legal department. Since day one, my schedule has been filled with business deliberations, legal discussions, field research and travel. I’ve been to many places and collected many experiences.
Time flies fast. I’m now in my 10th year in China Life, and I think whether one enjoys their job or not depends on whether the job is interesting and provides value. The job is always intensely busy, and challenging, and for this reason I have never felt it to be dull. When I started, I had some administrative duties apart from my own work. I would often answer two phone calls simultaneously while writing a document. But I felt I could cope, and that was what the job was supposed to be like. Everybody needs to work hard to progress, especially when you leave the easy life of a college campus to graduate to a highly competitive working environment.
What is your main strategy for your legal team?
My basic management strategy has been formed with the cooperation I have received from my colleagues. Since I joined the company, the legal department has been growing, the scope of work expanding, the horizon broadening, and our role becoming increasingly important.
This is so because first of all, we do our job well. We need to be good advisers to the decision makers and complement the business with our legal services. Over the past few years, we have adjusted our working style based on demands of the company, raising ideas and concepts such as high-efficiency legal services, controlling risks in order to increase profits, and introducing professionalism, standardisation, and institutionalisation. We have, and continue to provide legal support and risk control to the business in addition to building a risk prevention system based on the needs of the company.
Secondly, we stress on creating an open and positive work environment since it is key to building team spirit. When one chooses a career, the obvious factors are the brand of the company, the position, the rank, and the salary. But there are also subtle aspects which are very important to young people, which are the team, harmonious personal relations, a clear career path, and space for development. Therefore, I emphasise on team identity and cohesion, and trying to create a positive, open and motivated atmosphere.
What do you do to develop a young team?
To develop young people, one must guide and trust them. Team members should be given opportunities and their space to work with complete trust and authority. For example, when one is asked to perform a task intelligently and with initiative, he/ she appreciates the leader’s trust in him/ her. In return, his/her excellent completion of the task creates a virtuous cycle which energises the entire team. Developing young talent is not easy. But I would like to put in effort in doing so, and have, in fact, already seen satisfactory outcomes of doing so.
What sort of guidance do you give them?
I usually instruct on professional practices. This is because the training they receive at schools is mostly theoretical, and this needs to be transformed into practical conduct. It is a big leap from school to business, and a mentor is needed during this transition. My task is to help them complete the process as quickly as possible.
In a large corporation, starting on the correct track is necessary as there are many requirements and procedures, regulations and details involved. For instance, in the beginning, I had to make a great number of changes to the documents they drafted, including the points, angle, structure, language, and even punctuation marks. Each revision pushes them forward a little bit.
Some say legal is only a supporting, marginal department that has very limited space in the company. What do you think of this perspective?
I am very confident about my department primarily because I have faith in the insurance and alternative investment sector’s prospects. Also, I believe that our company’s prospects are such that it promises to be a prominent and respected leader in the industry. As for the issue regarding the legal department’s status and space in the company, I think we should bear two points in mind: First, that “what you do makes where you are.” One has to do something, achieve something, contribute something, and add value to something before getting to some position. Respect is not to be given, but to be earned by devoted, diligent, hardworking, and progressive efforts. Recognition will eventually match contribution. Second, it depends on the specific circumstances of each company. Some industries might have lesser need for legal assistance, in which case legal would indeed be a supporting department. But for the alternative investment industry where the business is highly innovative and demands for negotiation and agreement are highly reliant on the law, a huge number of businesses require the full participation of the legal department. In such an industry, the legal cell is of particular importance.
How do you ensure cooperation and communication with other departments?
The first step is to think from the perspective of the business. The company aims at making money without breaching the bottom line of the law, which in turn requires proactive service from the legal department. The idea is to facilitate a transaction by providing schemes to help the business reach its target through legal arrangements. Being on the same stance with the business to solve a problem enables them to accept your points, and forge a harmonious relationship. Also, experience sharing within the legal team helps team members get a better idea of how to communicate with other people and what to keep in mind while doing so.
Moreover, whenever we invite external lawyers to lectures or discussions, we also invite relevant departments to participate, which eases and smoothes the communication with them by setting a common ground of discussion.
What has been your unique contribution to litigation management?
Litigation management is only one of our several working areas. Mostly, they are cases left over by historical disputes, a common problem faced by many Chinese financial SOEs.
Our strategy basically consists of two “combinations.” First is to combine the key cases we track down with the less important ones we leave to the market. Based on thorough knowledge of all the cases, we keep tracking the valuable ones and selling out the invaluable ones, which optimises the asset structure of the company. Second is to combine the directly managed cases with the ones commissioned to lawyers. We handle some directly and give others to the external attorneys, which in turn focuses on the main issue and reduces the cost. Since developing this strategy in 2010, the effect has been obvious and is also recognised by the company.
What is an ideal external lawyer like in your opinion?
Legal service is all about trust. Choosing a lawyer is selecting a person. In general, a lawyer we appreciate should have the following characters: First is being a professional, being a leading and reputed practitioner in a certain practice area. Second is being orderly, being well organised and being clearly predictable about when to give the client what kind of feedback, which in turn makes for smooth cooperation. Third is being committed, being good from the beginning till the end - true to one’s words - rather than making perfect promises while bidding and then neglecting the client while working. Fourth is being attentive, constantly deliver on the job, being able to overperform and surprise the client. For instance, proposing three plans or more when asked to make one.
When it comes to looking for an external lawyer to better service company development, I fully authorise my team members on each specific task.
What do you think external lawyers should improve the most?
Based on our previous experiences, there are two major problems: First, there should not be a lack of communication with the client. Some lawyers never contact us without being urged, which translates into us not knowing the latest progress on the case. Secondly, external lawyers should make their conclusions or legal opinions as clear and objective as possible. Clients should be able to understand their reports and use them profitably. They should avoid ambiguous expressions like “likely”, “maybe” or “basically”, which is also an indicator of their level of professionalism and responsibility.
What is the one suggestion you would like to give to lawyers?
First, I wish lawyers’ practices would be more orderly, standardised, and organised. They should think from our point of view, and submit reports regularly to connect with the in-house department seamlessly. Second, I wish lawyers would become highly sensitive to the client’s regulatory environment, and deeply knowledgeable about the same. Third, instead of limited legal visions, I hope they are able to think creatively from the perspective of the company and proactively plan out more effective and specific solutions.
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