中国的成长型律所在过去一年中面对各种挑战不仅没有放缓成长速度，还展现出惊人的爆发力，在人员数量、分所布局、创收规模等方面节节攀升。未来，这些律所还将加速行进，驶入下一个快车道。
虽然过去的一年里，不少行业都饱受疫情冲击，但入选“2021 ALB China十五佳成长律所”榜单的律所依旧表现出了迅猛的发展势头：律所收费人员数量平均增长近百分之50；办公室平均新增近3家，除了北上广深一线城市，这些律所还在南京、海口、郑州、西安、成都等全国多地布局；招兵买马势必也带来创收的提升，据统计，今年的十五家律所在过去一年中营业额平均增长百分之87。
处于成长期的律所如何在竞争日益激烈的法律行业占领并扩大自己的一席之地？在这一过程中又经历着哪些“成长的烦恼”？部分上榜律所的合伙人向ALB分享了他们的感悟与思考。
人才济济
北京市道可特律师事务所成立于2003年，是中国最早以公司制为管理特点的律所之一。在过去一年中，道可特收费人员从128人一跃攀升至269人，实现了百分之110.16的涨幅。新引进的合伙人主要执业于银行及金融业务、政府及社会组织业务、家族财富、数据合规及反垄断、资产管理、建设工程、知识产权等领域。
道可特主任、创始合伙人刘光超律师告诉ALB，在人才引进和培养方面，道可特一直以来秉承着两大原则：一是致力于做成熟律师的转型器，二是致力于做青年律师的成长加速器。他坦言：“对于业务较为成熟的律师，我们针对合伙人推出了‘1234支持计划’，针对新晋合伙人还推出了‘五个一’工程，实际就是帮助合伙人能够在现在的市场环境下找到最合适的业务领域、找到最佳的市场推广渠道、找到最匹配的客户、找到最合适的团队。而对青年律师，我们推出了道可特青年营，每年年中开营，全面从专业、市场、管理等方向为青年律师赋能。”
海润天睿律师事务所成立于1997年，总部位于北京。2020年，海润天睿将人才建设作为发展的重中之重，吸收引进了百余位专业人员，组建起一支近500人的精英队伍，其中不乏广获Chambers、ALB、CLJB、IFLR1000、Benchmark Litigation、LEGALBAND、界面金榜等知名法律评级及媒体机构认可和推荐的优秀合伙人及律师，包括朱玉栓、周劲龙、高超、张圣怀、邢立新、颜克兵、赵廷凯、霍熠、王肖东、佟杉杉、郭洁、单震宇等，人员增长率达百分之30。
海润天睿所执行主任、高级合伙人周劲龙律师表示，新引进的合伙人和律师大多毕业于国内外著名学院，不少合伙人曾在著名律师事务所工作多年。他们既有丰富经验又有深厚理论基础，其业务领域涵盖金融资管、金融商事、知识产权、争议解决、刑事合规、建设工程与基础设施等众多领域，涉及娱乐传媒、房地产、能源、医药、金融、文化、互联网等不同行业。“这些深耕各自领域的专家将运用扎实的专业能力和积极应对市场变化的敏锐意识，进一步夯实海润天睿在相应领域的领先优势。”
“我们的律师及法务助理在加入海润天睿前，均需通过严格的遴选。加盟后，我们还通过各类培训以提高律师的服务水平，而这样的严进优培还在继续： 2021年，海润天睿将持续推进专业分工的优化，吸纳和晋升各领域优秀人才，精进内部管理能力与服务水平，使事务所的业务结构更趋完整，实现对更广泛的法律人的薪火相传，构建互通互联生态圈体系，为合伙人和律师提供良好、透明的晋升机制和发展通道。”周劲龙律师说。
总部位于北京的嘉维律师事务所成立于1998年，至今已走过了23个年头。嘉维所主任、同时也担任北京律师协会副会长的赵曾海律师告诉ALB：“在疫情期间，我们在规模化的发展方面是不减反增的。”在去年4月，嘉维所收费人员约40余人，而经过一年的发展，这一数字很快突破100，并保持稳步增长。新引进合伙人主要执业于刑事辩护与代理、争议解决与诉讼、资本市场、国有资本运营、企业并购与重组、企业与公司债、私募基金、重大民商事诉讼与仲裁、法律风险与合规等业务领域。
谈及人才引进战略，赵曾海律师表示，嘉维所采取了一项具有创新精神且人性化的战略——“零成本执业”，即所有的办公室及办公区域都是免费使用的，不收取任何成本，但同时也为不同的办公室设置了相应的创收要求。律师只要完成相对应的创收任务即可享有独立的办公区，而对于那些只是需要共享办公室，确保有地方办公即可的律师，则没有创收任务的要求。
这样的“零成本”策略旨在为律师减负。赵曾海律师坦言：“刚入行的青年律师，收入不稳定，客户不稳定，生活压力较大，这就更需要我们去鼓励、去支持，帮助他们减轻负担，让他们能够一心一意去做案件。”
除了人才引进，嘉维所还很注重年轻律师的培养，并为此专门推出“金种子计划”，从思想引领、业务培养、案源共享等各方面为年轻律师提供全方位、大力度的栽培。嘉维所为每一名律师及律师助理确定督导权益高级合伙人和督导律师，每位员工每年都要参加60小时以上的培训。嘉维所每年举办10次以上的业务交流会、演讲会，每年外派培训30-50人次，其中，派到国外学习的有3-5人次。嘉维所通过对新员工进行实务和理论培训、执业纪律和职业道德培训、办公技能培训、外语培训等岗前培训，全面提高员工素质。
君都律师事务所成立于2001年，总部位于北京，其创始合伙人谭敬慧律师告诉ALB，过去一年中，君都所收费人员从90人增长至超过160人，增幅近百分之80。新引进的合伙人主要围绕君都所的三大核心业务方向——建工地产、金融资本、争议解决，此外也有深耕娱乐法、不良资产处置等领域的专家加盟，从而巩固和提高君都所为更加广泛的客户群体提供一站式法律服务的能力。
谭敬慧律师还指出，年轻律师也一直是君都所人才引进的重点关注对象。“我们愿意为年轻律师们创造灵活、便利的发展条件，使得他们都成为在专业领域受人尊敬的专家，正所谓打铁还需自身硬，深耕行业是王道。”
客户叠加与创收提升
有了更加壮大的队伍，这些律所在2020年的风浪中不仅岿然不倒，还乘风破浪、势如破竹，在客户群体的拓宽和创收的提升方面均有不俗的表现。赵曾海律师表示，嘉维所进行规模化发展以来，律所人员数量有了显著增长，相对应的客户群体也有了极大的扩增。“每个律师团队根据他们所擅长的执业领域所服务的客户涉及更多元化的行业，主要分布在以下几个类别：政府／公共事务类、投融资／金融类、文化领域／知识产权类、汽车商贸、建筑工程类等。2020年是特殊的一年，全球疫情对各行各业都带来了多重打击，但在此大环境下，嘉维所不仅实现了人员的显著增长，律所收益也在稳步提高，今年同期比去年同期提升了百分之237.55以上。”
刘光超律师告诉ALB，道可特新增客户群体集中于机构类客户，包括大型央企、大型国有企业、金融机构、资管机构、互联网企业以及一些大型的家族企业等。他还补充道：“人才引进后，道可特客户数量增长幅度超过了律师人数增长幅度。这主要得益于两个方面：一是人才引进后本身带来的客户叠加效应，二是随着律师内部市场扩大，每一个合伙人可以开拓的客户进一步增加。”
海润天睿的客户群体和客户类型广布各个行业，既包含传统的房地产、能源化工、服务业、制造业，又有互联网、金融、医药医疗、游戏媒体等新兴的热门行业。在经济下行的去年，海润天睿营收较2019年内延式增长百分之40，高级合伙人人均创收过千万。2020年全年，海润天睿共承办了16家企业的上市项目，其中8家已成功上市、8家通过审核。在已发行的8单中，平均每单费用为696.18万元，位居全国同行业第一。此外，海润天睿还承办了多起涉案金额达百亿元的案件，涉及民商事、刑事合规、仲裁、执行、行政等各种类型。
周劲龙律师向ALB分享了成功背后的秘诀：“为更好地满足新时期经济和市场的发展需求，海润天睿着力推进专业化升级，进一步强化分层管理、三维设定、突出标签的专业化基本思路；结合市场变化，着手律师的行业发展，全所业务分级体系相应做出精细化调整，设立新的业务和行业分类体系，专业化升级方案全面落地。这进一步促进了事务所业务发展与行业深耕的交叉融合，为客户带来更高附加值的服务体验。”
君都所目前的客户主要为央企和大型国有企业，同时也有不少优质的民营企业和外企。谭敬慧律师告诉ALB，这些客户遍布建设工程、房地产、金融服务、工业制造、医药医疗、农业等国民经济各重点领域，其中不乏很多头部企业客户，包括中国建筑、中国电建、中铁建设、中建交通、中交路桥、中冶京诚、国家电网、国能投、中航油等。谭律师坦言：“在目前雄厚的客户基础上，我们还将不断新增各领域优质的头部企业客户，为国民经济贡献重要的法律服务技术力量，真正做到让法律技术成为客户生产力。”
加快布局
过去一年中，君都所在海口和广州两大国内沿海城市建立起分所，并走出国门，与英国一家律所签订了战略合作协议，在伦敦成功发展了境外办公室。谭敬慧律师对这样的布局拓展感到欣喜，并表示：“我们各地的办公室经常联动，在知识与经验共享、商务拓展与品牌宣传、人才招募与引进、党建与公益等方面互相支持，形成了独特的竞争优势。”
道可特在深圳、上海、海口、哈尔滨建立分所。对于选中这四个城市的原因，刘光超律师表示：“深圳的科技创新一直处于全国前列，同时也是粤港澳大湾区的核心城市，其中所孕育的未来经济成长、科技成长、金融成长、社会成长的空间很大，所以我们选择落子深圳。再说上海，它是下一轮深度改革开放的示范区，也是中国与国际连接的最重要的城市。而哈尔滨作为东北亚经济连接的桥头堡，地理位置上具有重要的战略意义，其法律市场也蕴藏机遇。海口在我看来则会发展为中国的‘开曼’。”
而对于分所与当地律所的关系，刘光超律师坦言：“道可特一直以来所秉承的分所发展理念是融入当地、服务当地。我们从来不以竞争者的心态开设分所，我们更希望能将道可特创新模式带给当地，让当地的客户有更多一种选择。”
过去一年中，海润天睿所在重庆、大连、南京、淄博分别开设分所。周劲龙律师指出，大连作为国家首批对外开放的沿海城市和东北唯一纳入“一带一路”倡议总体规划的港口，相关法律服务需求不断增大。因此，大连分所的设立既增强了海润天睿所在大连及东北地域影响，又强化了海事海商法律服务、对日/对韩法律服务、自贸区法律服务优势。而南京分所的成立则配合上海分所整合法律服务资源，助力长三角洲城市群经济发展，依托地缘优势携手夯实资本市场、高科技等重要业务领域。
“2020年是海润天睿合并后的第一个‘三年计划’落成之年，也是专业化转型升级改革落施的开局之年，依托海润天睿整体平台优势及丰厚的人才储备，海润天睿各区域办公室在过去一年互通互联，不断优化属地化法律服务。面向未来，海润天睿将继续通过海南、合肥、淄博等地布局，致力于提供向上辐射华北、向下覆盖华东的专业法律服务。通过有效的分工、紧密的团队协同与资源整合，为客户在激烈的市场竞争中保驾护航。”周劲龙律师说。
嘉维所在过去一年新开设了南京、济南两家分所。此外，广西、湖北、湖南、吉林、四川等地分所也已经在筹备中。以南京分所为例，赵曾海律师表示：“南京及周边地区的人口总数远超北京，经济活动非常活跃。作为‘全国优秀律师事务所’的嘉维所，享有总部位于首都的地理位置优势，汇聚了专业优秀的律师人才，享有更广阔更畅通的对外沟通渠道，这都将成为嘉维南京分所发展的最大助力。”
展望未来，持续成长
对于未来，周劲龙律师表示，2021年海润天睿将继续围绕业务发展和专业化的持续提升，并从管理和支持体系上全面发力，完善自身服务体系、服务规划和服务能力，海纳八方优秀人才，不断强化核心竞争力。
在规模扩张的过程中，海润天睿将始终置业务品质于首位。周劲龙律师坦言：“虽然在影响力和人才吸引方面，规模越大就越有优势，但我们一直更看重的是服务质量。” 2021年，海润天睿将重点吸纳资管、文娱等特定领域的团队，精进并细化服务领域，通过专业分工与协作，向客户提供优质的法律产品，同时也让客户感受高效专业的服务体验；通过一体化的管理模式在业务管理、流程和风险控制上保证分所与总所同步和一致，从而保证业务质量、扩大品牌影响力，在业内塑造更好的口碑，并保持稳定、内延式的增长。
周劲龙律师还特别提出要在用人、用工、用时及薪酬制度方面采用客观、科学、量化的标准进行评价和衡量。他说：“以‘合伙人+资深律师+年轻律师’的梯队作战方式完成业务，有非常民主的讨论氛围，律师业务交流蔚然成风，合伙人与律师之间形成良好的互补和带动。完善成熟的考评和晋升机制将为员工搭建良好的上升平台和长远发展空间，并就各项考评对优秀人员进行表彰，激励员工分享经验、互相学习，致力于创造涵盖了法律服务层面和商业发展层面的支持，从而构建互通互联的生态圈体系。”
谭敬慧律师向ALB分享道，君都所的律所文化包括“做独具特色的顶尖律所”的愿景以及“深耕行业”的核心价值观。她坦言：“事务所的文化不是一个虚幻的概念，我们每一个管理动作，每一次市场活动，每一位新引进的人才，都在践行着事务所的核心价值观。在这样的事务所核心价值体系引领下，我们将不断迎来志同道合者，在保证品质的前提下持续扩大规模。我们计划在今后的一到两年内，将建设工程、金融资本和争议解决业务的专家型律师数量再增加一倍，同时也以开放的态度欢迎其他业务领域的高水平律师加盟。”
嘉维所制定了2021年-2025年的五年规划，希望通过今后五年的发展，力争成为“全国一流的、大型的、综合性的、具有专业特色和管理特色、不断开拓创新的律师事务所”。赵曾海律师对这几个词语的解释是：“‘全国一流’是要达到司法部或中华全国律师协会制定的评优标准并被评为全国优秀律师事务所。这是具有客观标准的目标，也是一个动态的目标。全国优秀律师事务所的标准会随着行业的前进而不断提高。在某个时点实现了这一目标并不意味着满足和停止，还需要保持、巩固、提高。‘大型’则是要通过与国内外律所合并联盟等方式迅速做大、做强，计划用三年时间在律所规模上进入全国前列；用五年时间组建全球法律服务网络，成为全球化律师事务所。‘综合性’是要实现基础业务力量雄厚，业务专业门类众多。‘专业特色’是要有支柱专业和新兴业务。支柱专业是能够稳定嘉维所创收的专业，而新兴业务则是在全国具有领先地位、在律师行业内有表率作用、对嘉维所发展具有带动作用的业务领域；‘管理特色’则包含了几个维度：一是要体现广泛、充分的民主，为全体律师参与管理提供畅通的途径，二是要建立完整严密的制度体系，用规范和标准覆盖律师事务所各项工作的各个环节，三是以数字化、信息化工具为支撑，将各项标准数字化，实现信息化管理。”
对于道可特来说，适度规模化是其规模发展的核心，而高质量的规模化则是未来成长的目标。刘光超律师表示：“无论是适度还是高质量，我们初心则始终没变：一切为了客户，一切为了律师。”
今年1月，道可特发布了2021年-2025年的最新五年规划（3.0阶段第二个五年规划）。在规模化发展方面，道可特未来计划主要体现在五个方面：一是人员规模突破千人，成为在全国具备中上等人员规模的知名律所；二是办公室规模突破20家，形成全国重点城市的全面布局；三是业务规模突破十亿元，形成业务稳健、特色鲜明的业务布局；四是客户规模突破五千家，形成全国区域客户体系；五是合作体系规模突破三十个，形成行业化发展、充分打造跨界平台。
“通过适度规模化打造，道可特致力于在未来五年，力争跻身全国一流律所，打造以公司制创新为核心的运营型、研发型、服务型、科技型律所，”刘光超律师说。
2021 ALB China Fastest Growing Firms
Amid the COVID chaos of the past year, the firms on the 2021 ALB China Fastest Growing Firms list have seen vigorous growth. On average, the number of billable professionals or fee earners of each firm increased by nearly 50 percent, and each firm opened three new offices. In addition to the first-tier cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, the firms have been expanding their presence to other Chinese cities such as Nanjing, Haikou, Zhengzhou, Xi’an and Chengdu. The expansion has brought revenue growth, with statistics showing an average of 87 percent during the past year.
How did these growing firms gain a foothold and expand successfully in China’s increasingly competitive legal industry? What "growing pains" did they go through on the path of development? ALB spoke to the partners of some of those firms to hear their thoughts and reflections.
LARGER TALENT POOL
Founded in 2003, Beijing Docvit Law Firm was one of the law firms in China to first adopt the corporate management system. In the past year, the number of Docvit's billable professionals and fee earners jump from 128 to 269, an increase of 110.16 percent. The new partners that joined the firm last year mainly practice in the areas of banking and finance, government and social organization, family wealth, data compliance and antitrust, asset management, construction engineering, and intellectual property.
Liu Guangchao, director and founding partner of Docvit, tells ALB that the firm follows two principles in talent acquisition and training: A "transitioner" for senior lawyers and a growth accelerator for young lawyers. "For highly experienced lawyers, we implement a '1234' support program for partners and a 'five ones' program for newly promoted partners. Both programs aim to help partners identify the most suitable business areas, the best marketing channels, the best-fit clients, and the most suitable teams to work with in the current market environment. And we run the DOCVIT youth training camp for young lawyers, which opens in the middle of each year, to fully empower young lawyers in terms of specialty, market, and management," says Liu.
Hairun Law Firm, established in 1997, is headquartered in Beijing. In 2020, Hairun made talent recruitment and cultivation its top priority, and hired more than 100 professionals to form an elite team of nearly 500 people, representing a personnel growth of 30 percent. Many of them are outstanding partners and lawyers who are recognized and recommended by legal rankings and media organizations such as Chambers, ALB, CLJB, IFLR1000, Benchmark Litigation, Legalband, and Jiemian, including among others, Zhu Yushuan, Zhou Jinlong, Gao Chao, Zhang Shenghuai, Xing Lixin, Yan Kebing, Zhao Tingkai, Huo Yi, Wang Xiaodong, Tong Shanshan, Guo Jie, and Shan Zhenyu.
Zhou Jinlong, executive director and senior partner of Hairun, says that most of the new partners and lawyers graduate from well-known universities at home and abroad, and many partners had worked with prestige firms for many years before joining Hairun. They have rich experience and profound expertise; and their practice areas cover financial management, financial and commercial affairs, intellectual property, dispute resolution, criminal compliance, construction engineering and infrastructure, involving industries such as entertainment media, real estate, energy, pharmaceutical, finance, culture, and the Internet. "They're experts in their respective fields and have a keen awareness of market changes and the ability to quickly respond to those changes. They're a great asset to Hairun and will help the firm to further entrench its advantages in the corresponding fields," Zhou says.
"We have a well-established employee selection process. And we provide on-the-job training for all lawyers and paralegals after they join the firm. In 2021, we continue the efforts to optimize the division of labour, attract and promote outstanding talent in various practice areas, improve internal management capabilities and service levels, and perfect the firm's business structure to build an interconnected ecosystem within the firm and a good and transparent promotion and development mechanism for partners and lawyers," Zhou adds.
Beijing Javy Law Firm was founded in 1998, with its head office in Beijing. Zhao Zenghai, director of Javy and vice president of the Beijing Lawyers Association, tells ALB: "We have scaled rapidly during the COVID pandemic last year." With about 40 billable professionals and fee earners at Javy in April 2020, the number now has reached over 100, and is still going up steadily. The partners newly joined the firm specialize in practice areas of criminal defence and criminal representation, dispute resolution and litigation, capital market, State-owned capital operations, mergers and acquisitions and reorganizations, enterprise and corporate bonds, private equity funds, major civil and commercial litigation and arbitration, and legal risks and compliance.
Javy adopts an innovative and people-oriented strategy to attract and retain talent – a "zero-cost practice" strategy, that is, all offices and office premises are free to use. Meanwhile, different offices are set with corresponding revenue targets in light of different circumstances. Lawyers can enjoy an independent office area as long as they hit the targets. Lawyers who work at shared office spaces are not set with fee earning targets, Zhao says.
The "zero-cost practice" strategy aims to reduce the burden on lawyers. "Young lawyers who have just joined the profession don't have stable incomes and clients, and have quite some pressures in life. We should give them encouragement and support, and help to reduce the burden on them, so that they can be more concentrated on their cases," says Zhao.
Javy also values the coaching of young lawyers, and implements a talent training program named "golden seedling program" to comprehensively and vigorously train and cultivate young lawyers by means of thinking guidance, business training, and case source sharing. Javy assigns equity senior partners and supervisory lawyers to be the mentors for lawyers and paralegals, and all employees must participate in more than 60 hours of training annually. Every year, Javy holds over ten business exchange meetings and seminars, and sends 30 to 50 employees to attend external training, and three to five employees to study abroad. For new employees, Javy provides pre-job training such as practical and theoretical training, practice discipline and professional ethics training, office skills training, and foreign language training to integrate new hires into the firm and its culture.
Jundu Law Firm, founded in 2001, is headquartered in Beijing. The founding partner of the firm, Tan, Jinghui tells ALB that in the past year, Jundu's billable professionals and fee earners increased from 90 to more than 160, an increase of nearly 80 percent. The new partners mainly specialise in three core business areas of the firm, namely construction and industrial real estate, financial capital, and dispute resolution. Other lawyers newly joined the firm last year include experts in the practice areas of entertainment law and non-performing asset disposal. These new hires help Jundu to provide one-stop legal services for a wider group of clients.
Jundu always welcomes young lawyers to join them, Tan says. "We're willing to create flexible conditions to facilitate the growth of young lawyers, to help them become respected experts in their practice areas. We value the same the career development and personal growth of lawyers. We believe that profound expertise and strong professional skills rule in all circumstances."
MORE CLIENTS, MORE REVENUE
Javy's client groups experienced great expansion along with the increase in the number of employees. "At Javy, each team provides services for clients involving various industries and sectors, including among others government/public affairs, investment and financing/finance, cultural/intellectual property, automobile commerce, and construction engineering. In the context that almost all industries were heavily affected by COVID in 2020, in addition to employee increase, Javy achieved steady revenue growth – a year-on-year growth of over 237.55 percent," Zhao says.
Most of Docvit's new clients include large central enterprises, large state-owned enterprises, financial institutions, asset management institutions, Internet companies, and some large family businesses, Liu tells ALB. "With new lawyers joining the firm, the growth rate of the number of our clients exceeded the growth rate of the number of lawyers. This is mainly because that the new lawyers bring in new clients, leading to client multiplication; and meanwhile, the expansion of the internal market enables partners to further enlarge their client bases," he adds.
Hairun's teams support clients in a variety of industries and sectors, including traditional industries such as real estate, energy and chemical industry, service industry, and manufacturing, as well as emerging and fast-growing sectors such as the Internet, finance, pharmaceutical and medical care, game and media. In spite of the economic downturn last year, Hairun's endogenous growth increased by 40 percent compared with that in 2019, and the revenue generated by senior partners per capita exceeded 10 million yuan ($1.5 million). In 2020, Hairun undertook a total of 16 company listing projects, of which eight have been successfully listed and eight have passed the review. Of the eight successful listing projects, the average fee per project is 6.9618 million yuan, ranking first in the industry in China. In addition, Hairun has undertaken a number of cases worth ten billion yuan, which involve various types such as civil and commercial matters, criminal compliance, arbitration, enforcement, and administration.
"In order to better serve the needs of the economic and market development in the new era, Hairun is committed to promoting business upgrading, and further strengthening the specialization ideology featured hierarchical management, three-dimensional setting, and highly recognizable. We also, in light of the market changes, the development of the legal profession, and the firm's current business classification system, make prudent and practical adjustments, set up a new business and industry classification system, and fully implement the business upgrading plan. By doing so, we further promote the cross-integration of firm's business development with our efforts to dig deep in industries, to provide clients with a higher value-added service experience," Zhou shares.
The current clients of Jundu are mainly central enterprises and large state-owned enterprises, as well as some renowned private enterprises and foreign enterprises, which are mainly engaged in key areas of the national economy such as construction engineering, real estate, financial services, industrial manufacturing, pharmaceutical and medical care, and agriculture. Many of them are leading enterprises in their respective industries, such as China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC), Power Construction Corporation of China, China Railway Construction Group, China Construction Communications Engineering Group, China Road and Bridge Corporation, Capital Engineering & Research Incorporation Limited (CERI), State Grid, China Energy Investment, and China National Aviation Fuel Group. "We'll step up efforts to expand our client groups on the basis of the present strong client base, to make contribution to the development of the national economy by providing quality legal services and use legal technology to help our clients improve productivity," Tan says.
COVERING MORE CITIES
Last year, Jundu set up offices in two major coastal cities in China, Haikou, and Guangzhou, and established an overseas office in London through a strategic cooperation agreement with a British law firm. Tan is very pleased with the expansion and says: "Although located in different places, our offices often support and interact with each other in terms of knowledge and experience sharing, business development and brand promotion, talent recruitment and acquisition, and Party construction and public welfare activities, thereby forming a unique competitive advantage."
Docvit opened offices in Shenzhen, Shanghai, Haikou, and Harbin last year. As for the reasons why they set up offices in those four cities, "Shenzhen has been an innovation hub in China, and is the core city of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. We chose to set up an office there because there's a lot of room for future economic growth, scientific and technological growth, financial growth and social growth in the city. Shanghai is a demonstration area for the next round of in-depth reform and opening up, and it's the most important city connecting China with the world. Harbin, as the bridgehead of economic connections in Northeast Asia, has important strategic significance in terms of the geographical location, and there're opportunities for business growth in its legal market. As for Haikou, I believe it's going to be China's 'Cayman (Islands)'," Liu says.
Regarding the relationship between DOCVIT's branch offices and the local law firms, Liu says: "We're convinced that branch offices should be developed in a way of integrating with the local community and serving the local community. We don't go there as a competitor. Instead, we hope that our innovative services would offer more choices for the local clients."
Hairun opened four offices last year, in Chongqing, Dalian, Nanjing, and Zibo. Dalian is among the first batch of coastal cities of China opening up to the outside world and the only port city in Northeast China that is included in the master plan of the Belt and Road initiative, and the local market demand for the related legal services continues growing. By setting up an office there, Hairun is building a stronger presence in Dalian and the Northeast China, and meanwhile sharpens its competitive edge in maritime legal services, Japan related and South Korea-related legal services, and free trade zone legal services. The Nanjing and Shanghai offices will collaborate to integrate legal service resources to contribute to the economic development of the Yangtze River Delta, and meanwhile work together to, relying on geographic advantages, consolidate the firm's advantages in the important business areas such as capital market and high technology.
"The first post-merger of Hairun and Tianrui ‘three-year plan’ was accomplished in 2020. In the same year, we started the business transformation and upgrading reform. Relying on Harun's overall platform advantages and strong talent pool, all of our offices have been strengthening connections and continuously optimizing localized legal services. We'll continue the business expansion and deployment through our offices in Hainan, Hefei and Zibo, to expand our legal service coverage in North China and East China. Through the effective division of labour, the close team collaboration and the resource integration, we help our clients navigate through the fierce market competition," Zhou says.
Javy opened offices in Nanjing and Jinan last year. Furthermore, it's preparing to set up offices in Guangxi, Hubei, Hunan, Jilin, and Chengdu. "The total population of Nanjing and its surrounding areas far exceeds that of Beijing, and the economic activities there are very active, too. Ranking as National Excellent Law Firm by All China Lawyers Association (ACLA) and relying on its geologic advantages – headquartered in Beijing, Javy has gathered outstanding lawyers and enjoys prime external communication channels, these advantages will be conducive to development of our Nanjing Office," Zhao says.
LOOKING AHEAD
In 2021, Hairun will continue to focus on business development and upgrading, and make comprehensive efforts to improve its service system, planning and capabilities from the aspect of management and support systems, Zhou says. And meanwhile, the firm will continue to acquire talent to strengthen its core competitiveness.
In the process of expansion, Hairun always puts quality first. "Although the larger the size of a firm, the greater the advantage the firm will have in terms of market influence and talent acquisition, we always value service quality over other factors," Zhou says. In 2021, Hairun focuses on building teams specializing in areas such as asset management and entertainment. The firm will also continue to provide quality legal services and improve customer experience through better division of work and efficient collaboration. Furthermore, Hairun will ensure that the business management, procedure and risk control of branch offices are consistent with those of the headquarters, so as to guarantee service quality and expand brand influence through an integrated management model, and meanwhile enhance its reputation in the industry, and maintain stable and endogenous growth.
Zhou also points out that it needs to use objective, scientific, and quantitative standards to evaluate and measure the systems for hiring, billable hours and remuneration. "By implementing a work pattern of partner + senior lawyers + young lawyers, we create a work environment in the firm where all our lawyers can share their ideas about projects or cases openly, and partners and lawyers encourage each other, and become each other's helper. With a well-established evaluation system and a transparent promotion and development mechanism for partners and lawyers, we are committed to giving our lawyers supports from both legal service aspect and business development aspect, so as to build an interconnected ecosystem within the firm," Zhou says.
Jundu's culture includes the vision of "being a top-tier law firm with its own unique characteristics" and the core values of "digging deep in the industry", Tan tells ALB. "Our firm's culture is not an illusory concept. We practice our core values in every management action, every market activity, and every talent acquisition. Guided by the core values, we'll continue to expand on the premise of ensuring service quality. We plan to double the number of expert lawyers in construction engineering, financial capital and dispute resolution in the next one to two years. At the same time, we also welcome like-minded reputable lawyers specialized in other practice areas to join us."
Javy has formulated a five-year plan for 2021-2025 in an attempt to become among "the large top-tier comprehensive law firms in China, with its own characteristics in terms of specialized practice areas and management, and continuous innovation." Zhao says. "'Top-tier law firm in China' means to meet standards for excellent firms set by the Ministry of Justice or the AllChina Lawyers Association, and be rated as the National Excellent Law Firm. It's a goal with objective standards, and meanwhile a dynamic goal since the standards for national excellent law firms continue to increase along with the advancement of the industry. Therefore, we won't be satisfied with achieving this goal at a certain point of time, and then stop there. We'll continue to make steady progress.
"'Large' means to rapidly grow bigger and stronger through merger and alliance with domestic and foreign law firms. We plan to become among the top ten largest firms in China in three years, and to build a global legal service network and become a globalized firm in five years. 'Comprehensive' means to consolidate our business base and meanwhile build teams specialized in a variety of practice areas,” says Zhao. “With our own characteristics in terms of business areas' means to develop the firm's pillar business areas and emerging business areas.” The pillar business areas are those that ensure the firm has stable incomes, while the emerging business areas are those that we have a leading position in China, set an example in the legal profession, and are able to drive the development of Javy.
"'Management characteristics' involve several dimensions: (1) to embody broad and extensive democracy, enabling all lawyers to participate in the management of the firm; (2) to establish a complete and rigorous system to manage all work processes of the firm according to norms and standards; and (3) to fully adopt information technology in management and digitalize all standards by using digital and information tools," Zhao explains.
For Docvit, a moderate scale is the core of its expansion plan, and high-quality expansion is its goal for future growth. "Whether it is moderate scale or high-quality expansion, our original intention will never change: we do everything for our clients, and our lawyers," Liu says.
In January, Docvit released its "five-year plan" for 2021-2025. About the scale development, the plan covers five aspects: (1) the number of employees exceeds 1,000, and the firm becomes a well-known medium or large-sized law firm in China in terms of the number of employees; (2) to have more than 20 offices in key cities in China; (3) the revenue scale exceeds one billion yuan, and to form a business layout with stable business and distinctive characteristics; (4) to have over 5,000 clients, and form regional systems of clients around China; and (5) to build over 30 collaboration systems, form industrialized development and build cross-industry platforms.
"By expansion, Docvit is committed to becoming a top-notch law firm in China in the next five years and building an operational, R&D, service, and technology-based law firm with corporate innovation as the core," Liu says.
THE LIST
（按律所名称排序 In alphabetical order）
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Beijing Docvit Law Firm Duan & Duan Law Firm Faxian Law Firm Guangdong Lianyue Law Firm Hai Run Law Firm HanSheng Law Offices Hunan Tiandiren Law Firm Beijing Javy Law Firm Jin Mao Law Firm Jundu Law Firm Kejie Associates Shaanxi Jiaxuan Law Firm Shanghai Yingdong Law Firm Shihui Partners Sunhold Law Firm |
