Legal Eagles

October 18, 2007

One of the things which the Global Volunteer guide arranged for us was a visit to a private law firm. It was wonderful for the five lawyers of our group to join together with seventeen lawyers in their offices in downtown Xian. The managing partner met us and provided an interpreter. The fellow provided had lived in Seattle for a number of years and had absolutely excellent English, so communication was not a problem, although it was only one Chinese lawyer who spoke any English. We were able to ask all the questions that we had, and we learned the following: A student who wishes to become a lawyer first completes a four year university course which may be in general law, but may also be in any other subject he, or she, chooses. When the student has the B. A. degree, he then takes a test. Few pass the test, but if one does, he is then only certified to study with a private law firm for one year. The test was given in the Xian area last year and not one single student passed. During that one year, the student self-studies, and at the end, he takes a kind of bar examination. There is no formal “law school” as we have. If they pass this ‘bar’, they are then authorized to appear in court. Family law is not a large part of any private practice, and the firm we visited actually does not handle such cases. If the divorce case is uncontested, no court appearance is required, but mere paperwork is filed. If the case is contested, then it must go to court.

Advertising used to be frowned upon in China, but in the last ten years things have changed and to get clients, Chinese law firms are soliciting all the work they can get. In this country of millions, there are only 130,000 lawyers. Business and corporate law comprised the majority of the work of this 40 member firm, but several of the attorneys who attended this conference also handled criminal law defense. We were asked how American law “pierced the corporate veil”, and we were asked if a business which was truly bankrupt could “reorganized”. At the end of the one and one half hours of questions we shared, photographs were taken, and we took our leave after much hand shaking and thanks expressed.

For many in the group, the adventures are coming to an end as most are only staying 2 weeks. There will be 13 of us staying on another week. This is an amazing group of cooperation and respect for each others talents.