Legal basis: People's Republic of China (PRC) Lawyers Law.
Article 18 To establish a law firm, an application shall be submitted to the judicial administrative department of the people's government at the municipal level or municipality directly under the Central Government, and the department accepting the application shall conduct an examination within 20 days from the date of acceptance, and submit the examination opinions and all application materials to the judicial administrative department of the people's government of the province, autonomous region or municipality directly under the Central Government. The judicial administrative departments of the people's governments of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government shall, within 10 days from the date of receiving the submitted materials, make a review and make a decision on whether to approve the establishment. If the establishment is approved, the practice certificate of law firm shall be issued to the applicant; If the establishment is not approved, the reasons shall be explained in writing to the applicant.
Article 28 A lawyer may engage in the following businesses:
(a) to accept the entrustment of natural persons, legal persons or other organizations as legal advisers;
(two) to accept the entrustment of the parties in civil cases and administrative cases, to act as agents and to participate in litigation;
(3) Accepting the entrustment of criminal suspects and defendants in criminal cases or legal aid agencies to act as defenders according to law, accepting the entrustment of private prosecutors in private prosecution cases, victims in public prosecution cases or their close relatives to participate in litigation as agents;
(four) to accept the entrustment and represent the complaints of various litigation cases;
(five) to accept the entrustment and participate in mediation and arbitration activities;
(6) Accepting entrustment to provide non-litigation legal services;
(seven) to answer questions about the law and write litigation documents and other documents related to legal affairs.