Strictly speaking, the lawyer's business is divided into litigation and non-litigation. Lawyers' business is nothing but litigation. The characteristic of litigation is that there is a third person who is independent of the parties to make a mandatory ruling on the dispute. This third party is a court or an arbitration commission. Non-litigation is relative to litigation, so no court or arbitration commission participates in non-litigation.
The business of non-litigation lawyers includes:
1. Contract negotiation, drafting, review, modification, drafting and supervision. Contract affairs are the most important non-litigation business of lawyers, covering a wide range of affairs in various economic fields, such as investment decision-making, bidding, project development, real estate development and transfer, intellectual property rights, enterprise restructuring, share transfer and so on. Because these transactions will eventually form a contract. The handling of contract affairs includes two stages: (1) the establishment stage of a contract, which starts from an offer or invitation of an offer by one party and goes all the way to the entry into force of the contract. Specific affairs include A's investigation, B's participation in negotiation, C's production of contract text, D's review, modification, drafting of contract E's declaration, approval or registration. (2) The performance stage of the contract, from the contract's effectiveness to the contract's termination, is to determine whether the contract needs to be suspended, modified or terminated according to the actual situation, and to resolve disputes through consultation and mediation in time. It should be noted that lawyers may not necessarily form a contract text when dealing with contract affairs, because both parties to the contract may not reach an agreement.
2. Issue legal opinions and lawyers' letters on an event. The difference between a legal opinion and a lawyer's letter is that it is sent to different objects: the legal opinion is sent to the client; The lawyer's letter is sent to another party or parties concerned with the client. This "specific event" may be caused by the contract (for example, default in payment, force majeure, etc.). ), so it has something to do with the contract affairs, but it may also have nothing to do with the contract (such as infringement, damage caused by unexpected circumstances, etc.). ).
3. Assist enterprises (customers) to establish and improve the internal management system. Enterprise internal management system is the content of management and the form of law. Because in an enterprise, the internal management system is "law"
(such as articles of association and contract management system, etc.). ). It truly embodies the characteristics of legislation, law enforcement and judicature. Of course, establishing and perfecting the internal management system puts forward higher requirements for lawyers. Lawyers should not only have rich legal knowledge and practical experience, but also know economic and management knowledge, and they are also very clear about the specific situation of enterprises. Only in this way can lawyers really play the role of "half manager" and formulate a complete and effective internal management system.
Step 4 answer legal advice
5, legal publicity, education and training
6. Handle legal affairs, such as registration and document approval.
7. Participate in dispute mediation that has not yet formed a lawsuit.
8. Provide information about changes in laws and regulations and their impacts.
9. Make a statement or announcement on behalf of.
10, securities lawyer business
In addition, there are some new businesses being developed, such as:
First, the lawyer witnessed; Lawyer's witness is an activity in which a lawyer proves the authenticity and legality of a legal event or legal act in the name of a law firm based on his own personal experience at the application of a client (there is room for further discussion on this concept). Lawyer witness has the following characteristics:
1. The witness is a lawyer, whose name is law firm as a specialized legal service organization, which is different from private certificate and national notarization.
2. Witness is the application of law. It is the lawyer who confirms the legality and authenticity of legal facts according to the current law. This is different from the practice that private certificates only talk about authenticity, not legality.
3. There are strict restrictions on the time and space for witnesses to testify. Time, that is, the time and space where the witnessed behavior occurs, that is, the scope witnessed by lawyers in person, is different from the practice that notarization can conduct notarization after investigating the facts that happened before.
At present, the lawyer witness business is increasing day by day, but the Ministry of Justice and the provincial judicial administrative departments have not yet issued laws and regulations on lawyer witness business. Only the Justice Department of Xinyang, Henan Province has formulated and issued the Basic Rules for Lawyers' Witness in Xinyang (Trial). Therefore, the lawyer witness business is currently in the initial stage of development.
Two, accept the entrustment of the enterprise (client), and supervise its subordinate companies and management personnel. This kind of business is very common in developed countries, but in Chinese mainland, only large foreign-funded companies will hire foreign (including Hongkong) law firms to handle this kind of business. There is a lot of room for the development of this business, but the responsibilities and risks of the law firm are also great.
3. Investigate and collect evidence on matters entrusted by the client. Different from the investigation and evidence collection in litigation, this kind of investigation and evidence collection is not limited to the right of consulting files and questioning witnesses given by law, but the lawyer collects and sorts out beneficial information for his client by virtue of his extensive social relations and professional knowledge, such as the integrity, historical background and interest relationship of the other party. This kind of investigation and evidence collection is not specially collected for litigation.
According to the definition of "non-litigious lawyer business" mentioned above, I think lawyers who act as legal advisers and undertake related legal affairs also belong to the category of "non-litigious lawyer business". Although Article 25 of People's Republic of China (PRC) Lawyers Law lists "being a legal adviser" and "handling non-litigation legal affairs" respectively, it is not the same as the theoretical classification of lawyer's business, and it is impossible to classify lawyer's business by logical dichotomy. Therefore, I think that being a legal adviser and handling non-litigation lawyer business are not independent of each other. Legal adviser (including perennial legal adviser and personal legal adviser) is a product combination form of non-litigation lawyer business: that is, a number of non-litigation lawyer businesses are combined together, and then the fixed number of years is determined, so it is called legal adviser. In other words, the non-litigation lawyer business includes legal counsel. However, legal counsel is the main content of non-litigation lawyer's business now. It is no exaggeration to say that legal counsel accounts for more than 90% of non-litigation lawyers' business. Therefore, if you are a good legal adviser, you will be a good non-litigation lawyer.