Article 39 of the Lawyers Law of People's Republic of China (PRC) stipulates: "A lawyer shall not act as an agent for both parties in the same case, nor shall he act as an agent for legal affairs that have conflicts of interest with himself or his close relatives." This provision only restricts the same lawyer from acting as the litigation agent of both parties in the same case. Civil Procedure Law and other laws and judicial interpretations have no prohibitive provisions on lawyers of the same law firm representing both parties in the same case.
However, the behavior of different lawyers of the same law firm acting as the agents of the original defendant and the defendant respectively still belongs to dual agency, which is not allowed in principle unless both parties agree in advance in writing that there is only one law firm in a remote county (city), which has already been answered in the Reply of the Ministry of Justice on the inadvisability of lawyers of the same law firm to act as the agents of the original defendant in the same case.
According to the provisions of the Measures for the Administration of Law Firms of the Ministry of Justice, a law firm shall conduct a conflict of interest review on the uniformly accepted business, and shall not accept the business with conflict of interest with the business undertaken by the firm and its clients in violation of the provisions.
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According to Article 27 of the Measures for Punishment of Illegal Acts of Lawyers and Law Firms issued by the Ministry of Justice, it is illegal for a law firm to "accept cases with conflicts of interest in violation of regulations" if it appoints a lawyer of this firm to represent the plaintiff or the defendant in the same litigation case, or to represent the defendant or the victim in the same criminal case. For this behavior, the judicial administrative organ may, according to its circumstances, give a warning, suspend business for rectification, impose a fine, confiscate the illegal income, and revoke the practice license of the law firm.
Article 27 of the Measures for Punishment of Illegal Acts by Lawyers and Law Firms stipulates that "in any of the following circumstances, a law firm that belongs to Item 5 of Article 50 of the Lawyers Law violates the provisions of" accepting illegal acts of cases with conflicts of interest ":(1) entrusting its lawyers to act as the plaintiff's or defendant's representatives in the same litigation case, or the defendant's defender or victim's representatives in the same criminal case"; In addition, the punishment method should also punish lawyers who represent both parties in the same case, or lawyers who represent legal affairs with conflicts of interest with themselves and their close relatives. "
Chongqing Court Network-Can the same law firm represent the same plaintiff and defendant to participate in litigation at the same time?
Jiangxi court network-can different staff of the same legal service office serve as the same case