Zou Jianzhang
Time:April 18, 2008 09:20 News Sources:Legal Network
April 16, the national lawyers work conference ended in Beijing. However, the resulting concern about lawyers as a profession continues.
According to figures revealed at the conference, China's lawyers have grown to more than 143,000, 3,415 lawyers have been elected as deputies to the National People's Congress and members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) at all levels, and 2,649 lawyers have been appointed to public office.
Ten years ago or earlier, when it comes to the identity or status of lawyers, the vast majority of people will be envious, but now the situation is very different, with the increasing number of lawyers, lawyers and social interaction with the frequency of increase, people's understanding of lawyers have produced a change, and there are also a variety of different views.
Some people are still immersed in all kinds of legends about the lawyer's profession, that lawyers must be sitting in a car, mansion, dashing and free, some people are on the status and identity of lawyers do not think that lawyers are nothing more than businessmen chasing profits; some people think that lawyers are the pursuit of legal justice warriors, and some people think that the lawyers play the role of the bad guys to speak!
The reality is that not every lawyer is as rich as people think.
Wang Fan, vice president of the All-China Lawyers Association, revealed that, according to statistics from the relevant departments, the average fee of Chinese lawyers is not as good as that of the cab industry, with an annual gross income of less than 100,000 yuan. A survey by the Shanghai Lawyers Association showed that 80 percent of the city's 2.8 billion yuan in total lawyer income was generated by 20 percent of lawyers. A survey in Guangdong Province found that lawyers' incomes were pyramidal, with 10% at the top and about 20% on the upper end, while more than 70% of lawyers were struggling to make ends meet. Chongqing lawyers practice report, some lawyers, especially young lawyers, less than 20,000 yuan a year income. Some areas in jiangsu and zhejiang, the first year of practice lawyers only 1000 yuan per month. Lawyer profession of the rich and poor polarization is serious, has been a common phenomenon.
The reality is that lawyers are not as dashing and glamorous as they are portrayed in TV dramas.
In all kinds of civil activities, the identity of the lawyer is just a civil person. Surrounded by a variety of organizations and people, lawyers are always on thin ice, difficult to move. The pursuit of legal justice, or simply become a businessman, the two sides of the conflict is always tormenting them. From angel to devil, often only one step away.
The reality is that there are still a significant number of people who look at lawyers through tinted glasses.
In our country, many people still think that lawyers are "speak for the bad guys", and even some people will take revenge on lawyers.
The reality is that, on the one hand, the number of lawyers is expanding dramatically, on the one hand, the distribution of lawyer resources is very unreasonable. Looking at the distribution of lawyers across the country, more than half of them are concentrated in big cities and eastern coastal areas.
Like many fields in China, the lawyers' profession also shows strong Chinese characteristics. However, regardless of whether the existing situation is favorable or unfavorable, China's lawyers, as a profession in the ascendant, after more than two decades of continuous development and growth, presents a bright future.
More and more lawyers have begun to come forward to challenge the unreasonable phenomenon involving public **** interests; more and more lawyers have begun to participate in national legislation; more and more lawyers have earnestly fulfilled the obligation of legal aid, and actively participated in the work of resolving social conflicts and disputes ......
The new revised Lawyers Law, which will be implemented on June 1, is a new law. The newly revised Lawyers Law, which will be implemented on June 1, has begun to emphasize more on the public responsibility of lawyers, especially pointing out that lawyers should play the role of "safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of the clients, maintaining the correct implementation of the law, and safeguarding the fairness and justice of the society". In addition, the new law for the lawyer's professional immunity, the right to meet with the right, the right to read the file, the right to investigate and obtain evidence, and many other rights have also made new provisions.
We have reason to believe that the development of the lawyer's profession is unlimited prospects.
Lawyer industry is a chicken rib
Lawyer Network reporter Xu Wei
First saw Wang Hongbin lawyer, it is really difficult to him and the Hong Kong and Taiwan dramas in those barristers linked. A casual jacket, a pair of gray jeans, not even a tie.
Wang Hongbin laughed that many people mention lawyers, immediately associated with the car mansion, some first contact with lawyers will even be curious to ask: "You also wear a wig in court?"
"Lawyers are not like some people imagine that scenery, lawyers are 360 lines in a line, the only difference is that the lawyer by virtue of the skills of the law." Wang Hongbin frankly, some people envy lawyers time freedom, money freedom, they are their own boss, but these are often struggling for most of their lives, successful lawyers portrayed. For most lawyers, lawyers are sometimes a mixed profession.
From 2001 to enter the door of the lawyer's profession, Wang Hongbin has been practicing in Shaanxi's three law firms. He told the reporter that some of the trainee lawyers just started to earn more than 1,000 yuan a month. Home in Xi'an local okay, food and housing can also rely on parents. Some families in the field, rent a five or six square meters of "pigeonholes", the monthly cost of seven or eight hundred, the rest of the money is enough to fill the stomach.
The pressure on lawyers is not only from the salary, but also from the source of cases. There is no case source, although every day can be a normal commute, but the heart will be with the passage of time and panic, hair. "After all, one cannot go to drink the northwest wind." Wang Hongbin said.
Of course, Wang Hongbin has drifted away from that youthful period, and after seven years of climbing the ladder, he has bought a house in Xi'an, and is currently on the lookout for a decent little car.
"In fact, I am now in a bottleneck, there are no famous lawyers who are rich and famous, and not like those who are just starting out in the hard work." Wang Hongbin told reporters.
Wang Hongbin's current income can reach five or six thousand yuan a month, in Xi'an, the western city, has been considered white-collar. But this white-collar is not so good, overtime for him, is a common occurrence.
Study the legal provisions, analyze the case, collect evidence and materials, write judicial documents, answer legal advice ...... Wang Hongbin said in one breath a lot of lawyers have to face every day, "We are like a tireless gyroscope, a start, I do not know when to be able to stop. Sometimes for a case, will work overtime until two or three o'clock in the morning."
On one occasion, Wang Hongbin went to the field to handle the case, a go is most of the month. In the meantime, I know my own baby fever, fever of 40 degrees does not go down, the heart of the dry anxious to make no effort, because there are parties on that end of the case hanging in the balance.
"If only work pressure, bite the bullet or can overcome. The most upsetting thing is the contempt and lack of cooperation from some administrations." Speaking here, Wang Hongbin's tone is somewhat helpless.
In 2003, a poisoning case took place in a rural area of a province, where the culprit put poisonous rat poison in a bottle of Wahaha mineral water, causing the death of two children. The public security authorities suspected that a neighboring farmer was responsible through investigation. The farmer was sentenced to death in the first trial.
"I took over at the second trial, and as soon as I read the case file, I felt that the case was very tricky and had a lot of doubts." Wang Hongbin said, "In the spirit of responsibility to the parties and respect for the right to life, I began to investigate and collect evidence."
However, the road of investigation and evidence collection has many twists and turns. To the administrative organs to inquire, the staff said the person who took the key traveled. Go to the judicial organs to request cooperation, the staff said they were not available. Wang Hongbin told reporters that many people still wear tinted glasses to look at lawyers, that lawyers like to pick words and lawsuits, at every turn to encourage, encourage, and help the parties to sue, destabilizing.
"In fact, the law requires is to treat everyone impartially, whether the plaintiff or the defendant, whether guilty or innocent." Wang Hongbin said lawyers exist precisely to better guarantee that the law treats everyone fairly and impartially.
"Sometimes I feel that the lawyer profession is a chicken rib. Can't eat, and can't starve. Some people treat it as a savior, some people treat it as a broomstick." Wang Hongbin lamented.
Half sea water, half fire
Oral transcript
Narrator Hubei lawyer Wu Jianbao Recorder Legal Net reporter Yu Na Yang
Lawyers, in the eyes of the world, often represents wealth, practice and power. I was with such a vision, resolutely resigned from the government into the lawyer's world. I have been from the first time when "ate the first worry about the next meal" of the uncertainty of the situation slowly to the present case basically do not worry about the peace of the situation. Now if I were to summarize my view of the legal profession, I don't think there's a more apt phrase than "half of the sea, half of the flame".
On the one hand, the sea is as vast as the sprawling scope of business, on the one hand, it is a mountain of flames like no way to start, it is difficult to get a foothold in the embarrassing situation; on the one hand, there are counterparts seem to have to do endless business, to earn money, on the other hand, it is their own nothing to do in a hurry to do the torment; on the one hand, the case is successfully completed the party after the wind and waves after the sincere smiles, on the one hand, it is the layer by layer of purgatory, the end of the purpose of the grind! ...... From my observation of many colleagues work, life state, I believe that this experience should represent the feelings of most colleagues.
Of course, for lawyers, the key is how to get away from the flames as soon as possible, sail the sea. From my personal experience, integrity is crucial, never give up your professionalism and conscience for immediate gain.
Now there are a lot of bad words about lawyers in the society, but I can tell you responsibly, really want to get a foothold in this business for a long time, there is no lawyer who is not honest, because this is determined by the nature of the lawyer's work, the law. I would like to tell a real example that I have encountered.
It was 2004, when I had some business, but it was still difficult. A person was introduced to me and wanted me to help him with a lawsuit. It turned out that he and the developer because of the contract dispute over the sale of commercial properties had a lawsuit, and later by the court mediation, the two sides reached an agreement, he did not look for the developer to claim compensation, and the developer did not pursue his housing over the area of the compensation. However, the final mediation book even omitted to write the developer no longer want to ask him for compensation for housing over the area of the provisions, and the lawyer at the time did not notice this point. In this way, after the real estate license was issued, the developer sued him for compensation for the difference in the price of the house, and he had already lost the case in the first trial. He offered to pay $5,000 for me to fight the second trial for him.
I could have taken the money because he asked me voluntarily. But I didn't do that, I told him honestly that he didn't need to hire a lawyer for this case, as long as he could find the transcript of the last mediation, he could win the case himself. He followed what I said, and later, the trial court made the developer give up his claim by doing the work.
From then on, he trusted me so much that he gave me his own and his friends' litigation matters and legal counsel to do, and also introduced me to people in the banking sector, in fact, a lot of my current banking litigation business originated from him.
"Give and take, give and take, give and take, give and take, give and take, give and take, give and take, give and take.
Looking back, when I recognized the lawyer's profession, although with a fog to see the flowers of the frivolous, but now I think it is not wrong. Wealth, although I can not talk about it, but I feel is approaching it; practiced, I feel that this line of lawyers does make people more mature, when you see the joy of the parties, you can feel their own power and sense of accomplishment. This is probably the charm of the lawyer's profession.
A criminal defense lawyer's history
Deng Yunlin, Beijing Beijing Jingyin Law Firm criminal defense lawyers, practicing for 12 years. April 15, 16 held a national lawyers' work conference, triggered his memories of criminal defense lawyers that honor and disgrace. For this reason, he wrote a letter to the editorial board of this newspaper.
Editorial Office:
The long-awaited new lawyers law will be implemented on June 1, which further clarifies the right of lawyers to meet. This is undoubtedly great news for criminal defense lawyers.
In fact, just a few days ago, I hit the nail on the head twice because of the issue of meeting. on April 8 and 14, another lawyer and I went to the public security bureau of Chaoyang city, Liaoning province, with the meeting formalities twice to meet with a suspect named Zhang Xiwu, suspected of intentional destruction of cultural relics. The case officer said, "We need the director's approval to meet here, and the client must also be present. The reply of the person in charge was even drier: the case is related to the black, any lawyer can not meet. In the face of this situation, my client and I are at a loss.
In fact, I have encountered similar situations many times. According to the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Law, in addition to cases involving state secrets, lawyers to meet with criminal suspects, the public security organs to arrange a meeting within 48 hours. But in some places, the phenomenon of arbitrarily refusing lawyers to meet with criminal suspects is not uncommon, and their tricks are endless, such as "meeting with the need for approval", "case officers on business", "leadership meeting to go! "etc.
Thinking back to when I was just a lawyer, my heart was full of novelty and longing, 12 years later, the collision of faith and reality, let me feel a lot of emotions.
In 1996, with the law of the shallow understanding and persistence, I defied my family and friends, quit the teacher's job, came to Taiyuan, Shanxi, when the lawyer.
Just do lawyer, can not independently case, first with the old lawyer apprenticeship, to all parts of the country to case, just to learn more skills early apprenticeship, do not ask for return, do not talk about the price. Other people do not want to do the case, the case of low lawyer's fee I grab in front.
After working as a lawyer for seven years, I was determined to make my way to the capital city of Beijing. First live in the basement, eat working meals, in the hot sun, between the company, individuals and case handling organs. Another 5 years later, I have my own place in Beijing, with my own real estate, car, law firm and a greater spiritual harvest --- made some like-minded friends.
In retrospect, I believe that, as a lawyer, the hardship of material conditions is not terrible, the most terrible and unacceptable to me is to see the law being trampled on.
3 years ago, a grass-roots court in henan will be a civil dispute in the form of judicial advice, the local public security organs to economic fraud to pursue the civil defendant's criminal responsibility, because the plaintiff is a local, the defendant is a foreigner. As a result, the public security authorities opened an investigation for economic fraud, and the court of first instance also found the defendant guilty. After I represented the second trial, after a long period of many complaints and charges, this case was corrected, but the state compensation has not been implemented, because it involves a lot of the wrongdoing of the case officers to pursue the issue.
I feel that lawyers are sometimes very small, and it is difficult for them to fulfill their promise as the messenger of justice if they don't have a high level of skill in applying the law.
The upcoming implementation of the new lawyers law, lawyers in criminal proceedings in many rights have been improved and strengthened, to which I look forward to!
Foreign lawyers "is very lack of very difficult"
"English litigation word also covers part of the non-litigation work." During the interview, from time to time, English words popped out of Meng Jianbing's mouth. Meng Jianbing, a lawyer at a Beijing law firm, has been practicing for four years.
"Import anti-dumping investigations, export anti-dumping response, export countervailing cases, WTO dispute settlement mechanism, these are the main content of our work." He told reporters.
"Many people envy lawyers who do foreign-related business because they do it professionally and earn more than general lawyers, but it's not easy to become a multi-specialty lawyer who understands both foreign languages, foreign trade and finance as well as specialized law." Meng Jianbing sighed, saying that the flavor of the situation may be known only to those involved.
It is understood that, at present, China's lawyer team structure is not reasonable enough, the shortage of composite talents, especially in the financial securities, intellectual property rights, anti-dumping, countervailing, anti-monopoly and other areas in urgent need of lawyers to intervene.
Meng Jianbing said, they have a few lawyers only do anti-dumping cases. "Language is important when you do anti-dumping as a business." Meng said that anti-dumping questionnaires are usually designed in English, and the ability to use English must be strong enough, or else you won't be able to communicate with foreign companies and foreign lawyers.
"Lawyers will lack competitiveness if they do not have specialized expertise, and as legal services become increasingly sophisticated and the legal services market becomes more and more subdivided, the 'jack-of-all-trades'-style lawyers will certainly lose their vitality." Meng said, "There are constantly new things introduced, lawyers must constantly learn, the hardship of which is difficult to describe."
Public lawyers must be able to withstand poverty
"Do not take a penny or a penny, hold out a full of zeal." The words on the title page of the work notebook have become the only guideline that Han Hui has adhered to since she started her career as a public lawyer.
Han Hui is a public lawyer at the Legal Aid Center in Beijing's Chaoyang District, and has been engaged in legal aid work for three years.
The reporter learned that public lawyers are a special group of lawyers, public officials who are qualified to be lawyers, who take up positions in state administrative or institutional organizations, who provide legal services to the government in accordance with the law, and who provide legal assistance to groups in difficulty without compensation. The regulations on public lawyers are very clear: public lawyers may not engage in paid legal services, may not work part-time in law firms and legal service offices; they may not handle litigation and non-litigation cases outside of their own level of government or department in their capacity as lawyers.
"We don't earn much, nothing other than a dead salary." Han Hui told reporters, "Life is a bit poorer, but public lawyers must endure poverty. However, sometimes I have a sense of total happiness, especially when I seek justice for those in need."
As a public lawyer at the Legal Aid Center, Han Hui only undertakes legal aid cases and deals with the poor and weak in society. She told reporters that in the past two years, she has handled 40 to 50 legal aid cases and received more than 3,000 clients.
"Help me! Help me get back my life-saving money!" It was a cold morning in 2007, Han Hui was busy organizing the case file, a middle-aged man pinched the wrinkled work injury certificate, stepped into the door of the legal aid center.
It turned out that the migrant worker, who had come to Beijing to work on a drilling rig, had accidentally fallen from a 3-meter-high mast and suffered a comminuted fracture of his right femur. "Injured and out of work, that migrant worker brother cried his eyes out!" Han Hui recalled that she immediately gave him for legal aid procedures, followed by making statements, access to laws and regulations, collect relevant evidence, non-stop running around for a week, for the migrant workers to 75,000 yuan of compensation for work-related injuries.
Han Hui said, at that time, the migrant workers with a thick stack of money, hand trembling, happy some incoherent, kept saying "thank you, thank you".
"This is my most accomplished time, a thank you, let me feel happy from the inside out." Han Hui said.
Lawyers' survival polarized
Lawyer reporter Yu Na Yang
"China's lawyers' survival is currently polarized, and lawyers who do a good job can earn up to millions of yuan a year, while lawyers who do a poor job may not get a penny. This situation is not only in Yunnan, but all over the country." Zhou Wenshu, a Yunnan lawyer who has been practicing for 13 years and now has a high profile, said this.
Thinking a lot about the survival of China's lawyers, Zhou Wenshu told reporters that in Yunnan, for example, about one-third of the province's lawyers are doing very well, they have completed the entrepreneurial period, there is a fixed source of cases, the annual income can reach more than 100,000 yuan; one-third of the lawyers to reach the level of subsistence and well-off, their annual income of 4 to 100,000 yuan, life is more stable; and one-third of the lawyers live in poverty, they do not have a case source, the life is more stable. Lawyers live in poverty, they do not have a case source, practice difficulties, and not willing to leave the profession, struggling.
"Especially for the lawyers who have just joined the profession, they often belong to the third category, but some new lawyers with strong ability and good quality can quickly change this situation after practicing for a few years, while some of the old lawyers who have been in the profession for more than 10 years or even more than 20 years remain the same as before." Zhou Wenshu said.
So what causes the polarization of the legal profession?
"In fact, the individual factor is dominant in the law profession, and if an individual is strong, he or she will quickly stand out in the profession." Zhou Wenshu believes that lawyers pay attention to enlightenment, in the lawyer industry, there are three types of lawyers belong to the more "weak" lawyers, a kind of business ability is poor lawyers, a kind of poor social skills of lawyers, and a kind of bad character of lawyers. As time goes by, no one is willing to look for these three types of lawyers, and they will be marginalized.
So what should be done about the "weaker" lawyers?
In Zhou Wenshu's firm, he has made it "mandatory" for "strong" lawyers to support "weak" lawyers. "For example, I will divide my cases among 'strong' lawyers, but the condition is that he must bring a 'weak' lawyer to do the case together." Now, two-thirds of Zhou Wenshu's annual caseload is divided among other lawyers, and he has seven or eight assistants of his own, who are too busy to bring in smaller lawyers, so that one level leads to another.
In recent years, Zhou Wenshu personally represented a lot of influential cases, such as "Shanghai Xianli company fund-raising case" (the victims of nearly a million people, involving billions of yuan), "Shangri-La --- from the virtual to the real", the case of "Shanghai Xianli company fund-raising case" (the victims of nearly a million people, involving billions of yuan), "Shangri-La --- from the virtual to the real".
"My current job is almost stress-free, and I live a very nourishing life every day, with the freedom to navigate my way through things and decide freely what I want to do." Zhou Wenshu said with a smile that sometimes he would find a few friends to chat with over a cup of Pu'er tea, and sometimes he would concentrate on Naxi culture, as he is a Naxi descendant.
Source:Procuratorate Daily, Justice Network
The original article is not signed by the author.
Responsible Editor: Liu Yong