How does China Telecom eliminate the telecom legal service business?

Although the word "globalization" has been abused at present, as a British expert on global economic issues, Allen Lughman cannot deny that in the international economic field, the pace of economic globalization characterized by trade liberalization, globalization of production, internationalization of capital flow, globalization of financial activities, globalization of market economic system and internationalization of commercial law systems in various countries is unstoppable. Complex transnational legal issues have emerged in the financial and commercial fields, and the call for "internationalization of legal services" has followed. Lawyers will no longer be equal to litigation. Under the background of big market, big acquisition and big reorganization, lawyers in China will usher in a broader international legal service market. "Entering WTO" is an important strategic decision made by China government in line with the tide of economic globalization. From the three promises made by the China government in the Protocol of China's Accession to WTO to the development of CEPA regional economic and trade cooperation model between China, Hong Kong and Macao, the internationalization of legal services in China is rapidly evolving, accompanied by fierce competition from international counterparts. In the face of competition, China lawyers urgently need high-level and compound talents who can understand both the national conditions and WTO rules, have a broad vision and can solve transnational legal affairs. Facing the wave of "internationalization of lawyer services", China lawyers still have a long way to go. Second, it is inevitable for China lawyers to deal with the internationalization of legal services. 1. Interest-driven is the internal driving force for the internationalization of lawyer services. In the final analysis, international competition is the competition of interests, and the proportion of service trade in international trade is increasing. 1970, the global trade in services was only $7 1 100 million,197 reached $32 billion, and in 2005 it reached $477.5 billion. As a form of service trade, the competition of legal services among countries is becoming increasingly fierce. Therefore, in the development of economic globalization, countries have asked to set up law firms or branches abroad, not only to protect their own commercial interests, but also to seek a broader legal service market and compete for greater legal service profits. By 2005, the number of representative offices of foreign and Hong Kong law firms authorized to practice in China has reached 65,438+0,765,438+0, including 65,438+0,29 representative offices of foreign law firms in China and 42 representative offices of Hong Kong law firms in the Mainland. At present, with the listing of a large number of outstanding enterprises and large enterprises in China, the merger and reorganization of backdoor listed companies has become an economic feature in recent years, and the economy with listed companies as the main body has represented the main body of China's economic structure in the next few years. However, the operation of listed companies has always been a phenomenon of continuous restructuring and acquisition, with the big market as the background. This feature will inevitably lead to the adjustment of the legal professional structure in China. Take Shanghai lawyers as an example. The first lawyers, such as Li Guoji, were famous, and they were hired after they became famous. This well-known lawyer mode, regardless of specialty, is still the practice route adopted by lawyers in small and medium-sized cities in China. The second batch of lawyers are professional service models, and their names are equivalent to their majors, such as real estate developers in Zhu Shuying. This mode of lawyer practice is mostly adopted by large and medium-sized law firms in big cities. At present, a new generation of lawyer practice mode characterized by enterprise acquisition, merger and company reorganization has quietly started (this kind of business has already started in the United States). At present, such businesses in China are mainly concentrated in Beijing and Shanghai, and the lawyers who serve them are called Wall Street lawyers. 2. Potential competition is the external driving force for the internationalization of lawyer services. After the China government gradually opened the domestic legal service market, foreign law firms set up representative offices in China. However, due to the high professionalism and geographical particularity of legal services, and considering the restrictions on the scope of foreign lawyers' activities in China by relevant legislation in China, foreign lawyers mainly engage in financial and commercial business related to domestic laws or international laws, such as providing advice on their domestic laws, international conventions and international practices. At the present stage, it is still difficult for foreign lawyers to provide their clients with legal services on China law. However, with the further opening of China's legal service market, the above-mentioned "difficulties" faced by foreign lawyers are gradually being eliminated. In the future, when some foreign civil firms engaged in immigration, adoption and marriage legal services enter the legal service market in China, especially when they can give opinions on China laws, they will form direct competition with lawyers at all levels in China. It is this potential competition for legal services that forces China lawyers to seize the current opportunity and grow rapidly to meet the future international competition and challenges. Third, the strategy to deal with the internationalization of legal services. 1. Self-positioning of China's legal service industry in the international legal service market. According to Articles 1 and Article 34 of the General Agreement on Trade in Services, we can divide the internationalization of lawyer services into four service modes: one is the overseas service mode, which mainly provides legal services by letters and telecommunications, but lawyers and law firms do not enter foreign countries to provide services; The second is the consumption abroad way, that is, foreign local lawyers provide legal services to clients after going abroad; The third is the way of commercial existence, that is, lawyers set up relevant institutions abroad to provide services to local customers abroad; Fourth, the entry mode of personnel means that lawyers go abroad to provide legal services for clients. China lawyers' exploration of the international legal service market generally includes "staying at home" and entering overseas markets. "Leaving at the door" includes the above-mentioned two ways of "overseas offering" and "consumption abroad", so it does not involve the "market access" of foreign lawyers, and countries generally do not restrict them. Therefore, it is more suitable for China lawyers who are still in the naive and auxiliary stage in providing international legal services. Entering foreign countries includes the above two ways: commercial presence and personnel entry. Both methods need to enter other countries to provide legal services, which involves the strict issue of "market access for foreign lawyers". China's King Du and Jun are in the forefront in going abroad, but they are not, because according to their reports, their branches in Silicon Valley and New York only play the role of a "window", and at the same time use this "window" as a base for information contact and talent training, and gain reputation benefits through this "window". However, it is difficult for these branches to make great achievements and expand overseas markets, mainly because: first, the legal service market like the United States is very mature and the competition is fierce, especially in the financial and commercial fields, lawyers at all levels have already done it, and they have done it very carefully; Second, it is difficult for foreign lawyers to integrate into the Anglo-American legal service market with complex background; Third, even China lawyers who have obtained the qualification of American lawyers still find it difficult to communicate and write documents in perfect English in the United States. Fourth, cultural differences have caused many unnecessary barriers, which are everywhere; Fifth, the cost of setting up a law firm abroad is too high. Therefore, from the current actual situation, China lawyers can not fully realize the internationalization of legal services. On the contrary, for the international legal service business in China market, China lawyers have more advantages than foreign lawyers in understanding China laws, grasping policies, being familiar with interpersonal relationships, and integrating comprehensively. Therefore, at present, we should give full play to the advantage of "staying indoors" and gradually develop and expand before entering overseas markets. 2. The China government needs to "untie" China's lawyers. According to China's commitment to the legal service industry in the WTO's General Agreement on Trade in Services, only foreign-funded law firms are allowed to provide clients with legal advice on international conventions and practices and the laws of other WTO members whose firms are registered, and they are not allowed to engage in legal affairs in China or employ China lawyers. The Regulations on the Administration of Representative Offices of Foreign Law Firms in China promulgated by the State Council also reiterated this boundary. But in fact, the above provisions did not really prevent foreign lawyers from secretly engaging in legal affairs in China, on the contrary, they invisibly put a "magic spell" on lawyers in China. On the one hand, when dealing with laws involving China, some foreign law firms' representative offices in China operate behind the scenes, that is, the legal opinions issued by them are only translated, verified and signed by China Law Firm, and the substantive work is handled by their internal foreign lawyers themselves, sometimes even simpler. Foreign lawyers directly provide their clients with opinions concerning China laws, and only add a sentence at the end: "This firm is not qualified to interpret China laws". In fact, the China municipal government is worrying too much, and it is the market that really determines the development of the lawyer industry. As mentioned above, at present, the representative offices of foreign-funded law firms in China have not really impacted lawyers in China, because all foreign-funded law firms are large-scale, mainly providing non-litigation services in finance and business, and many other fields and levels (such as civil fields) can't provide services, but objectively it is difficult for us to get involved in the fields where they can provide services (but a few law firms, such as Jindu, Hejun, Wenhai, Shang Tong, Jing Tian Chenggong, Dacheng, etc. It can be said that Chinese and foreign lawyers have their own space to fill each other's vacant markets, and the main relationship is cooperation rather than competition. On the other hand, China lawyers can't be hired as lawyers by foreign investors, so they can't accept internship training opportunities from foreign law firms, and they can't quickly improve their skills and experience in providing legal services in high-end non-litigation business. When they can do the same business, they are excluded from the high-end non-litigation business for a long time, unable to do well and not competitive. 1997 after the outbreak of the Asian financial crisis, lawyers in Europe and America played a leading role in the financial restructuring of Japan and South Korea, which is a typical example. This example has brought us a profound lesson. We should take this as a warning, untie China lawyers in time, and allow foreign law firms to hire China lawyers, so that China lawyers can grow up rapidly by participating in the practice of foreign law firms. 3. Internal optimization measures taken by law firms. (1) Give full play to the spirit of teamwork. In the construction of China law firms, most of them choose the "partner system" mode, which is a humanized mode and emphasizes a kind of teamwork. Unfortunately, most law firms in China only hang the name of "partnership system" and practice "individual operation". As a result, for lawyers who specialize in a certain field, sharing and exchanging their knowledge and experience with their peers may not necessarily bring personal benefits. On the other hand, even if this lawyer has extremely rich experience, his knowledge and skills are limited, which is not enough to provide high-level legal services for all the problems faced by all clients. However, because he could not get the cooperation of other lawyers with expertise, he had to grope for it. It can be seen that in the face of complex legal problems in the international environment, the first problem to be solved within the law firm is to improve the management and operation mechanism, mobilize the enthusiasm of every lawyer, and give full play to the team spirit of lawyers. (2) Development scale and detailed division of labor. Lawyers in China started late, and the size of law firms is relatively small. The number of world-renowned foreign law firms can reach 3,000 to 4,000, while the number of the largest law firms in China is only 400 to 500. Under the background of internationalization of legal services, non-litigation business is the mainstream. Therefore, there are high requirements for the size of law firms to ensure that there are enough legal resources to enjoy when dealing with various complex issues. In fact, in the west, non-litigation business is usually controlled by large law firms, while individual law firms can only engage in litigation business, such as Britain. At present, to get rid of the predicament of small scale, we can learn from the experience of French lawyer interface impacting foreign law firms in the early 1990 s, that is, to achieve scale through domestic restructuring or even transnational alliances. However, for law firms that do a good job in non-litigation international legal business, scale is only a prerequisite. In order to improve their professional level and give full play to the scale effect, the scale must also be specialized, that is, according to the needs of the legal service market, lawyers with professional expertise should be subdivided, and special legal departments should be set up for centralized management and guidance. Take King & Wood Law Firm as an example. According to their own business strength, lawyers are divided into: company group (including foreign direct investment department, merger and acquisition department, real estate department, telecommunications department, media technology department and labor department), financing group (including banking department, securities department and insurance department), intellectual property group (including patent department, trademark department, intellectual property litigation and legal affairs department) and international trade and government affairs group (including international trade department, anti-monopoly department and Japan department), domestic litigation and arbitration department). (3) Counseling by senior lawyers. What the law firm needs is teamwork. The improvement of the overall strength of law firms benefits from the continuous improvement of the practice level of each lawyer. Therefore, for a novice who handles international non-litigation business, it is very important to improve his case-handling skills quickly for the overall cooperation of the lawyer team. The acquisition of these practical skills is different from the classroom knowledge of law school, and it needs to be accumulated bit by bit from the actual case under the guidance of senior lawyers who are familiar with the business. The usual practice is to let young lawyers participate in case-handling study as paralegals from early observation, so that they can learn to check and fill gaps through the example and supervision of senior lawyers, and gradually become practical lawyers who are proficient in case-handling skills and traditions. At present, China has institutionalized this apprenticeship system, that is, one year's internship is a prerequisite for obtaining a lawyer's license. However, the main problem facing this system at present is how to properly implement the mentoring system of senior lawyers in law firms during this year's internship or longer, so as to quickly train new business practitioners and comprehensively improve the overall service quality of law firms. 4. Lawyers improve their foreign language communication ability by going abroad for further study. Engaging in international legal services requires high comprehensive ability of lawyers, among which mastering foreign languages (especially English) is very important for lawyers facing the international legal service market. Many times, lawyers in China could have provided the same or even better legal services to multinational companies on China laws, but multinational companies don't trust you and don't give you the opportunity to show them. The reason is simple, because of the language. Lawyers in China can't communicate directly with foreign businessmen (British, German, Japanese, etc.). ), which makes them more willing to spend a lot of money to hire foreign or Hong Kong law firms that can skillfully use foreign languages to provide services. Therefore, for China lawyers who are interested in international legal services, according to their future business orientation, going abroad for further study and passing the language barrier is an effective way to improve their competitiveness and meet the international challenges in the future. Take studying in America at one's own expense as an example. You can apply for LLM (Master of Laws) of American Law School in 1 year as long as you get a Bachelor of Laws degree from China and pass the TOEFL test. For China lawyers who have passed the China Judicial Examination but are not law graduates, they can apply for a three-year JD (Doctor of Law) in American law schools by virtue of their undergraduate diplomas and passing the TOEFL and LSAT examinations. At the same time, the Ministry of Justice of China has also set up the "Project of Sending Young Lawyers to Britain for Training and Learning at Public Expenses", that is, China lawyers with more than two years of full-time lawyer practice experience, under the age of 35, who have passed the IELTS test, can have the opportunity to study in Britain (including Britain 10 months and Hong Kong 2 months) for one year at public expense through application. 5. Perfection of domestic legal education mechanism. The competition of internationalization of legal services is essentially the competition of talents. High-quality international legal service talents can not be separated from the internationalization of education. Compared with Chinese and western legal education, we still have a lot to learn and learn from: First, the undergraduate stage of legal education in China pays too much attention to the instillation of legal professional knowledge and ignores the comprehensive construction of knowledge structure (especially economic and trade knowledge). We know that legal services, as a regulator of social relations, are primarily concerned with economic relations. Therefore, a lawyer who only knows the law but not the economic and trade knowledge will not be comfortable in the tide of internationalization after all. On the contrary, American universities have no law majors. Therefore, every American who studies JD has rich undergraduate professional background knowledge, and JD courses have great choice space (even credits can be obtained across colleges), so the students trained by American law schools are relatively comprehensive; Second, China's legal education pays attention to the understanding and interpretation of laws and regulations. Students are rigid and not creative, while the West encourages creative thinking. The advantage of legal talents trained by the typical Socratic teaching method in American law schools is that even if lawyers don't know all the legal provisions, they can still use their analytical skills to solve practical problems for their clients after investigating relevant laws.