Guangdong Laowei Law Firm: Only Represents Laborers

• Author: Caixin

The Pearl River Delta region is China’s most economically developed area and an area with most labor disputes. It is estimated that Guangdong Province accounts for 40% of China’s total number of labor disputes, and Shenzhen accounts for 20%. In 2005 only, 250,000 people from the Pearl River Delta region participated in the labor-rights safeguarding activities. Although there exists a large market for labor rights protection, practicing lawyers are generally not willing to act in labor dispute cases because these cases are time-consuming and energy-consuming, with scarce income in return.

In 2005, the Lawyer’s Association of Shenzhen implemented lawyer specialization. Duan Yi, who is 55 years old and has 30 years practicing experience, who has already become one of the richest lawyers in Shenzhen, made a decision to establish a law firm specializing in labor right protection. On July 29, 2005, Guangdong Laowei Law Firm was established, which was the first law firm in Shenzhen, and more accurately in China, which specializes in labor rights protection. The law firm has departments including Labor Litigation Department, Worker Training Department and Collective and Contrast Department etc.

Guangdong Laowei Law Firm has since developed. It started by protecting labor rights through representing labors in individual cases. In 2008, 7 law firms, including Guangdong Laowei Law Firm, signed an agreement with the Shenzhen Federation of Labor Union, agreeing to represent labors in individual cases. The Union would pay 3000 RMB to a law firm for each case that the law firm engaged and this payment became Guangdong Laowei Law Firm’s steady source of income. However, since the Union insisted that whilst safeguarding labor rights, law firms should still observe the state’s stability maintenance policy, in the end the Firm ended its collaboration with the Shenzhen Federation of Labor Union.

Thereafter, Guangdong Laowei Law Firm entered a unique phase of development by...