The internationalization of the legal services market: an international workshop at the center for common law

• Author: Holly McKenzie
• Pages: 575-577

FRONTIERS OF LAW IN CHINA

VOL. 11 SEPTEMBER 2016 NO. 3

DOI 10.3868/s050-005-016-0033-3

ACADEMIC NEWS

THE INTERNATIONALIZATION OF THE LEGAL SERVICES MARKET:

AN INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP AT THE CENTER FOR COMMON LAW

On March 22, 2016, the Center for Common Law (CCL) at Renmin University of

China Law School held a workshop entitled The Internationalization of the Legal

Services Market. The workshop was jointly organized by the Great Britain China Centre

(GBCC), and was supported by the All China Lawyers Association (ACLA), Beijing

Lawyers Association, Shenzhen Lawyers Association, and the Law Society of England

and Wales. It covered methods of and strategies for international cooperation in the legal

profession and was attended by thirty practicing lawyers.

Professor Han Dayuan, Dean of Renmin University Law School, and GBCC

Executive Director, Richard Pascoe provided the opening remarks. Together they

welcomed guests to the workshop and emphasized the importance of cooperation in the

context of the internationalization of the legal services market. Richard Pascoe noted that

GBCC’s ongoing partnership with the CCL should be seen as part of a wider program of

legal and judicial cooperation between the UK and China. Whereas Dean Han reminded

the audience that internationalization of legal services should not just focus narrowly on

access to defined legal products and services, such as notarisation etc., but that it should

also consider how to train and develop lawyers, and develop the rule of law more

generally.

The first session of the workshop featured a number of leaders from national and

international lawyers’ associations, including Jonathan Smithers, President of the Law

Society of England and Wales, Zhang Xuebing, the Vice-President of the ACLA, Stuart

Clark, President of the Law Council of Australia, Zhang Wei, Vice-President of the

Beijing Lawyers Association, and Han Jun, Vice-President of the Shenzhen Lawyers

Association.

President Smithers began the workshop by outlining the Law Society of England and

Wales’ presence in China, their role being to represent, promote, and support members at

home or abroad. He identified a trend in UK lawyers increasingly becoming in-house

counsel, the number of which will grow from 25% of solicitors now to over 35% in the

next ten years, and imagined this trend would also be replicated in China. Vice-President

Zhang Xuebing followed by stating ACLA’s two priorities surrounding

internationalization. The first is supporting small and medium-sized firms to compete in a

globalized world; and the second is thinking about how to satisfy clients across

jurisdictions. President Clark described the “light touch” approach to market regulation in