China Esquire

Yes, it’s that time of the year again.  TechSoup Global (“TSG”), where I work, is actually looking to add a couple of Staff Attorney Fellows this year.  Above the Law and other news outlets have been covering the news for 2010 law school graduates, and it looks a lot like 2009: deferred start dates and stipends of $60,000 to $75,000 to volunteer at a public interest organization.

Our selling point: how many non-profit orgs can offer you a chance to work on cutting edge international legal issues, in-house counsel corporate style experience, and a good environment in a sustainable, socially-minded enterprise business model?  We’d like to think we’re the only one.  More details after the jump.

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I wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year in 2010! May this year prove to be exciting and joyful for all of you. (especially for my regular readers!)

And here’s to hoping that readership at China Esquire: Law and Business Blog will continue to grow in the coming year. I want to become more active again, though it’s difficult with Baby China Esquire around–and either way, I don’t think I can match the rapid pace of my blogging activity in 2008. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

Best wishes to you and your family & friends in 2010!

Looks like Xinhua published its defense of the execution of a British mentally ill man in an article entitled “Experts defend China’s execution of British drug smuggler”. I’m actually glad they did–it makes it a lot easier to dissect. And for the poor professors (Mingliang Wang and Jinzhan Xue), I’m sorry, you lose and that’s just how the game is played.

Again, caveat: I normally don’t just go into attack mode like this anymore. (I don’t litigate on a regular basis anymore and I try to turn off this gear that’s internal to my brain) But if you want to read on, feel free.

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CNN just published an article, “China executes British citizen for drug smuggling”. I normally don’t try to weigh in and blatantly criticize the Chinese justice system despite certain corrupt documented incidents and obvious issues because it’s been improving over the years, and I have been hopeful that the rule of law has a chance to survive there. I am, however, severely disturbed about the recent execution of the mentally ill British man when there were obvious due process issues, despite The Global Times insisting that “the trial process was extremely careful”.

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Yes, a little late, but I just wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas. (Sheng Dan Kuai Le)

We just got back from Macau/Hong Kong a few days ago and remain very badly jetlagged. Baby China Esquire still doesn’t want to sleep at a bedtime in any U.S. timezone, making our holidays this year a little different.

Still, just wanted to wish everyone the best this holiday season and looking forward to 2010.

Apparently, there is a crackdown on corrupt officials and organized crime in Chongqing. Others caught up in the sting? Defense lawyers. It’s like the tuna nets that end up picking up a few dolphins along the way. The only problem is this: the defense lawyer here is just doing his job. At least, he’s doing his job, in my opinion, as any normal defense advocate would do here.

The details after the jump.

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Was reading China Law Blog’s treatment of Chinese branding and trademarks here where Dan Harris takes issue with a Newsweek article, which states in part:

The simplest explanation for China’s failure to build global brands is cutthroat domestic competition. In most product categories, hundreds or thousands of firms compete for domestic market share, leaving profit margins razor thin. . . . And because foreign brands have taken much of the market’s high end, most companies are forced to compete on cost, leaving little room for investment in R&D or marketing. . . . Finally, the recent string of product recalls—including poisonous pet food and faulty tires—has left consumers wary of made-in-China goods.

Of course, I would take issue with this article as Dan does. His thoughts, and mine, after the jump.

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I just wanted to wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving 2009! I can’t believe that the time has flown by already and that the holiday season is already upon us in the U.S. I look forward to 2010, hopefully with more active posting and interesting tidbits about China, business, law, and non-profits/NGOs. Thank you to my readers who follow this blog, even in my more inactive times (due to Baby China Esquire being a fun handful), and for those of you who also picked up on my twitter feed. I post regularly to twitter, so that’s probably a good place to follow me as well!

Just saw this article in Legal Week about Weil Gotshal poaching 2 corporate partners in Hong Kong. Seems like the perfect time to pick up some more partner level attorneys: when the economy is down, but supposedly getting better. Article after the jump.

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For all of you who weren’t able to attend the Give2Asia call about disaster response in the Philippines earlier this week, Give2Asia actually released a transcript of the conference call that I thought might be of interest. You can download a copy of it here. Enjoy!

Some quick updates for everyone. First, I decided to update my twitter account username. Chinaesq is shorter, but since my China Blog is China Esquire, I decided to go with the full name. Please let me know if you think its a bummer idea.

http://twitter.com/ChinaEsq

Please update accordingly.  Hopefully those following will get it updated automatically.  Second, I will be using twitter a lot more actively since I can still give my thoughts on a wider variety of matters than putting full posts together.  So if you follow the blog, I encourage you to follow the twitter too!

UPDATE: I am changing back to chinaesq based on initial feedback. Good call, Dan.

Was invited by Give2Asia to share this information with my readers:  Give2Asia is hosting a teleconference to brief donors, advisors and friends about relief and recovery needs and effective philanthropic strategies in response to the disaster in the Philippines on Monday, October 19, 2009 at 8:30 am PST/11:30 am EST.  More details after the jump.

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