Mar 08 2010
Sorry for the last minute notice on this one, but I wanted to encourage those in the Bay Area who might be interested to attend. The State Bar of California International Law Section is hosting “Careers in International Law” tomorrow (Tuesday, March 9, 2010) at 12:30 pm at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. More information after the jump.
Feb 09 2010
Well, looks like Li Zhuang got 1 and 1/2 years after his appeal. (see my original post about defense lawyer tactics here) I suppose that’s better than 2 and 1/2 years, but I am still left wondering why in the world he even got a prison sentence. (again, see my original post)
Dec 30 2009
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.
Dec 29 2009
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”.
Dec 16 2009
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.
Sep 01 2009
National Law Journal today had an
article entitled, “Shanghai Surprise: BigLaw, Feeling Bullish, Opens China Shop to Work Private Equity Deals”, which of course, caught my eye. Seems like
Kirkland & Ellis wants to have a Shanghai base in addition to its Hong Kong office, and is expanding after receiving permission to do so on July 30. The firm
says that:
Kirkland’s Hong Kong and Shanghai offices will be highly integrated. The Shanghai office will be led by corporate private equity and M&A partners Xiaoyang “XY” Li and Chuan Li, who will relocate from Kirkland’s Hong Kong office. They will be supported initially by several associates with Chinese and U.S. legal training and experience in private equity deals.
The article and more after the jump.
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Aug 24 2009
Last month, I was invited to a lunch seminar (invitation only) hosted by
Give2Asia where they discussed the challenges facing Chinese education, and more specifically, the problem of funding Chinese higher education. Scott Sugiara with Give2Asia gave us some of the statistics: since 2001, their organization has given over $100 million to Asia, and about 35% of that has been in the forms of grants/scholarships to individuals. (focused mostly on Jiaotong Daxue and other Shanghai university students) One thing he also noted was that education is not cheaper at the top universities because there are often scholarships for those students. Ironically, its the students who go to regional and vocational schools who have a harder time affording their higher education.
One solution, after the jump.
Aug 12 2009
Looks like yet another firm wants a piece of the pie in China: Saul Ewing. But instead of going through the process of applying for a license to open up a law office in China, they took another route: an alliance/partnership with a local office. So instead of taking on the overhead of opening up another office (which could be a boon, but also a huge profit loss), incurring real estate leases and other administrative costs, they handpicked Concord & Partners to be a regional partner. The article after the jump.
Aug 10 2009
I was speaking to a friend a few months back, and he wants to shift into human rights law in China. I looked at him with a certain tinge of sadness in my eyes, and could only ask him one question, “You do know what you’re getting into right? It’s a hard life. It’s hard… and you may be asking for persecution, trouble, and a lot of pain and suffering from your own government.” There was nothing else I could say. And when he responded in the affirmative resolutely, I could only stare a little and say, “Okay.” And it’s ironic that since then, I feel like I’ve only seen a slew of articles talking about the troubles of human rights attorneys.
Jun 23 2009
Stan Abrams recently did a great post at China Hearsay about trademark registration, which piggybacks on Dan’s post at CLB. So why am I so enamored with this post? Because Stan is saying something that so many attorneys wish we could say to our clients. Not because we hate our clients, but because sometimes it’s easier to give the straight talk rather than give “professional sounding” advice.
I compiled key parts of Stan’s post after the jump.
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May 28 2009
The New York Lawyer had an article yesterday entitled “ Chinese Lawyers Could Be Disbarred for Taking Human Rights Cases“. It should come as no surprise to most readers that stuff like this happens in China. I wasn’t all that surprised. The only interesting twist? Its the judiciary in China that is threatening to disbar attorneys who take up human rights issues. More after the jump.
May 18 2009
And so this brings me to part 2 of my NERA notes—the part presented by Fei Deng, who talked about the role of nationalism in this deal. Unfortunately, she decided to start with imperialistic times and talked about things like the Summer Palace, and Chinese humiliation. Not any of my favorite of topics.
But then she went back to Coke-Huiyuan. More after the jump.
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