On May 4, 2023, "2023 New Generation Lawyers' High-end Development Forum and the First Young Lawyers' Innovation and Leadership Typical Cases Release Ceremony", which was hosted by China University of Political Science and Law's Lawyers' Research Center, supported by Rule of Law Daily News Agency and other media, and co-sponsored by a number of law firms and units, was grandly held in China University of Political Science and Law (Haidian Campus).
Mr. Tian Wenchang, advisor of Criminal Committee of All-China Lawyers Association, honorary president and doctoral supervisor of the Institute of Criminal Defense of Northwest University of Political Science and Law, honorary advisor of China Criminal Law Society and honorary director of King&Capital Law Firm, took part in the round-table dialogue session and talked about the "Guardianship and Innovation of the Craftsmanship Inheritance of the Lawyer Profession" with all the guests.
Tian Wenchang
When it comes to the development of Chinese lawyers, there is actually a lot to say, especially to young lawyers. As we all know, the history of China's lawyer system is too short, so Chinese lawyers lack experience and inheritance. Since the reconstruction of the lawyer system in 1979 more than 40 years to today, it can be said that the development of Chinese lawyers is very fast, the number of 600,000 or 700,000, but the quality of China's lawyers urgently need to be upgraded. Therefore, I have always believed that Chinese lawyers have spent 40 years to go through the generation period, and now, 40 years later, they should enter the development period. What kind of problems do Chinese lawyers face after the development period? Especially the young Chinese lawyers are facing what kind of problems? I personally believe that there are three most important issues need to be resolved: one is the standardization of lawyers' practice behavior; another is the professionalization of lawyers' vocational skills, and another is the scientific management mechanism of law firms.
First, the standardization of practice behavior. For so many years, the lawyer practice lack of standardization is a reality. More importantly, not only the lack of standardization, and in the process of standardization, there are still many conceptual problems have not been solved. The criminal committee of the national lawyers association formulated more than twenty years ago, "lawyers handling criminal cases norms", a few years ago and made a revision. In the process of formulating and revising this "handling of criminal cases norms", and encountered a lot of conceptual collision, including the lawyer's professional ethics, including the design of conflict of interest, including the lawyer's independent exercise of the right to defense, etc., there are a lot of conceptual differences. This shows that not only the lack of norms, but more importantly, the conceptual differences in the process of developing norms, reflecting our Chinese lawyers in the professional philosophy, professional ethics of the understanding of many problems have not been resolved. And these issues are the foundation of the practice of lawyers, these issues are not resolved, how can Chinese lawyers towards formalization? How to move towards high-quality development? This issue is very important!
Secondly, the specialization of professional skills. So many years a lot of lawyers show their own ability, a hundred flowers, there is no unified skills training. Many people think that as long as you study law, you can be a lawyer, judge, prosecutor, in fact, not. Lawyers, judges and prosecutors are a profession and have specialized skills. And for more than 40 years lawyers, judges and prosecutors have taken up their respective posts without specialized training. Now the prosecution and defense conflicts, trial and defense conflicts and many other phenomena that should not happen are not unrelated to the lack of professional skills training. Until now, many people have not considered lawyers as a profession, especially criminal defense. For such an important business as criminal defense, which directly involves the client's right to freedom and right to life, many people do not recognize its professional difficulty, but say that criminal defense can be done by anyone, is it not just to speak for the defendant? This shows that many people, even some people in the legal circle lack a clear understanding of this issue. Therefore, the specialization of the lawyer's professional skills is an urgent need for the development of lawyers. Now Northwestern University of Political Science and Law Institute of Criminal Defense is implementing a specialized criminal defense skills training, this training breaks through the limitations of pure knowledge teaching, for the different stages of criminal proceedings in the criminal defense of specific issues, to participate in the whole practical way to start. This is a brand new and effective training method. The first part of the Criminal Defense Tutorial (Theory) prepared by us for this training has already been published, and the practical part (Middle) and the practical training part (Lower) will also be published in June. It is hoped that this training and teaching materials will play a catalytic role in upgrading the professional skills of criminal defense lawyers.
Third, the scientific management of law firms. Now the vast majority of law firms in the country is still in the people themselves, each in their own loose state, some law firms small teams, small mountain phenomenon has not been resolved. At present, many law firms want to do team management, that a reasonable mechanism is very important, but because there is no experience, no heritage, so do not do well.
Lastly, our law firm encountered a problem in the design of the team-based management mechanism, and I hope that we will be alerted. Our law firm was originally a loose, separate state, just like the early reform and opening up of the self-employed. Before the Cultural Revolution, we have no productivity in the system of egalitarianism, reform and opening up to the individual contractors, the liberation of productivity, which is an important progress. But to individual contracting and then need to have the power of teamwork in order to achieve higher efficiency, which is an inevitable demand and trend. However, in the pursuit of team management mode, and encountered difficulties. Because the distribution of the reasonable mechanism has not been resolved, there is a lot of confusion. Under such circumstances, some law firms explore a way of going backward and engage in team building in a way similar to egalitarianism. If this goes on, if it is not done well, it will go back to the model of egalitarianism before the Cultural Revolution, and return to the state of rewarding laziness and penalizing diligence, and three monks have no water to eat. Therefore, the loose management mechanism of the law firms to change, to team building, which is a trend. But what is the reasonable mechanism of team building, scientific mechanism, we need in-depth study, in-depth discussion. This issue is very important.
Lawyer Tian Wenchang spoke in response to a question:
It is only since the reform and opening up in 1979 that we have moved towards the rule of law. I have been thinking about an important issue: Chinese society has been moving towards the rule of law for more than 40 years, and has realized people's recognition of the concept of the rule of law, but the concept of the rule of law has not yet been formed into a concept of the rule of law, which is the biggest problem. A society without the formation of the concept of the rule of law can not be called a true society of the rule of law. Therefore, the construction of the rule of law in our Chinese society has only made a beginning and taken an important step forward. The next step towards the rule of law society is really facing the most important issue, is the public can develop the concept of the rule of law way of thinking, as a legal person, it should be more so. And in fact, many people in the legal profession have not formed the habit of thinking of the concept of the rule of law. Therefore, I believe that there are many things to be done for the development of young lawyers, including skills training and various kinds of learning, and so on. But the most fundamental and crucial one is: young lawyers should establish a firm concept of the rule of law and be a real legal person.
Finally, Mr. Tian Wenchang expressed his sincere wishes to the contemporary young lawyers who are striving for progress:
The burden of the construction of the rule of law in Chinese society falls on the shoulders of young lawyers, and I hope that all young lawyers will straighten up their backs, lift up their chests, and work hard to promote the process of the rule of law in Chinese society without any hesitation in their future development.
Hu Ming, Secretary of the Party Committee of China University of Political Science and Law, and Shao Bingfang, Secretary of the Party Committee and President of Rule of Law Daily attended the forum and delivered speeches. Zhang Zofei, Chairman of China Law Exchange Foundation, Fan Chongyi, Honorary Director of National Legal Aid Research Institute of China University of Political Science and Law and Senior Professor, Liu Dawei, Secretary of the Party Committee of China University of Political Science and Law and Professor, and Wang Jinxi, Director of Lawyers' Research Center of China University of Political Science and Law and Professor and Doctoral Supervisor of China University of Political Science and Law, and other distinguished guests came to the meeting. Representatives of national lawyers' associations, famous law firms and legal industry media totaled more than 300 people attended the conference.
