“The King&Capital Criminal Defense Practical Training Seminar, which uses participatory teaching to train criminal defense lawyers, is committed to creating a train-the-trainer model.” Talking about the successful landing of the Xifa University training model in King&Capital, Tian Wenchang, honorary director of King&Capital Law Firm and honorary dean of the Advanced Institute of Criminal Defense at Northwestern University of Political Science and Law, said so.
On May 24th this year, the seventh session of King&Capital's criminal defense training course started successfully in Beijing. Around the two major topics of “Reception” and “Interview”, more than 30 trainees from many provinces across China witnessed the completion of the first round of King&Capital's criminal defense course and set off on their journey again. The first round of the Kyoto Criminal Defense Seminar was completed, and the participants set off on their journey again.
This time, the workshop started again. From complete teaching materials to professional lecturers and optimized course design, the King&Capital Criminal Defense Practical Training Workshop is taking its own unique route of professional training for criminal defense lawyers, which has attracted wide attention from the outside world.
Not only training students, but also trainers. What has the King&Capital Criminal Defense Workshop experienced in the past year?
The first round of 6 sessions focused on improving the practical ability of criminal defense lawyers.
Back in April 2023, the first phase of King&Capital Law Firm Criminal Defense Practical Training Seminar, led and initiated by Mr. Tian Wenchang, with the collaboration of a number of expert criminal defense lawyers of King&Capital Law Firm, was finally formally opened in Beijing after intense preparations.
In Tian Wenchang's view, specialization is the road to high-quality development of criminal defense, to achieve the goal of high-quality development of criminal defense, the most critical and fundamental is to achieve the specialization of criminal defense skills. But for a long time, China's lawyers still exists “criminal defense is nothing great” misunderstanding, ignore the professional development of criminal defense business needs. The root cause, in addition to the understanding of the lack of attention, criminal defense lawyers also lack of professional skills training.
“Professional skills is not a person with a certain kind of knowledge as a matter of course can be common with a kind of ability, criminal defense professional skills need specialized training.” For more than 40 years, China's criminal defense lawyer training is basically knowledge lectures, but no skills training, Tian Wenchang lawyer worried about this.
In order to fill the gap in criminal defense skills training, in 2017, Tian Wenchang promoted the Northwestern University of Political Science and Law to set up a criminal defense advanced research institute, with reference to foreign “clinic-style” education model, combined with the characteristics of China's criminal procedure, to explore innovative criminal defense training courses. After more than four years of polishing, with King&Capital Law Firm as a pilot, the increasingly mature practical training model successfully landed, took root and blossomed.
The first round of the course consists of 6 sessions, starting from the first session with the court questioning, extending to the reception and meeting, court debates, questioning, investigation and evidence collection, reviewing the documents and illegal evidence exclusion, etc., from shallow to deep, according to the characteristics of the criminal defense in-depth development.
It is not a one-word course, nor is it a solo course, but it is a teaching and learning program that builds on each other's strengths. Each 3 days and 2 nights, from the rising sun to the twilight, the lecturer group and the students to the actual case dismantling simulation, discussion and review, mutual exchange of views, and constantly optimize, the whole process fully embodies the course established “identity is not divided into primary and secondary, the answer does not set standards, everyone is highly brainstorming, the resources are fully shared,” the main theme and requirements.
Zhao Qingyang, from Liaoning, is a senior partner of a famous law firm in China. He has participated in all six sessions of King&Capital Criminal Defense Training Course and obtained the certificate of completion. During the learning process, he reviewed and summarized the issues that he had not noticed in the past, immersed himself in them, and fully felt “the enhancement of his skills brought by high-intensity learning.”
Monographs to build the foundation, practice first, taking into account the theory of the two-pronged approach
Under the leadership of Mr. Tian Wenchang, the King&Capital Criminal Defense Practical Training Seminar adheres to the concept of “grasping the key points, hitting the pain points and solving the difficulties”, and through the clinic-type small-group training teaching, it constantly amends its own curriculum and teaching ideas, focusing on the shortest possible time to maximize the enhancement of criminal defense students' thinking and practical skills.
Challenges will come soon. The problem faced by the seminar is that the lawyers are all senior criminal defense lawyers with many years of practical experience, but it is often easy to teach out of thin air that knowledge lacks systematization, and at this time, there is an urgent need for a textbook to provide a clear outline through the teaching vein.
This problem was soon solved. 2023 November, edited by Tian Wenchang, Peking University Press published the “criminal defense tutorial” series was officially launched. The series of books is divided into theory, practice and practical training in three volumes, theory and practice by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences University Law School Associate Professor Men Jinling as deputy editor-in-chief, and by the deep understanding of the defense of the way of King&Capital law firm lawyers and scholars co-editors; practical training by the Northwestern University of Political Science and Law Law Professor Liu Renqi as deputy editor-in-chief by the senior criminal defense from all over the country and throughout the Northwestern University of Political Science and Law Senior Research Institute The practical training is edited by Liu Renqi, a professor at the Law School of Northwestern University of Political Science and Law, as deputy editor-in-chief.
“The theory, practice and practical training chapters of Criminal Defense Tutorial cover the complete content of criminal defense from theory to practice to practical training mode. These three parts are interconnected, both as a unified whole and independently into their own chapters, and are a set of systematic teaching materials for training lawyers in criminal defense skills.” Lawyer Tian Wenchang, editor-in-chief of the series, said that the purpose of the book is to start from actual cases and lawyers' experience in handling cases, and to combine theoretical interpretation with practical analysis, to argue, elaborate and analyze the basic principles, principles, laws and rules of criminal defense, as well as lawyers' operational skills in each link of the process of criminal defense, so that the trainees can achieve a comprehensive enhancement of the theoretical level and practical skills of criminal defense through learning.
Renmin University of China Honorary Professor Gao Mingxuan evaluation of the book series also gave high praise. He said, “Criminal Defense Tutorial” trilogy is rich in content, systematic and scientific, to the point, practical, with strong originality, guidance and relevance, is China's first attempt to create their own system without precedents to follow, is a set of unique Chinese characteristics, and China's criminal justice system in line with the system of criminal defense skills training materials.
Criminal Defense Tutorial” textbook from the history of defense lawyers, positioning and mission of the topic, to the theory of jurisprudence and sources, in the practice chapter reached the core of the whole set of materials, on the reception and meeting with the criminal defense, investigation and evidence collection, the court questioning, court debates, the exclusion of illegal evidence and other practical processes, informative around the practical training to make further elaboration and explanation.
Pan Nanyu lawyer participated in six criminal defense training courses, focusing on learning the material after the decision to leave Nanjing, into the headquarters of King&Capital law firm work. He talked about benefiting from this highly brain-burning training model that combines not only textbook bibliography but also practical challenges, where “everyone has an immersive experience, and the textbooks and courses need to be previewed in advance, so don't think about being lazy because you may be critiqued at any time.”
This also confirms that the “Criminal Defense Tutorial” series of books as a unified tutorial for the King&Capital Criminal Defense Practical Training Seminar, forming a complete and unified criminal defense participatory teaching and delivery system, and practical teaching to complement the leading role of the role of the example.
Pushing the boundaries of innovation, striving to create a model for training the trainers
Wicker Road, alternating summer and winter. Departing from April 2023, King&Capital criminal defense practical training workshop first round of courses successfully concluded.
During this period, the seminar also, in January this year, with outstanding teaching achievements, stood out in the “first legal services innovation product cases” selection, won the lawyers and law firms to empower innovative products selected cases, China University of Political Science and Law Lawyers Research Center specially for the seminar issued a certificate of honor.
Zhu Yonghui, Director of Beijing King&Capital Law Firm and Vice President of the Institute of Advanced Criminal Defense of Northwestern University of Political Science and Law, talked about his personal feelings in his speech at the closing ceremony of the sixth course. He said that the King&Capital Criminal Defense Practical Training Seminar is not only a big family, but also a big melting pot and a big platform, where the students become friends with each other through the training and grow up in learning, and can continue to communicate with each other through this platform, which will lead to more cooperation in the future, and join hands to develop the cause of criminal defense.
Relying on the training of students, the area of radiation is inevitably limited. King&Capital criminal defense seminar is more committed to teaching, realizing the practical skills of the “pass on”, training trainers, with the spark of the West Law University of criminal defense participatory teaching model to promote out, so that more lawyers benefit.
In May this year, yunnan lawyer HouHoLin into the workshop after learning, will this set of learning mode back to xishuangbanna state lawyers association. In the first phase of their young lawyers criminal defense skills training course, that replicates the clinic, small class teaching mode, to take practical exercises, group discussion, exchange seminars, theory and simulation of the court and other “real-world” ways and means to carry out training. During the same period, Mr. Zhao Qingyang also taught in Kunming, Shenyang and other places, combining his personal experience in criminal defense and actively transferring what he has learned to the outside world for the benefit of more colleagues in the legal profession.
“We welcome more participants to spread the teaching model of the King&Capital Criminal Defense Practical Training Workshop to the whole country.” King&Capital Law Firm Managing Partner and CEO Chu Changzhi believes that the criminal defense seminar itself is not for profit, and at the same time is very willing to open up this practical training model for the industry, and welcomes the participants to pass on what they have learned to other lawyers, to help the criminal defense skills to be passed on with high quality, and to drive the entire legal profession to the level of specialization in criminal practice.
Tian Wenchang hopes that more lawyers can participate in the future King&Capital criminal defense training workshop, experience the charm of the model, from which the enhancement of the side, drive more people to progress and growth.
It is reported that the second round of King&Capital Criminal Defense Practical Training Seminar, the second round of criminal defense difficult plate practice training, combined with the first round of training experience to make targeted adjustments to increase the second instance defense appeal, complaint and other important content, in order to provide students with a better learning experience and richer course content, to help enhance the development of criminal defense skill
