From March 21st to 23rd, the 11th session of King&Capital's Criminal Defense Practical Training Workshop was held in Beijing, and the content of this workshop centered on court debates. Under the guidance of the consultant team and the lecturer team, participants from nearly ten provinces of China explored the “techniques” and “ways” of court debates through immersive simulation exercises and small-class practical teaching.

Chu Changzhi

Managing Partner and CEO of King&Capital Law Firm

Mr. Chu Changzhi, Managing Partner and CEO of King&Capital Law Firm, presided over the opening ceremony and delivered a speech. “The lawyer industry is always facing challenges, and the professional skills of lawyers need to evolve iteratively, how to achieve 'conceptual skills' in a short period of time is the goal that King&Capital's criminal defense seminar always pursues.” Chu Changzhi hoped that all the trainees can deeply participate in each training and learning, transform the knowledge into instinctive response, and realize the effective enhancement of discursive ability and business skills through the complete rounds of learning. Finally, he called on the participants to cherish the learning opportunities, take the initiative to ask questions, deep participation, and transform the learning results into professional competitiveness.

Wang Jiuchuan

Senior Partner of King&Capital Law Firm

Director of King&Capital Criminal Defense Lecture Hall

Supervisor of Beijing Criminology Research Association

Adjunct Instructor, Institute of Advanced Criminal Defense, Northwest University of Political Science and Law

King&Capital Law Firm senior partner Wang Jiuchuan delivered a speech as a representative of the advisory group. He said that King&Capital Criminal Defense Practical Training Seminar practiced the experiential teaching advocated by Mr. Tian Wenchang, focusing on seminars and training in addition to the explanation of principles. He emphasized that “it is important to avoid set patterns in court debates and focus on how to reason and argue.” After prompting the characteristics of court debates in program preparation, implementation and response, he asked the participants to familiarize themselves with the cases in advance, to open their brains, to interact with the problem-oriented, to really find out where their own problems lie, and to enhance the practical skills of debating in a targeted manner.

Sun Guangzhi

Senior Partner of King&Capital Law Firm

Secretary General of King&Capital Criminal Defense Lecture Hall

Senior Researcher, Institute of Criminal Defense, Northwestern University of Political Science and Law

Director of Beijing Criminology Research Society

Sun Guangzhi, a senior partner of King&Capital Law Firm, delivered a speech on behalf of the lecturers' group. He said, “Court debate is a collection of criminal defense skills, so we can't just limit ourselves to the debate itself when discussing court debate.”

He believed that King&Capital criminal defense practice training integrates the 30 years of criminal defense experience and practice summary of the Kyoto Law Firm, and extracts a systematic and universal criminal defense methodology from it. It is hoped that the participants will not only focus on the polishing of language skills, but also refine the defense viewpoints and language expression on the basis of the whole process of criminal defense such as “trial preparation, evidence combing, legal attack and defense” when they conduct the training on court debate.

He expects that the students will gain something from the course and develop their own criminal defense styles and skills in their future criminal defense practice, and encourages them to communicate with each other and learn from each other during the training.

Tian Wenchang

General Counselor of King&Capital Hall of Fame

Honorary Director of King&Capital Law Office

Honorary Advisor of China Criminal Law Research Association

Advisor of Criminal Committee of All-China Lawyers Association

Honorary Director and Doctoral Supervisor of the Institute of Advanced Studies in Criminal Defense, Northwestern University of Political Science and Law

Tian Wenchang, honorary dean and doctoral supervisor of the Advanced Research Institute of Criminal Defense of Northwestern University of Political Science and Law, and honorary director of King&Capital Law Firm, specially rushed to the scene, and analyzed the topic of “Reasons for Prosecution of Non-Conviction Cases from the Perspective of Functionality of the Law and the Focuses of the Court's Debate”, peeling off the analysis from the distant to the near, from the abstract to the concrete, and from the end to the means, through the dialectical relationship layer by layer.

“Why is there so much disagreement between prosecution and defense? What exactly is the focus of criminal defense?” Tian Wenchang posed two questions for the participants in the audience to ponder. He believes that understanding the case of non-conviction needs to be cut from the essence of the law, procedural justice and the logic of the confrontation between the prosecution and the defense, and also hopes that the trainees will be able to feel the essence of the courtroom debate in their studies, and that they will be able to summarize their views in a concise and pithy manner, and will be able to apply and enhance them in the real world.

Zhu Yonghui

Director of King&Capital Law Firm

Deputy Director of Advanced Institute of Criminal Defense, Northwestern University of Political Science and Law

Adjunct Instructor, Criminal Law Center for LLM students, Peking University Law School

Lecturer of “Peking University Criminal Defense Lecture Hall”.

Men Jinling

Senior Partner, King&Capital Law Firm

Deputy Director of the Institute of Advanced Criminal Defense, Northwest University of Political Science and Law

King&Capital Law Firm senior partner, Northwest University of Political Science and Law, vice president of the Institute of Criminal Defense, Kyoto Criminal Defense Seminar adviser Men Jinling in the comments on the guidance emphasized that: the skills of the court debate focus on the training of thinking methods, expression of the logic and the facts of the case and the law of the reasoning, this skill is the training of the acquisition of the skills, just “know” far from enough, you need to “do”! This skill is acquired through training, and merely “knowing” is not enough! It is necessary to fix the judgment of the legal in and out of the crime and the determination of whether the fact is established or not into a methodological sense of existence, with precise language output, to complete the courtroom debate.

Jiyue Peng

Senior Partner of King&Capital Law Firm

Researcher at the Institute for Advanced Research in Criminal Defense, Northwestern University of Political Science and Law (NWUPL)

Nie Sufang

Senior Partner of King&Capital Law Firm

Researcher of Northwest University of Political Science and Law, Institute of Advanced Studies in Criminal Defense

The course topics were conducted by Tian Wenchang, Honorary Dean of the Institute of Advanced Studies in Criminal Defense of Northwestern University of Political Science and Law, Honorary Director of King&Capital Law Firm, Zhu Yonghui, Vice Dean of the Institute of Advanced Studies in Criminal Defense of Northwestern University of Political Science and Law, Director of King&Capital Law Firm, Men Jinling, Vice Dean of the Institute of Advanced Studies in Criminal Defense of Northwestern University of Political Science and Law, Senior Partner of King&Capital Law Firm, Wang Jiuchuan, Advisor, Senior Partner of Kyoto Law Firm and Director of Kyoto Criminal Defense Lecture Hall Wang Jiuchuan, a tutor, senior partner of King&Capital Law Firm and director of King&Capital Criminal Defense Lecture Hall, commented and guided, and Sun Guangzhi, Peng Jiyue and Nie Sufang, researchers of Northwestern University of Political Science and Law Advanced Research Institute of Criminal Defense and senior partners of King&Capital Law Firm, commented and guided on the relationship between court debates and the related trial sessions from the aspects of the concept of court debates, purpose, skills, operation and taboos, the relationship between prosecution, defense, trial and defense debates, and the relationship between prosecution, defense and trial and the relationship between prosecution, defense and trial and defense debates. The three lecturers systematically explained and organized a number of practical exercises for the students on the relationship between court debates and related court sessions, the relationship between prosecution and defense, defense and trial, the purpose and discussion of court debates, the elements and logic of court debates, and the application of dialectical thinking and rules of thumb in court debates.

Zhu Yonghui

Director of King&Capital Law Firm

Deputy Director of the Institute of Advanced Criminal Defense, Northwest University of Political Science and Law

Adjunct Instructor, Criminal Law Center for LLM students, Peking University Law School

Lecturing Lawyer of “Peking University Criminal Defense Lecture”

Toward the end of the seminar, Zhu Yonghui, Director of King&Capital Law Firm, shared the qualities and methods that criminal lawyers should have in court debates with his personal experience as a closing speech.

“This topic focuses on court debate, which is directly related to the ability of lawyers to appear in court.” Director Zhu Yonghui summarized from the comprehensive ability, court appearance ability, debate skills and communication and negotiation ability, pointing out that criminal defense lawyers in the court debate ability to pay attention to the “professional + skills + emotional intelligence” multi-dimensional qualities, under the premise of both professional and skills, embellish the language, optimize the expression. It is expected that the trainees will be inspired by the training in terms of language expression, stress resistance, logical thinking, and on-the-spot adaptability.

At present, King&Capital Criminal Defense Training Course has attracted the participation of lawyers from many parts of the country, and its mode of “small class teaching and problem-oriented” is profoundly influencing the professionalization of the skills of criminal lawyers in China. The 12th King&Capital Criminal Defense Practical Training Seminar is expected to be held at the end of May, focusing on pre-trial conference and exclusion of illegal evidence.