On May 12, 2025, Mr. Liang Yali, Senior Partner of King&Capital Law Firm and Director of King&Capital Criminal Defense Research Center, was invited to the School of Law of Southwest University of Political Science and Law to conduct a course on criminal defense practice for the LL.M. students of Southwest University of Political Science and Law.
The course focuses on criminal defense practice, discussing in-depth the core aspects of receiving cases, meeting with clients, defending at the investigation stage, and reviewing documents, etc. In particular, Ms. Liang shared in-depth information on the key practice topic of “criminal meeting”.
The picture shows the scene of Mr. Liang Yali's lecture
Ms. Liang Yali systematically explained the theoretical origin of the right to meet with the lawyer, taking the practice ethics as the starting point. She pointed out that the right to meet with a lawyer is an important part of the lawyer's right to defense, which is rooted in the legal rights of criminal suspects and defendants. Lawyers need to uphold the “honesty and trustworthiness, diligence and responsibility” of the professional standards, based on the facts, the law as a guideline, to protect the legitimate rights and interests of the parties, and safeguard the correct implementation of the law.
Liang Yali lawyer emphasized that the criminal defense practitioners must take the law as the criterion, in the meeting to effectively safeguard the client's own legitimate rights and interests, to ensure that the meeting work is legal and effective.
Combined with the current legal framework, Liang Yali lawyer made clear the five core requirements of the meeting work: First, timeliness and adequacy: to ensure timely meeting arrangements, meeting time is sufficient, to lay the foundation for the communication of the case; Second, confidentiality of the meeting: strict protection of the meeting process is not wiretapped, to safeguard the client's privacy and the independence of the work of the defense; Third, the special case licensing system: for the investigative stage requires the permission of the investigation authorities, emphasizing the compliance of the meeting. Third, the permit system for special cases: for special cases that require permission from the investigating authorities during the investigation stage, the importance of compliant meetings is emphasized; fourth, the right of the parties to take the initiative: it is clear that criminal suspects and defendants have the right to take the initiative to request to meet with lawyers, so as to safeguard their litigation rights. Fifth, the duty of confidentiality: defense lawyers must meet with the content of strict confidentiality, adhere to professional ethics.
In addition, Liang YaLi lawyer emphasized, the meeting is not a mechanical process, but with specific goals and tasks. The most important thing is to establish contact and trust with the client. Through the formalities, cases, laws and regulations, the background of the parties and other dimensions of the preparatory work, and the parties to break the sense of distance, to build a strong relationship of trust. Secondly, it is important to balance the specific tasks of understanding the case, including all substantive and procedural issues related to the case, providing legal advice and assistance, verifying the relevant evidence, applying for access to evidentiary materials proving innocence or misdemeanor, and communicating with the client sufficiently to arrive at an agreed-upon idea of the defense.
The picture shows the scene of the lecture given by Ms. Liang Yali
At the level of meeting skills, Liang Yali analyzed in detail the “six steps of meeting” - ice-breaking, empathy, listening, questioning, confirming, and giving opinions, analyzed the operational details and practical points of each link, and guided students to think about how to provide efficient legal services in the first meeting through the standardized process. She guided students to think about how to provide efficient legal services in the first meeting through standardized processes.
In view of the common risks in the meeting, she combined with practical cases and focused on explaining the coping strategies for typical problems such as “bringing a letter”, “evidence verification methods” and “inappropriate requests from family members”, so as to strengthen the awareness of risk prevention and the ability to operate in compliance with the law. Risk prevention awareness and compliance ability.
At the end of the class, Ms. Liang Yali interacted with the students. Southwest University of Political Science and Law graduate students showed solid professional foundation and excellent discursive ability, the two sides in the collision of views to realize the depth of the integration of theory and practice.
It is reported that the Southwest University of Political Science and Law School of Law innovative implementation of the “dual tutor teaching mode”, fully integrated criminal defense practice resources, to build a direct dialogue between the academic community and the industry platform. By inviting legal experts into the classroom to share practical experience, not only help graduate students to transform theoretical knowledge into practical skills, but also promote lawyers to deepen professional thinking in teaching and learning, and inject new momentum into the cultivation of criminal defense talents.
