Door William Dodson

Één van de hogere partners van mijn Adviseurs van de Weg van de adviesZijde is een Chinese Advocaat. Mej. Zhang wordt verklaard aan praktijkwet in China, niet in de Staten. Zij neemt typisch collectieve gevallen over die de Westelijke internationale wetsfirma's namens hun Westelijke cliënten bereiken, maar voor wie de praktijk dit veel kan slechts doen in het bewegen van overeenkomsten door overheidskanalen. Ook, verkiezen veel van de Westelijke wetsfirma's binnen de stadsgrenzen van de steden, Peking, Guangzhou en Shanghai van de eerste-Rij te blijven. Zij verkiest buiten de stadsgrenzen van de steden van de eerste-Rij te blijven: het lawaai, de verontreiniging en algemene pushi-ness van Grote Stad China maken niet indruk op haar, hoewel zij een inwoner van Peking is.

Zij heeft wat werk voor een firma van Shanghai namens een cliënt in een tweede-rijstad in Provincie Jiangsu gedaan. Zij woont in de ontbinding van een verbinding bij onderneming tussen een Chinees bedrijf en een Westelijk bedrijf. Door aard is haar het werkstijl hoogst colloborative. Zij heeft een zeer goede het werk verhouding met de advocaat Jiangsu die de Chinese kant van het geval vertegenwoordigt. Zij allebei hebben een beroeps, nog dunne verhouding in het gunstigste geval met de Chinese advocaat uit Shanghai, een jonge dame. Mej. Zhang merkt neer de verschillen aan één van generatie. She and I discussed how it might be more complicated than the generation gap between the “Mao generation” and China’s “Little Emperor Generation”.

Ms. Zhang admits she has more in common with the Jiangsu lawyer than with the Shanghai lawyer, basically because of age: Ms. Zhang and the Jiangsu lawyer are both adolescents of the Cultural Revolution; that is, she and he are in their mid-forties. I have heard from many Chinese that there is a clear demarcation in the social attitudes of Chinese who lived through the Cultural Revolution and those born after that terrible decade from the late sixties to the late seventies. One of the greatest differences is the degree of consideration of others of each generation. In this instance, the Shanghai lawyer – Ms. Zhang has told me – is pretty inconsiderate. “She is so confident,” Ms. Zhang told me. “No problem, no problem,” she [the Shanghai] lawyer says, and insists on ramming things through government channels without some of the approvals that, should there be a snag down the line, will force the approval process to begin all over again. Though the Shanghai lawyer is herself a woman of slight stature, she bullies the Jiangsu lawyer that represents the Chinese side of the joint venture. When the Shanghai lawyer is curt with the Jiangsu lawyer, Ms. Zhang and the Jiangsu lawyer look at each other knowingly. They have an unspoken communications network built on shared generational experience.

“How much of that is the ‘New York’” effect?” I asked Ms. Zhang. “That is, how much of the Shanghai lawyer’s approach has to do with Shanghai seeing itself at the center of the world, much like New York City. Often those kind of professionals,” I offered, “tend to run roughshod over others and don’t seem to have a lot of patience for niceties.”

“She is not from Shanghai,” Ms. Zhang offered. “She is from the South. She spent some time in America studying American law after working for a Chinese law firm. She is really confident like American lawyers. She also doesn’t listen. She just orders the Jiangsu lawyer around.” She apparently just lets Ms. Zhang get on with Ms. Zhang’s own work, doesn’t seem to give Ms. Zhang any grief. Perhaps she sees Ms. Zhang as an older sister; or perhaps she doesn’t have to put Ms. Zhang in an adverserial role, since Ms. Zhang is supporting the Shanghai law firm out in the nether-reaches of China (a two-hour drive from Shanghai).

Ms. Zhang gets the same “generational” feeling from another young Shanghai lawyer with whom she has worked, a nice enough fellow, just broke thirty years old. But that same kind of cockiness pervades his interactions with the people who he encounters professionally.

Whatever the reasons might be, Ms. Zhang senses that the new generation of Chinese lawyers, born outside cities like Shanghai, but educated to some extent in the West and working for Western firms, marks a huge shift in the way law will be practiced in China.
Less emphasis will be placed on relationships to win the day, and more on brains and professional credentials. One hopes that as the new generation of lawyers reshapes China into a country that abides by the Rule of Law that genuine relationships between people are not sacrificed in the process.

William Dodson, This is China! Weblog