由威廉Dodson

其中一个我的咨询学校丝绸之路顾问的资深合伙人是中国律师。 女士 张被证明实践法律在中国，不在状态。 她典型地承担西部国际法企业代表他们的西部客户获取的公司案件，但为谁实践在移动的协议可能非常只做通过政府渠道。 并且，许多西部律师事务所喜欢停留在一排城市、北京、广州和上海的市区范围内。 她喜欢在一排城市的市区范围之外停留： 大城市中国的噪声、污染和整体粗鲁不打动她，虽然她是北京的当地人。

她代表一个客户在二排城市完成一些工作为上海企业在江苏省。 她协助联接的溶解 冒险在中国公司和西部公司之间。 天生她的工作样式高度colloborative。 她有与代表案件的中国边的江苏律师的非常好工作关系。 他们有一位专家，细关系最好与中国律师在上海外面，一位小姐。 女士 张标记区别下来到一个世代。 她和我谈论了怎么它比“毛世代”和中国的“少许皇帝之间的代沟也许复杂世代”。

女士 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