The legal professions: a
comparison between China
and UK
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A.The concept of lawyers
B.The structure of law firm
C.The lawyer association
D.Qualifications and training
E.Policy for Foreign Lawyer
A.The concept of Lawyers
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According to the “Law on Lawyers of
the People’s Republic of China”, A
lawyer shall refer to a practitioner who
has acquired a lawyer’s practicing
certificate and accepts authorization or
appointment to provide legal services
for a client.
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There are around 120,000 lawyers and
11,800 law firms in China,;
There are around 7,000 lawyers and
600 law firms in Shanghai.
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On average ,there are 0.8 lawyers per
ten thousand population in China.
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The British legal profession includes two
separate branches:barristers and
solicitors.
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In Britain there are around 92,000
solicitors.
There are around 9,000 barristers in
independent practice,known collectively
as the Bar.
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On average, there are 16 lawyers per
ten thousand population in the British.
B. The structure of the law
firm
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By the end of 2007, there were three
types of law firm in China: state-funded
law firms, co-operative law firms,
partnership law firms but not individual
law firms.
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The Law on Lawyers was amended and
adopted by the Standing Committee of
the Tenth National People’s Congress of
PRC on October 28, 2007, and the new
Law on Lawyers shall be effective as of
June 1, 2008.
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According to this new law regulating
lawyers, a lawyer, who is with practicing
experience for five or more years, can
form a individual law firm, but this
lawyer shall be unlimitedly liable for the
debts of the law firm.
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Most Chinese law firms are on a small
scale, consisting of between 10 to 30
lawyers, only a few have more than 100
to 300 lawyers .
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In Britain, Solicitors can form
partnerships with other solicitors.
Alternatively,since 2001, they can form
a Limited Liability Partnership (LLP).
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Under an ordinary partnership a solicitor can
be personally liable (even after retirement)
for a claim of negligence against the solicitor
firm, even if he or she was not personally
involved in the transaction giving rise to the
claim. Under the Limited Liability Partnership
a partner’s liability is limited to negligence for
which he or she was personally responsible.
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In contrast, barristers must be selfemployed and, under Bar rules, cannot
form partnerships, although they
usually share offices, called chambers,
with other barristers.
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All the barristers in a particular chambers
share a clerk, who is a type of business
manager, arranging meeting with the client
and the solicitor and also negotiating the
barrister’s fee. Around 70 percent of
practisting barristers are based in London
chambers, though they may travel to courts
in the provinces. The rest are based in the
other big cities.
C. Lawyer Association
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The All-China National Lawyers
Association (ACNLA) was established in
July 1986. Many local lawyers
associations have also been set up at
provincial level and in municipalities
with districts.
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Chinese lawyers must be members of
the local lawyers association of their
place of residence; simultaneously they
also become members of the ACNLA.
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A lawyers’ association is a social
organization as legal person and is
responsible for the self-disciplinary
organization of lawyers.
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In Britain, the solicitors’ governing body
is the Law Society, which supervises
training and discipline,as well as acting
on behalf of the profession as a whole.
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The barristers governing body is the Bar
Council, which, like the Law Society,
acts as a kind of trade union,
safeguarding the interests of barristers,
and also as a watchdog, regulating
barristers’ training and activities.
D.Qualifications and
training
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In China, there are two routes to
become a lawyer:
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One route is when a person wants to
apply to practice law, he or she shall
satisfy the following conditions:
1.Graduate from university ;
2.Passing the uniform national judicial
examination for which only people who
have bachelor and above degree are
allowed to take.
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Usually ,this examination is so difficult
for people who take part in the exam
that only about 7 percent people can
pass it each year.
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3. Completing one-year internship at a
law firm;
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The second route is where a person, who has
received regular course education or above in an
institution of higher learning, has been engaged in
the professional work for at least 15 years in a field
short of legal service staff and has a senior
professional title or an equivalent professional title,
applies for practicing law on a full-time basis, an
approval of practice of law may be granted if he
passes the assessment of the justice administrative
authority under the State Council.
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How to become a solicitor
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In Britain, all aspects of qualifying as a
solicitor are governed by a set of rules
called the Training Regulations 1990.
Under the regulations, an applicant can
become a solicitor in several different
ways.
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First, although no minimum degree
classification is laid down, increased
competition for entry to the profession
means that most successful applicants
now have an upper second class degree,
and very few get in with less than a
lower second.
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However, everyone who aims to qualify
as a solicitor must complete two distinct
stages of training: Academic training
and vocational training.
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Academic training provides students
with a basic knowledge of the law;
vocational training builds upon that
knowledge.
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In the academic stage of training,
everyone studies the foundations of
legal knowledge.
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There are three main routes by which
to complete academic training:
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Qualifying with a law degree – the lawgraduate route, which entails
completing a qualifying law degree;
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Qualifying with a non-law degree – the
non-law graduate route, in which a
student graduates from a non-law
degree course, then, completes a
Common Professional Examination (CPE)
course for one year, a Graduate
Diploma in Law (GDL) course, or a
senior-status degree in law ;
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Qualifying without a degree – It is
possible for the non-graduate mature
students to enter the profession without
a degree.They take a broad twoyear,CPE course.It is also possible for
Institute of Legal Executives (ILEX)
route to become solicitors without first
taking a degree course;
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After successfully completing a law
degree – or (in the case of non-law
graduates) the CPE course or GDL
course – the applicants must take a one
year Legal Practice Course (LPC);
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The LPC provides professional
instruction for prospective solicitors. It
may be completed on a full-time or
part-time basis.
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After finishing the LPC, the applicant
will enter into the training contract(TC)
to serve a two-year apprenticeship, with
a firm of solicitors authorised as a
training establishment.
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How to Become a Barrister
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The starting point is an upper second
class degree.
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If this degree is not in law, applicants
must do the one-year course leading to
the Common Professional
Examintion(CPE).
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Mature students may be accepted
without a degree, but applications are
subject to very stringent
consideration ,and this is not a likely
route to the Bar.
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All students then have to join one of the
four Inns of Court: Inner Temple;
Middle Temple; Gray’s Inn; and
Lincoln’s Inn all of which are in London.
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Students take the year-long Bar
Vocational Course. Until 1996, this was
only available at the Inns of Court
School of Law in London, but can now
be taken at eight different institutions
around the country.
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Students have to dine at their Inn 12
times.This rather old-fashioned and
much criticised custom stems from the
idea that students will benefit from the
wisdom and experience of their elders if
they sit among them at mealtimes.
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After this, the applicant is called to the
Bar, and must then find a place in a
chambers to serve his or her
pupillage.This is a one-year
apprenticeship in which pupils assist a
qualified barrister, who is known as
their pupil master.
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Pupillage completed, the newly qualified
barrister must find a permanent place in a
chambers, known as a tenacy.This can be the
most difficult part, and some are forced to
‘squat’-remaining in their pupillage chambers
for as long as they are allowed, without
becoming a full member-untill they find a
permanent place. There are only around 300
tenancies available each year-one to every
three pupils.
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The consequence of the difficulty of
finding a place in chambers means that,
although there are many barristers
earning very large fees, the average
income of barristers is less than that of
solicitors. Even having got a place in
chambers, there is no guarantee that
the barrister’s clerk will be able to find
many cases – known as briefs – for the
barrister.
E.Policy for Foreign
Lawyer
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According to the “Regulations on the
Administration of Foreign Law Firms’
Representative Offices in China(2002)”,
after obtaining the permission of the
judicial administration department
under the State Council of China, a
foreign law firm may establish a
representative office in or send
representatives to China.
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Today, around 200 foreign law firm
have representative office in China.
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A representative office and its
representatives may only be engaged in
some activities that do not involve the
affairs on Chinese law
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In the UK, foreign lawyers are welcome
to practice, can be hired by or form
partnerships with local lawyers.
Additonally, they are allowed to
interpret both UK law and international
law, but they cannot refer to
themselves as solicitors or barristers.