Are you looking at the requirements to be a Lawyer in China? Lawyers are not a big group in Chinese society. For those that know lawyers, they find lawyers are educated and can be counted on. Some people hate lawyers.

However, this is normally because of a single lawyer, not because of all lawyers. There are some good lawyers and some bad lawyers.

In the ’80s in China, the legal industry changed in China. First, there were attorneys that only dealt with criminal law. After that, there were some lawyers that did divorce law.

When China opened its market, people and companies had complex trade needs. The economy required lawyers to help solve their complicated problems.

At the end of the ’80s, there were for-profit law firms setting up.

Requirements To Practice Law In China

In China, law school is a bachelor’s degree. You first need to get into law school, and you get your bachelor’s degree and pass the bar association. And then you do a one-year internship.

Therefore, you can become a lawyer much faster in China than in countries like Canada and China where you need to have a bachelor’s degree before becoming a lawyer.

In China, you can become a lawyer in five years. In the United States, it will take you eight years.

Once you pass the bar exam, you will need to decide if you want to join a large law firm or not. If you do decide that, you will also have to be hired. Other lawyers prefer to start their own law firm.

Some prefer to work for a senior lawyer as their assistant.

Working In China As A Lawyer

It’s probably best to work for a large law firm for a while so that you can learn a lot. Judges also often come from partners at large law firms.

Therefore, you can learn the law from someone who is about to become a judge in China.

Some lawyers might start working at a large law firm in Beijing. It’s great if you have friends that work at large law firms. They don’t have to take you.

It depends on your exam results and how well you did in law school.

After your one year of internship, you can get licensed as a lawyer in China. You will then be an associate lawyer. You will assist a senior lawyer.

You might want to work for a few years as an assistant lawyer so that you can learn more. Eventually, you can take on your own clients and stop only working on the senior lawyer’s files.

Law Firms In China

You can also go back to school and get a master’s degree in law. You will need to decide if you want to be a litigation lawyer, or do solicitor work.

In China, it’s mostly men that are lawyers. However, things are changing and more women are becoming lawyers. Most partners are still lawyers.

To become a partner in China, really depends on how good you are at generating revenue. If you can reach the partner level of revenue, then they will have a partner meeting.

They will vote to see if you should be a partner or not. The decision is about money and if you fit in with the culture.

Requirements To Be A Lawyer

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There are many access to justice issues and people who have a problem with their lawyers.

Many people who feel wronged by another individual or company initially feel excited about starting a lawsuit to “get justice.”

When these individuals initially reach out to a law firm, they often speak of getting “the truth” out in the open.

These individuals are in for a rude awakening.

As we have seen with the criminal case of Meng Wanzhou, those that can afford top-quality lawyers, can avoid issues quite easily through the courts.

For the average person who can’t or won’t spend tens of thousands of dollars on legal fees, justice is more of a theoretical concept than a reality.

If you need a lawyer in China or Canada, email us at info (at) clearwaylaw.com

Clients Have Unrealistic Expectations

Many individuals and small to medium-sized businesses have no understanding of how long, complex, and experience litigation is.

They assume their lawyer will just show up in court, show the judge the “evidence”, and the judge will make an immediate court order.

There will be no delays, or adjournments, and the opposing side will have nothing to say.

Once the judge makes the court order, the client believes that the other side will immediately pay up and won’t appeal the case.

This sort of thinking comes from Hollywood and has no basis.

In legal TV shows or movies, the court part of the dispute is just the exciting part of the closing arguments.

You Can Get As Much Justice As You Can Afford

Here is how the litigation plays out in the client’s mind. Let’s say the lawyer’s hourly rate is $400/hour, which is an average fee.

The lawyer has to prepare for court for only one hour, and then the hearing would take only thirty minutes.

In total, that’s $600 in legal fees for the trial. Anyone in the legal industry knows this is nonsense. A three-day hearing can cost $60,000.

Outside of the countless back and forth emails, there are problems with the system.

Once a lawsuit is started and both sides have filed their positions, either side can file an application to the court at any time.

Adjournments and delays are common.

Litigation Goes On For Years 

Court applications deal with many issues that can happen before the trial date.

Let’s say you hire a lawyer, and the other side wants to get a court order to change their position or the paperwork they filed.

Your lawyer might have to speak to the judge for ten minutes in court.

The lawyer charges $400/hour, and they must spend three hours getting ready for the hearing. There are filings that must be done before the hearing.

The lawyer must be ready to answer any questions from the judge.

During the hearing, your lawyer might have to wait a few hours to get heard.

You can easily spend $2000 on legal fees for something that only takes ten minutes. This situation happens often.

This leads some people to not trust their lawyers, even though it’s not the lawyer’s fault.

They will blame their lawyer for allowing the other side to rack up their bill by $2000 so easily.

For this reason, many people fire their lawyers. They then decide they can save some money and try it themselves.

The number of documents required during a lawsuit can be shocking in both their number of pages and their complexity.

The average person doesn’t stand a chance against an experienced lawyer.

Judges Are Also Unhappy With The System

Judges often get annoyed when someone comes to court with legal advice that they got from Facebook or Youtube.

Also, many of these self-represented individuals (people without a lawyer) do not know the rules of the court.

They forget to file things, and then adjournments are often graciously ordered by the judges.

To try and prevent people that don’t know what they are doing from filing random paperwork, judges can make the person without a lawyer pay the other person’s legal fees.

The judges want to make sure that they are accountable for their actions.

The courts are hit with applications and appeals from self-represented individuals that a judge would never accept.

Access To Justice Issues

I have seen a judge issue a “fine” of $12,000 against a lady from someone who didn’t want to fly to a nearby city to be questioned by the lawyer for the other side.

The legal system is broken. During COVID-19, it’s time to find a better system where all can have access to justice by using legal professionals.

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