Players of any string instrument will tell you that strings must be changed regularly, even when there is no noticeable depreciation in the sound quality. The same principle applies to market operation. A shift in regulation, system or business model does not necessarily mean that anything was wrong, but in a competitive environment neither regulators nor participants have the luxury to stand still in contentment.
In China’s capital market, the pace of comprehensive implementation of the stock offering registration system is accelerating. Under the new system, the “gatekeepers” of the market, including securities companies, law firms and reporting accountants, will take on the crucial duties of reviewing and judging the truthfulness, accuracy and completeness of corporate information disclosures, while also being placed under the microscope of regulation. In Watching the watchers, we take a look at the new roles awaiting intermediary agents and the enormous weight of scrutiny on their shoulders.
Sometimes market evolution is driven by structural reform, and at other times technological innovation. Artificial intelligence (AI), being a rapidly developing, widely influential and disruptive piece of technology, brings uncertainty to market structure, laws and regulations, and even social stability. With AI beginning to be incorporated into the daily operation of certain industries, there is no better time to ponder on the ethical side of the innovation. In Ethics for AI, Tao Fuwu, chief legal officer of Cloudwalk Group, one of the “four AI dragons in China”, shares his views on current legal and compliance requirements on AI ethics.
When speaking to legal professionals, we often hear of a certain partner at a law firm experiencing an unexpectedly difficult transitional period after becoming a corporate’s in-house counsel. The roles are assumed by many to be different in name only, but largely identical in function. This misconception, however, ignores certain subtle but crucial differences.
In In-house specialty, we surveyed the winners in our recent In-house Counsel Awards on their methods and strategies for striving for excellence, and compared their feedback to a previous survey where we summarised the keywords to the success of elite A-List lawyers. We discovered that many skillsets are shared by the two, but even on common ground there are inconspicuously different dynamics and tendencies.
In the past year, Chinese law firms continued their overseas expansion and steadily grew across the country, while international law firms participated deeply in a variety of major transactions both locally and cross-border, actively introducing and promoting legal talent specialising in local businesses. After months of research and evaluation by collecting law firm submissions and listening to industry feedback, China Business Law Journal presents the winners of China Business Law Awards 2022.
The China Business Law Awards include six general awards, 22 practice area awards and 15 industry sector awards. We applaud all winners for their exceptional performance.
