In-house outside the box

China Fortune Land Development’s legal affairs director Li Yikun recently shared her thoughts on switching from private practice to in-house counsel with the China Enterprise Legal Management Research Centre in Beijing, revealing how she has progressed in her new career stream

Herbert William Heinrich, a US industrial safety pioneer, once stated what became known as the Heinrich Law: behind every accident that causes a serious injury, there are 29 accidents that cause minor injuries and 300 accidents that cause no injuries. These rules were widely applied in the production safety and business activities of companies, and in many other situations.

At the fourth meeting on the topic of corporate case management that was organised by the China Enterprise Legal Management Research Centre and convened at Beijing Arbitration Commission on 8 May, I spoke of my experience in corporate case management. As China Fortune Land Development’s legal affairs director, I revealed to the centre what I believe to be a brand new application of the Heinrich Law. This law tells us that accidents due to unsafeness are preventable; corporate cases are, under these same rules, also preventable and avoidable.

My recent switch from lawyer to legal affairs director of a company was a big step, and in the beginning I was excited about handling corporate litigation cases because the collection of evidence, the sorting of information and the investigation of relevant persons were carried out on a massive scale, as if I were a soldier who used to do clerical duties and now had an opportunity to fight again.

Li Yikun is the legal affairs director at China Fortune Land Development. This article was supplied by the China Enterprise Legal Management Research Centre