The 19th East China Lawyers Forum was held in Hefei, Anhui Province, on November 16-17, 2024. The forum, themed "Coordinating the Development of New Productive Forces and High-Level Legal Services to Promote Chinese-Style Modernization," was jointly organized by the lawyers' associations of Fujian, Zhejiang, Shandong, Jiangxi, Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Anhui, with the Anhui Lawyers Association as the host. Cai Hua, Vice President of the All China Lawyers Association; Hu Kongshe, Member of the Party Committee, Deputy Director, First-Class Inspector, and Secretary of the Party Committee of the Lawyer Industry of the Anhui Provincial Department of Justice; and Yin Bangding, President of the Anhui Lawyers Association, attended the opening ceremony and delivered speeches. Xie Size, Director of the Lawyer Work Division and First-Class Researcher of the Anhui Provincial Department of Justice, was also present at the opening ceremony, which was presided over by Dai Jinxuan, Vice President of the Anhui Lawyers Association. Zhang Xiaojian, Vice President of the Anhui Lawyers Association, chaired the keynote speeches. More than 160 representatives, including presidents, vice presidents, secretaries-general, and deputy secretaries-general of the lawyers' associations from the six provinces and one municipality of East China, as well as lawyer representatives, participated in the forum.
On the morning of November 16, the forum invited Cao Li, Deputy Director of the Economics Department at the Central Party School (National Academy of Governance), a second-level professor and doctoral advisor, and Yang Chen, Vice President of the Beijing Lawyers Association, to deliver keynote speeches titled "Cultivating New Productive Forces to Promote High-Quality Development" and "Diversification of Trade Frictions Faced by Enterprises Going Global," respectively.
This forum compiled a total of 105 papers and established four sub-forums: "New Productive Forces and Innovation in the Legal Industry," "Development and Breakthroughs in the Legal Profession in the New Era," "Foreign-Related Legal Services in the Context of High-Level Opening-Up," and "Institutional Reforms and Implementation of the New Company Law." Forty-three papers were selected for presentation in the sub-forums.
The award list for this forum was recommended by various provincial (municipal) lawyers' associations. The Jiangsu Lawyers Association collected over 200 submissions, and after plagiarism checks and expert blind reviews, 15 papers were awarded, including 10 third prizes, 4 second prizes, and 1 first prize. Yuan Meng, Vice President of the Jiangsu Lawyers Association, and Liu Hai, Deputy Secretary-General, led a delegation of 15 award-winning lawyers from Jiangsu to attend the forum.
Shen Yongming, Senior Partner, Senior Attorney, Director of the Corporate, Securities & Insurance Business Department, and Head of the Bangsheng Legal & Business Team at our firm, won the First Prize for his paper "Risks and Countermeasures of State-Owned Enterprises' Foreign Investments under the New Company Law."
On the afternoon of November 16, the sub-forum on "Institutional Reforms and Implementation of the New Company Law" was co-hosted by Wu Zhenglin, Vice President of the Anhui Lawyers Association, and Yuan Meng, Vice President of the Jiangsu Lawyers Association, where Shen Yongming participated in the paper-sharing session. On the morning of November 17, during the "Paper Presentation and Exchange" session, Shen Yongming delivered a speech on his paper, which was reviewed and commented on by Li Jian, Vice President of the Anhui Lawyers Association.
At noon on November 17, the forum concluded with an awards ceremony, closing ceremony, and handover of the forum banner. The 19th East China Lawyers Forum was successfully held, marking another milestone in legal discussions and collaboration in the region.
(Reported by Wei Xinzheng, according to the Bangsheng Legal & Business WeChat Public Account)