More affable Chinese, easier business: US lawyer

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, December 04, 2003

More affable Chinese, easier business: US lawyer

Living in the Chinese capital for seven years, Fraser Mendel, a lawyer of Morrison & Foerster LLP's Beijing office, finds himself most impressed by the changes in the Chinese when he talks with them.

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Living in the Chinese capital for seven years, Fraser Mendel, a lawyer of Morrison & Foerster LLP's Beijing office, finds himself most impressed by the changes in the Chinese when he talks with them.

"It is easier and easier to talk with Chinese, no matter ordinary people or government officials, 'cause they are much friendlier and more comfortable to face a foreigner," Mendel told Xinhua.

With affable Chinese, Mendel, as a foreigner, finds it easier to make friends with them and, as a US lawyer, easier to do his business in the world's fast growing market.

"Our business in China is steadily growing," he said. Morrison &Foerster LLP was hired by Beijing's Olympic Organizing Committee to provide service for all international legal affairs for the 2008 Olympic Games.

The US-based law firm set up its second office in the Chinese mainland in Shanghai in January this year. A month later another US law firm Baker & McKenzie also founded its second office there.

The rapidly growing Chinese economy attracts more and more multinationals and foreign capital and as well brings opportunities to foreign law firms, Mendel said.

According to the Ministry of Justice, 115 foreign law firms from 16 countries have set up representative offices on the Chinese mainland including about 40 law firms from the United States. So far, 12 of them have established the second office in China.

"The legal transparency in China has greatly improved," Mendel said. "All laws and regulations are open to both Chinese and foreigners. There is no 'internal regulation' any more especially after China formally entered the World Trade Organization."

"Meanwhile, we are representing more Chinese companies in the United States," he said, attributing this to the fact that more Chinese companies do international business.

The Chinese economy is becoming bound with the rest of the world in a closer and closer way, bringing about not only cooperation but also arguments. More and more Chinese companies have to hire lawyers abroad for legal affairs like anti-dumping charges imposed on their products.

Being a country with a much more complicated situation than others, it is a difficult job to deal with structural problems no matter in legal or economic fields, Mendel said, "The efforts are positive though there are problems."

The Chinese government has lifted the ban on foreign law firms setting up another representative office and the limitation on where to set up it since January this year.

Foreign law firms' offices in China are allowed to develop a long-term clientele with domestic law firms while the requirement for the career history of their chief representatives is also relaxed.

"We welcome foreign law firms to do business in China and expand cooperation with Chinese lawyers to provide high-quality legal service and contribute to economic and trade relations between China and the rest of the world," said Zhao Dacheng, director of Lawyer, Notary Steering Department under the Ministry of Justice.

A Chinese law firm named Jindu is working for the Beijing's Olympic Organizing Committee as well for domestic legal service.

"We have strong cooperation with Chinese lawyers in the project," Mendel said. "We meet almost every day. They are very good and respectable lawyers."

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