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To strengthen the construction of our province's legal profession and give full play to the positive role of lawyers in building a harmonious socialist society, in view of the main problems and weaknesses in the current legal profession in our province, the following opinions are put forward to further strengthen the management of law firms:

I. The Importance and Necessity of Further Strengthening the Management of Law Firms

1. Law firms are the professional institutions of lawyers, the organizers of lawyers' performance of their duties and service to society, the undertakers of lawyers' service functions, the embodiment of lawyers' professional image, and the most direct managers of lawyers and legal services provided by lawyers. The management of law firms is the most basic, direct, and fundamental link in the entire lawyer management system. Strengthening the management of law firms is an important guarantee for cultivating good professional habits, correcting professional attitudes, and improving professional skills among lawyers; it is the key to preventing operational risks, improving service quality, and improving the comprehensive competitiveness of law firms; it is the basic work for implementing administrative and industry management measures and establishing a sound and scientific lawyer management system; and it is a necessary requirement for giving full play to the positive role of lawyers in building a harmonious socialist society and promoting the healthy development of the legal profession in our province.

2. Our province has always attached importance to the management and construction of law firms, and the guidance on the management of law firms has been continuously strengthened, with a series of rules and regulations formulated and issued, gradually standardizing various management behaviors of law firms. However, there are still weaknesses in the management of law firms, especially in their internal management. Some law firms have partners with weak self-discipline awareness, even overriding rules and regulations; some law firms have unclear management responsibilities, with partners and lawyers acting independently and inconsistently, resulting in lax internal management; some law firms repeatedly have lawyers who do not issue legal invoices for fees or are irresponsible in handling cases; some law firms have lax management of official seals and letters, providing convenience for non-lawyers to practice law in the name of lawyers, and then shirking responsibility when complaints arise; some law firms have not strictly implemented the relevant regulations on the management of lawyer business archives, and after the conclusion of cases, they still allow lawyers to keep business archives personally, resulting in disordered or even lost archives; some law firm partners even use the convenience of providing legal services to defraud clients of money, and so on. The reasons for this are: firstly, the rules and regulations are not sound or standardized; secondly, the implementation of the rules and regulations is not resolute or in place; thirdly, the management responsibilities are unclear and not implemented; and fourthly, the supervision mechanism is not scientific or perfect. The existence of these problems seriously restricts the healthy development of the legal profession and the legal profession in our province, fully demonstrating the necessity of strengthening the management of law firms.

II. Guiding Ideology and Principles for Further Strengthening the Management of Law Firms

3. Guiding ideology: Adhering to Deng Xiaoping Theory and the important thought of Three Represents as guidance, fully implementing the Scientific Outlook on Development, conscientiously implementing the spirit of the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the Sixth Plenary Session of the 16th Central Committee, taking standardized construction as the leader, reform and innovation as the driving force, in accordance with the requirements of the Guangdong Provincial Department of Justice's decision on strengthening the construction of the legal profession, targeting the main problems existing in the management of law firms, combining the theme practice activities of "legal services and legal aid work serving the construction of a harmonious socialist society", taking the improvement of internal rules and regulations of law firms and the establishment of sound management mechanisms as the basis, taking the strengthening of the self-discipline awareness of law firms, ensuring the implementation of rules and regulations and the smooth flow of government orders, industry rules and regulations as the core, taking strengthening administrative supervision and industry self-discipline management as the means, and taking the implementation of relevant measures as the guarantee, improving the management level of law firms, implementing the management responsibilities of law firms, and truly giving full play to the basic management role of law firms in the work of lawyers.

4. Main principles:

Adhere to the present, highlight the key points. We must proceed from reality, based on the correct analysis and grasp of the current situation of law firm management in this area, grasp the prominent problems in law firm management for standardization; strengthen supervision on key links in law firm management; and conduct classified guidance on the types and characteristics of problems existing in law firm management in different regions and different law firms;

Adhere to a long-term perspective and address both the symptoms and root causes. While solving prominent problems, we must pay attention to the systematic, coherent, and forward-looking nature of relevant policies and measures, and pay attention to increasing efforts to address the root causes and establish a long-term mechanism for law firm management;

Adhere to overall planning and coordination to ensure effectiveness. We must handle the relationship between strengthening administrative supervision and management and giving play to the role of industry self-discipline; handle the relationship between standardized and unified management and respecting the laws of market competition; handle the relationship between strict management and mobilizing the enthusiasm of lawyers; and handle the relationship between being proactive and courageous in exploration and being down-to-earth and pragmatic, ensuring that the relevant systems and measures for strengthening law firm management play a positive role.

III. Establishing and Improving the Basic System for Law Firm Management

5. Improve the articles of association of law firms and partnership (cooperation) agreements. Law firms must strictly follow the requirements of the Lawyer Law, the Measures for the Administration of Partnership Law Firms, the Measures for the Administration of Cooperative Law Firms, and the National Lawyers Association's Rules for Internal Management of Law Firms, to further improve the articles of association of law firms and partnership (cooperation) agreements; if the content of the articles of association or partnership (cooperation) agreements is adjusted or changed, the relevant procedures must be promptly completed with the competent authorities.

6. Improve the unified case acceptance system. Law firms should unify and standardize the case acceptance and registration system, unify the acceptance of cases, unify the numbering, signing, and management of entrustment and agency contracts, and assign lawyers with corresponding professional capabilities to handle cases; establish a conflict of interest review system, strictly follow the requirements of the Guangdong Provincial Rules for Lawyers to Prevent Conflicts of Interest, improve the case acceptance approval system, avoid conflicts of interest, and conduct computerized management of case acceptance.

7. Improve the unified fee collection system. Law firms should clearly require clients to pay legal service fees directly to the law firm's financial department or through bank transfer to the law firm's account, prohibiting direct payment to individual lawyers or transfer to personal accounts. Fees and case handling fees should be collected uniformly in accordance with the law, uniformly settled with clients, and legal invoices issued and taxes paid in accordance with the law; strictly implement the "Implementation Measures for the Management of Lawyer Service Fees", establish a lawyer service cost accounting system, reasonably collect lawyer service fees, resolutely eliminate lawyers' private fee collection and law firms' illegal fee collection; improve the financial management level and capital operation efficiency of law firms.

8. Improve the management system for seals and special legal service documents. Law firms should clearly define the types, custody, scope of use, and approval procedures for seals, letters, and letters of introduction, and establish an approval and registration system for the use of seals and legal documents of law firms; it is strictly prohibited for law firms to engrave multiple official seals internally or to use seals arbitrarily on blank special legal service documents; and prevent the private engraving and theft of law firm seals.

9. Improve personnel management system. Law firms should establish and improve the system for assessing the morality and ability of lawyers, interns, and administrative support personnel in law firms, as well as the registration and filing system, in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Ministry's regulations and the "Guangdong Provincial Department of Justice's Measures for the Management of Auxiliary Personnel in Law Firms" and the "Guangdong Provincial Department of Justice's Measures for the Management of Interns", standardize and improve the recruitment, dismissal, transfer, promotion, rewards and punishments, welfare treatment, work discipline, and job responsibilities of personnel, and establish a system for reporting and handling abnormal personnel dynamics.

10. Improve the archive management system. Lawyer business archives belong to the law firm and should be managed uniformly by the law firm. Law firms should set up a special archive room and archive cabinets to store various legal document archives; formulate a sound archive management system, strictly follow the procedures and requirements for archive storage, and ensure the integrity and authenticity of various archive materials.

IV. Establishing and Improving the Management Mechanism of Law Firms

11. Improve the democratic management mechanism of law firms. The management of law firms, including directors, partners, and associates, should take the lead in complying with the articles of association of the law firm, strictly abide by the law in fulfilling the agreements of partnership (cooperation), and implement democratic management of the law firm. Improve the partner and associate meeting system, hold regular meetings, and strengthen communication and checks and balances among partners (associates). Implement open management of the firm's affairs, and promptly and comprehensively disclose the law firm's rules and regulations, development plans, financial status, personnel information, and the opinions and requirements of the management department.

12. Establish and improve the implementation mechanism for management responsibilities. Strengthen the awareness of partners' management responsibilities for the law firm, and clarify the division of responsibilities of partners in management. Establish a strong executive body responsible for implementing the resolutions of partner meetings, managing the daily affairs of the law firm, exploring the establishment of a management committee in larger law firms, equipping it with capable personnel, granting corresponding powers, and establishing management authority; in smaller law firms, assign dedicated management personnel for unified management. Uphold strict discipline; anyone in the law firm must abide by management, and individuals cannot override the management of the law firm. Cultivate the law firm's organizational awareness and collective sense of honor and disgrace, and explore the establishment of a management responsibility system and economic reward and punishment measures for implementing management responsibilities and preventing risks.

13. Establish and improve the lawyer education and training mechanism. Law firms should establish and improve the lawyer's professional ethics training system and strive to improve lawyers' professional ethics. Regularly conduct professional ethics education, using case studies of violations, typical demonstrations, activity incentives, and warning education to encourage lawyers to improve their moral standards. Improve the professional ethics supervision mechanism, regularly summarize and inspect the professional ethics performance of lawyers in the firm, and when evaluating lawyers and issuing annual review opinions, include moral character as important content and truthfully reflect it, and be responsible for the relevant opinions. Assign mentoring lawyers to newly practicing lawyers, giving full play to the role of senior lawyers in mentoring and guidance. For newly practicing lawyers and lawyers with negative ideological or behavioral tendencies, the law firm should promptly conduct talks to remind them.

14. Explore and improve the profit distribution mechanism of law firms. Based on the business type, economic foundation, and maturity of the legal service market in the location of the law firm, explore the establishment of a distribution system that is conducive to giving full play to the overall effectiveness of the law firm, conducive to the long-term development of the law firm and lawyers, and conducive to promoting standardized management of the law firm. Actively explore salary systems and other distribution systems based on comprehensive efficiency as assessment indicators, overcome the tendency to prioritize business revenue over management performance, case sources over service quality, and economic benefits over social benefits, and effectively solve the problems of inability to manage, unwillingness to manage, and lawyers' refusal to be managed due to the distribution mechanism.

15. Establish and improve the supervision mechanism of law firms. Law firms should establish a special agency and assign dedicated personnel to regularly inspect and supervise the professional activities of lawyers in the firm. Improve business process management, strengthen supervision of case acceptance, signing, charging, case closure review, and archive filing; establish a business quality control system, and explore the establishment of a document template management system. Actively accept supervision from clients and society, implement the lawyer's practice disclosure system, disclose lawyer service responsibilities, case acceptance, handling, and closure procedures, service standards, and charging standards; implement an informed consent system, and lawyers should proactively inform clients of their basic rights, basic obligations, and complaint channels and procedures before handling cases; establish a return visit system, and after lawyers provide legal services, understand the lawyers' adherence to professional ethics and professional discipline, as well as service quality, through return visits to clients.

16. Establish and improve the punishment mechanism for violations of regulations and discipline. Law firms are the basic units for handling complaints, actively and promptly handling complaint cases, designating a partner to be responsible for handling complaints from the public and parties, patiently explaining to parties with unreasonable demands; those who violate the firm's discipline will be punished according to regulations; for violations of professional ethics and professional discipline, they will be transferred to the competent judicial administrative organs and lawyer associations for investigation and handling. Partners and associates with serious violations of professional ethics and professional discipline will be expelled according to the agreement and articles of association, effectively correcting the problems of few means, ineffective measures, and light penalties for punishing illegal and disciplinary lawyers.

17. Improve the party building mechanism. Improve the party organization construction of law firms. All lawyers who are party members working in law firms should transfer their organizational relations to the party organization of the law firms. When handling the work transfer-in or transfer-out of party member lawyers, law firms must simultaneously transfer party organizational relations. Give full play to the role of party branches as fighting fortresses and the exemplary role of party members, and further consolidate and expand the achievements of the education activities to maintain the advanced nature of Communist Party members.

V. Increase Administrative Supervision and Industry Self-Discipline Management

18. Organize targeted learning and education. All levels of judicial administrative organs, lawyer associations, and law firms should combine the theme practice activities of "legal services and legal aid work serving the construction of a harmonious socialist society," adopt forms that are in line with the actual work of lawyers and are easy for lawyers to accept, and continue to carry out in-depth education on socialist values and socialist rule of law concepts, focusing on the problems and trends in the ranks. The education on values should focus on "five haves," namely, "having ideals, having responsibilities, having credibility, having discipline, and having sentiments." The education on the rule of law concept should focus on establishing "six concepts," namely, the concepts of "loyalty to the Constitution, practicing law according to law, serving the people, honesty and trustworthiness, serving the overall situation, and strengthening party building." The lawyer association should continue to focus on the training of law firm directors and partners and the exchange of management experience, effectively enhancing the management awareness and management level of law firm directors, and at the same time, conduct specialized training on discipline and skills for all employees of law firms according to their job responsibilities.

19. Conduct a major inspection of the management status of law firms and lawyers' professional discipline. In accordance with the requirements of the "Implementation Opinions on the Standardized Construction of Guangdong Lawyer Work" and the "Decision of the Guangdong Provincial Department of Justice on Strengthening the Construction of the Lawyer Team," law firms should conduct self-inspections of their fulfillment of management responsibilities, and conduct investigations into lawyers' professional practices. Judicial administrative organs and lawyer associations should organize major inspections to identify existing problems, formulate rectification measures, and improve system construction. Establish and improve the inspection system of administrative organs and industry associations, combining regular inspections with irregular inspections, combining comprehensive blanket inspections with inspections of key projects and key units, and combining local self-inspections with cross-regional inspections to ensure the effectiveness of inspection work.

20. Strengthen the daily supervision and management of law firms. Judicial administrative organs should re-examine the articles of association and partner (associate) agreements submitted by law firms. Those that do not comply with relevant legal provisions should be ordered to be revised and re-established. Strictly implement the relevant provisions of the "Management Measures for Partnership (Cooperative) Law Firms." If the number of partners (associates) is less than three and cannot be supplemented within three months, the law firm should be ordered to dissolve. Establish a reporting system for law firm directors going out. If a law firm director needs to leave the local area for more than two weeks for reasons other than professional practice, they should submit a written report to the competent judicial administrative organ and designate a temporary person in charge during their absence. Explore the establishment of a talk reminder system for newly added partners in law firms. For newly established law firms or law firms adding new partners, the lawyer management department of the competent judicial administrative organ should conduct talks to remind the relevant partners, understand the basic situation of the law firm and partners, and clarify the management responsibilities of partners. The lawyer association should explore the establishment of a credit evaluation system for lawyers and law firms, issue reminders or warning announcements for potential risks in the management of law firms, and publicly disclose lawyers and other employees with poor records online.

21. Actively accept social supervision. Under the guidance of judicial administrative organs, the Provincial Lawyers Association shall study and formulate model texts for "Articles of Association of Law Firms", "Partnership (Cooperation) Agreements", "Entrustment and Agency Contracts", and "Notice of Client Rights", unifying the formal requirements and essential clauses of documents for use in law firms throughout the province, regulating partnership (cooperation) relationships, and effectively protecting the legitimate rights and interests of clients; all levels of lawyers' associations shall explore the establishment and improvement of a news release system, regularly releasing industry information to the public, reporting on the recent development of the industry, responding to news media reports on lawyers, publicly releasing model texts of entrustment contracts, guidelines and precautions for hiring lawyers, and publishing lists of fake lawyers to ensure the public's right to know and actively accept social supervision.

22. Make full use of modern technological means to strengthen the monitoring of the business operations of law firms. The Provincial Department is about to launch the second phase of the development and construction of the lawyer management platform. The second phase of the lawyer management platform will focus on the theme of integrity building, including monitoring the business operations of law firms and a database of negative information about lawyers and law firms. All levels of judicial administrative organs, lawyers' associations, and law firms should attach great importance to the construction of the lawyer management platform; they should, in accordance with the requirements of the Provincial Department, promptly equip themselves with relevant software and hardware to facilitate the construction of the lawyer management platform; they should actively participate in the lawyer management platform training courses organized by the Provincial Department, striving to ensure that all staff of the management team can proficiently operate the lawyer management platform; they should strictly operate and use the platform in accordance with regulations, maximizing the role of the lawyer management platform in strengthening the management of law firms.

23. Improve the complaint investigation and handling mechanism. The Provincial Department is about to issue "Operating Procedures for Investigating and Dealing with Illegal and Disciplinary Lawyers (Firms)", standardizing and detailing daily investigation and handling work. All levels of judicial administrative organs shall earnestly implement these procedures and assign dedicated personnel to be responsible for the investigation and handling of complaint cases. A target system for tiered handling of complaints should be established, setting hard indicators for complaint investigation and handling, achieving tiered management, tiered responsibility, and tiered handling. When judicial administrative organs and lawyers' associations investigate and handle complaint cases, the director or partner of the law firm shall provide assistance, and complaint cases entrusted by judicial administrative organs and lawyers' associations must be investigated and verified and reported within the prescribed time limit. If a law firm or its lawyers are complained about once within one year and it is verified that the law firm bears management responsibility, the judicial administrative organ shall conduct a supervisory conversation with the director or partner of the law firm; if they are complained about twice and verified to be true, a rectification notice shall be issued to the law firm; if they are complained about three or more times and verified to be true, they shall be listed as key monitoring objects by the competent judicial administrative organ and the lawyers' association, and organized for study and education and comprehensive inspection and supervision.

24. Increase the intensity of administrative penalties and industry sanctions against illegal and disciplinary law firms and lawyers. All levels of judicial administrative organs and lawyers' associations shall earnestly clean up the regulations and rules on administrative penalties and industry sanctions formulated in recent years; those that do not comply with laws and regulations, are not conducive to protecting the legitimate rights and interests of parties concerned, and are not conducive to punishing illegal and disciplinary acts shall be amended or abolished. For acts that violate professional ethics and practice discipline, violate systems, regulations, and laws, and should be subject to administrative penalties and industry sanctions, judicial administrative organs and lawyers' associations shall respectively impose administrative penalties and industry sanctions in accordance with the law, giving full play to the warning effect of administrative penalties and industry sanctions. Increase the intensity of penalties for lawyers privately accepting cases, privately charging fees, privately carving seals, law firms providing services to non-firm lawyers, and using their positions to seek benefits in disputes for clients, among other five categories of cases. An administrative penalty and industry sanction database should be established to unify the management of penalty and sanction information, providing a basis for lawyer licensing, establishment, and annual inspections. Provincial and municipal judicial administrative organs and lawyers' associations shall establish a system for regular reporting, regular summarization, and regular notification of penalty and sanction information, and publicly disclose it to the public through the media when necessary.

VI. Safeguarding Measures

25. Actively respond to emergencies. Emergencies refer to sudden events that affect the normal management and operation of law firms or events with significant social impact that may cause significant negative impacts. All levels of judicial administrative organs, lawyers' associations, and law firms should establish a crisis awareness and establish an emergency mechanism for emergencies. Select capable personnel from relevant business departments to form a leading group to deal with emergencies; formulate work discipline; smooth information channels; establish a reporting system for emergencies; actively and decisively take measures to prevent the situation from further deteriorating, eliminate negative impacts, and resolve crises in a timely manner.

26. Improve the management responsibility system. In accordance with the principle of "whoever is in charge is responsible", judicial administrative organs are responsible for the lawyer work in their localities, and lawyers' associations, in accordance with their industry management responsibilities, bear the management responsibility for their members. If major problems occur in the management of law firms, responsibilities shall be investigated according to the division of responsibilities. All levels of judicial administrative organs may, according to local conditions, adopt measures such as signing responsibility letters with law firms to clarify the scope of responsibilities and responsible persons, and effectively implement the management responsibilities of law firms.

27. Strengthen positive publicity and commendation of the lawyer team. Judicial administrative organs and lawyers' associations shall, in conjunction with the actual situation of local law firm management, formulate scientific evaluation standards, carry out industry commendation activities, and promote a number of advanced examples such as "zero-complaint law firms", "law firms dedicated to public welfare", and "advanced units in legal aid", encouraging law firms to strive for excellence; commend a number of outstanding law firm managers, promoting law firms' attention to management work and management talents; make full use of various media and public opinion tools to publicize the standardized and scientific management of advanced typical law firms, enhancing the sense of honor and mission of law firms. Encourage areas with conditions to formulate scientific and reasonable lawyer industry rating methods, reform the current management model, and explore a tiered management system for law firms.

28. Strengthen management strength and enhance self-construction. All levels of judicial administrative organs should overcome the difficulties of limited staffing and find ways to solve the problem of insufficient personnel in frontline law management departments; select politically reliable, business-savvy, and responsible personnel to strengthen the law management team; further strengthen training for the management team, effectively improving the management level and regulatory efficiency of law management personnel. Further strengthen the self-construction of industry associations, enhance the sense of social responsibility and overall awareness of leaders, directors, and staff of permanent institutions of industry associations, truly establish a just, democratic, and self-disciplined industry self-governing organization, and effectively establish the authority of industry self-discipline management.

June 4, 2007