Escort ＂Going Global＂ Beijing Law Firms in Action - Russian Sentiment of DHH Law Firm Moscow Office on the Road of Foreign-Related Legal Services
Release time：2019-12-12 14:42
Located on the banks of the Moscow River, the Moscow Federal Tower is the tallest skyscraper in Europe where you can overlook Moscow including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Building, Moscow University, Cultural People's Apartment and Kremlin. It is also the place of origin and development of DHH Law Firm Moscow Office where a group of busy Chinese and Russian legal personnel works.
With the "Belt and Road" initiative, more and more Chinese enterprises choose to “go global”into familiar but also strange place where they begin a new endeavor. However, legal services, as the basic guarantee of investment in Russia, has been long ignored. In the construction of the“Belt and Road”initiative, the Russia-related legal needs arose and would continue to grow. As a law firm with responsibility and sentiment, Beijing DHH Law Firm has made its footsteps of internationalization into the "uncultivated land" of foreign-related legal service.
As a leading law firm in foreign-related business in Beijing, DHH Law Firm has been paying close attention to the Chinese enterprise's investment in Russia. In 2013, it established a representative office in Moscow. In 2015, in response to the national "Belt and Road" initiative and to safeguard the economic construction of China and Russia, DHH Law Firm decided to set up a branch office under its direct management and operations in Moscow. On October 9, 2015, representatives of overseas Chinese participated in the opening ceremony held at the old Ukrainian Grand Hotel. Professors of the Moscow University Law School, heads of Russia-China magazines, representatives of the Russian legal profession, representatives of the Chinese Embassy in Russia and representatives of enterprises and other representatives from various sectors of the community attended the ceremony and witnessed the start of DHH’s journey across the Russian market.
However, the journey was not smooth. The first challenge DHH had to face is the shortage of Russian legal talent. After the establishment of the DHH Law Firm Moscow Office, DHH focused on attracting Chinese and Russian legal talents, recruiting Chinese lawyers and senior Russian lawyers in Moscow. The dual talent structure enables resident lawyers to work closely with domestic business teams, so as to "seamlessly" provide Sino-Russian legal services to clients. Despite all the difficulties, the DHH Law Firm has achieved remarkable results over the past four years. In 2016, All China Lawyers Association actively promoted the overseas branches of Chinese law firms to provide legal services to Chinese consulates abroad. With the support of the Ministry of Justice, All China Lawyers Association and Beijing Lawyers Association, DHH served as a pilot unit and eventually after an exhaustive, careful examination became the long-term legal adviser for Chinese Embassy in Russia. DHH Law Firm Moscow Office has provided comprehensive and professional legal services to the business office, education office and consular office of Chinese Embassy in Russia. Former Ambassador Li Hui, Minister Jingyuan Li, Minister Jian Sun of Chinese Embassy in Russia, Vice Ministers Zhenyu Liu and Dacheng Zhao of the Ministry of Justice of China have also conducted in-depth research talks at DHH Moscow Law Firms on multiple occasions.
Professionalism and Concentration
With the support and trust of Chinese and Russian clients and legal personnel, DHH has been involved in enhancing the Russian legal market and the development of Russia-related business of DHH Law Firm relies on the professionalism and concentration of the DHH people.
DHH Moscow Office is the first and only Chinese-owned legal service entity established in Russia. The legal team consists of a number of senior Russian lawyers and senior Chinese lawyers with Russian legal study experience or overseas work background. The team is able to provide full spectrum of legal services to Chinese enterprises going into Russia and Russian enterprises entering China under the “Belt and Road”initiative in Chinese, Russian, English and other languages. Practice areas cover the compliance management and risk management of investment projects in Russia, establishment of companies in Russia, trust, M&A of Russian enterprises, due diligence and recommendation of partners, daily legal consulting and contract review, sanctions and anti-sanctions review, protection of intellectual property rights of Chinese enterprises in Russia, legal affairs of Russian customs, legal support for real estate and construction projects, commercial dispute litigation, international commercial arbitration, and training and compliance process design of the law of the Russian Federation, etc. Major clients include state-owned enterprises, central enterprises and private enterprises that engage in Russian-related business in banking, aviation, construction, automobile, import and export, machinery manufacture, and media, etc.
The law firm’s Russia-related business has been extensively recognized by the industry due to its professionalism and concentration. At the first awarding ceremony for Excellent Legal Service Projects under the Belt and Road Initiative and the High-end Forum on Legal Services under the Belt and Road Initiative in 2018, Beijing DHH Law Firm won three awards of Excellent Legal Service Projects under the Belt and Road Initiative for its successive achievements in Russian business, and was named one of the "Top 100 International Brands of Beijing Business Service Industry in 2019" on the list of innovative brands and international brands in the business service industry of Beijing in 2019.
In order to improve the ability to provide legal services to Chinese enterprises, with the strong support of the Chinese Embassy in Russia and China General Chamber of Commerce in Russia, DHH Moscow Office led the establishment of the Legal Industry Branch of China General Chamber of Commerce in Russia. The legal branch is the first Sino-Russia Lawyers Union, comprising of nearly 300 Chinese and Russian lawyers from 12 Chinese and Russian law firms. The Legal Branch also has an expert advisory committee, which includes 13 senior professors and scholars, including Ping Jiang, Sibao Shen, Daoxiu Huang, Shaohu Luan and presidents and vice-presidents of Moscow State University Law School, St. Petersburg University Law School and People’s Friendship University of Russia law school, who are able to carry out special research on the difficult legal issues encountered by Chinese enterprises in investing in Russia and safeguard the overseas investment of Chinese enterprises.
The Russian business team has also held and participated in a number of large academic forums, such as the "Pioneer Forum on Investment in Russia and Legal Service Cooperation", "St. Petersburg International Youth Legal Forum", "Annual Meeting of the Russian Constitution", "Russian Far East Economic Forum", "3rd and 4th St. Petersburg Russia-China Business Forum", "Symposium of the Consular Department of the Embassy on Market Transformation and Development" and "China-Russia-Mongolia Economic Corridor Legal Service Forum" etc., where they shared knowledge and inspired each other through exchange.
With the support of the Chinese Embassy in Russia and the China General Chamber of Commerce, taking advantage of the "Moscow DHH China Law Center" , "St. Petersburg DHH China Law Center" and the Legal Branch, DHH has organized a number of large-scale free legal training activities in Moscow and St. Petersburg for the heads and managers of Chinese enterprises in Russia. These projects aim to improve the level of legal investment and compliance of Chinese enterprises' in Russia, prevent commercial risks and achieve sustainable development. More than 130 entrepreneurs from over 70 Chinese enterprises in Russia participated in the training activities in different forms and received warm response from the heads and managers of the Chinese enterprises.
Social Responsibility
Recalling the shortage of Chinese and Russian legal talent that DHH Moscow Office faced at the beginning of its establishment, DHH people know the great importance of talent training and reserve for an industry or even a country's development of foreign-related legal services. High-level professionals promote the professionalization of Russia-related business. As a law firm with social responsibility, DHH is making continuous efforts to develop talents.
In July 2017, the Education Office of the Chinese Embassy in Russian signed the “Cooperation Agreement on the Training of Legal Talents and the Provision of Public Interest Legal Services for Chinese Students in Russia”；in November，2017，Shaohu Luan, Chairman of the Board of Partners, and Vladimir, the President of People’s Friendship University of Russia, signed the agreement on "Joint Training of Russian and Chinese Legal Talents" in the president’s office; in 2018, Beijing DHH Law Firm and the School of International Studies of China University of Political Science and Law officially established the "China-Russia High-Level Legal Talent Training Base"; in June 2019, during the 23rd St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, we signed the "Agreement on Joint Training of Chinese Lawyers and Chinese Legal Personnel to Serve the Belt and Road Initiative" with the Northwest Branch of the Russian Institute of International Economic and Administrative Management; and also in June, Beijing DHH Law Firm and the Association of Russia Students in China and Union of Chinese Students in Russia signed an agreement on building a "Russian Student Internship Base" in Beijing and Moscow respectively, focusing on training legal personnel and building a bridge for Sino-Russian legal services.
"My Motherland and I can never be divided. No matter where I go, there is always a song of praise for her". This is a song from Moscow, thousands of miles away, sung by Chinese and Russian legal people for the 70th anniversary of their motherland. Besides, they actively participated in the restoration of the site of 6th Congress of the Communist Party of China and activities organized by local patriotic organizations such as the Union of Overseas Chinese in Russia and China Council for the Promotion of Peaceful National Reunification in Russia and demonstrated the social responsibility of Chinese lawyers in different ways.
With the belief of "where the enterprise goes, where the law goes" , DHH people came to Russia, a familiar but also strange country, cultivated and developed, exploited the new land of foreign legal services. We firmly believe that our professionalism and concentration as well as our commitment to our mission will melt this country of "ice and snow".
Media Report:
● "Escort "Going Global" Beijing Law Firms in Action - Russian Sentiment of DHH Law Firm Moscow Office on the Road of Foreign-Related Legal Services" 2019-12-07 Beijing Lawyers Association