Quan (Cindy) Xianzhi, Master of Computer Science from Tsinghua University, Master of Laws from Chicago-Kent College of Law, and Doctor of Economic Law (on-the-job) at China University of Political Science and Law, has engaged in many community services, e.g. a former IP expert of the Supreme People's Court, Chairman of Asian region of INTA LRC Committee and AIPLA Global Networking Event, a part-time mentor of China University of Political Science and Law, and director of the Intellectual Property Committee of Beijing Chaoyang Lawyers Association. Quan was awarded the title of "Best IP Barrister of the Year" at the China Intellectual Property Forum. Proficient in Chinese, English and Japanese, she has also been recognized as one of the first batch of foreign-related lawyers by the Ministry of Justice.

As a founding partner of the Long An IP team, Quan leads a team of over 200 professionals. This year, Quan again landed on the ALB China Top 15 Female Lawyers list. She shared with ALB her outstanding achievements, distinctive competitive advantages, and professional insights.

 

ALB: Congratulations on your entry into the 2022 ALB China Top 15 Female Lawyers! What are some of the most memorable moments in your career? What qualities have helped you lead your team better?

Quan (Cindy) Xianzhi, Senior Partner at Long An Law Firm: Looking back on my twenty years of practice, I have kept expanding my scope of professional business, from patent application to litigation, and to diverse IP areas of trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, and technology contracts. I have also kept exploring corporate law and other civil and commercial legal services. As a result, the scope of my team's legal services  has been expanded from IP field to the entire civil and commercial law field.

There are many unforgettable moments in my practice: Long An being awarded as a AAAAA grade (the highest level) patent agency; receiving my first letter of appreciation from a client; managing to get an invalid decision of the TRAB revoked in my first trademark litigation; being promoted to senior partner two years after joining the firm; litigation cases being included by the domestic courts into their typical case lists; addressing the LESI International Conference; being selected as a legal counsel of a large state-owned enterprise; registering a client as a private equity fund manager for the first time; completing the first investment and financing project; representing the first contract dispute case, labor arbitration case and equity dispute case separately; Long An being recognized as the best IP law firm in China... These highlight moments witnessed both my efforts to improve my professional skills and the recognition of my clients and the industry.

The motto of "putting clients, quality, and management first" developed in the early stage is crucial to my career development. Working as a software programmer for five years has gained me experience in project management, quality control and client service. Therefore, I have kept improving the skills in team management, such as how to meet client’s needs, divide labor, manage the project's progress, achieve effective teamwork by understanding the traits of members, and build a strict quality management system, etc. These qualities have prepared me to lead my team toward higher professional goals in multiple fields.

ALB: What core ideas and competitive edges do you think are key to the client’s recognition and market success?

Quan: There are two important things. First, solid professional skills. Only with strong enough professional strength can we truly escort the interests of clients. For example, with our profound understanding of patent law and extensive practical experience, our patent application grant rate is well above the industry average, and the winning rate of  Japan-related patent infringement cases we represent is ranked first among all Chinese  law firms in the statistics of IPHOUSE. This is due to our team's philosophy of placing great emphasis on professional competence and quality of work. Another distinctive service of our team is one-stop IP services. From IP mining to application and from operation to rights protection, everything is put under strict quality management. Take civil and commercial litigation for example. We always have a moot trial to anticipate the opponent‘s claim and formulate a response plan in advance, improving the odds of winning.

Secondly, a keen business acumen. When dealing with contract disputes, tort disputes, equity disputes, etc., we focus not only on the success or failure of that case, but also on the impact of client's future business development. Based on the client's relationship with the other party to the dispute and the client's genuine business needs, we formulate an "overall dispute resolution strategy" to avoid adverse consequences such as "winning the case and losing the market." In our day-to-day legal advisory services, we prepare professionally in advance by anticipating our clients' future legal needs (e.g. data compliance needs of key equipment information processors) in accordance with their business development plans. In this way, we put ourselves in our clients' shoes, consider their business objectives from all angles in order to provide comprehensive solutions and ultimately maximize their interests, which has earned us a reputation and trust in the market.

ALB: Nowadays forward-looking lawyers with LQ are more and more valued by clients. What are their new requirements? How do you adapt to better serve your clients?

Quan: In the course of my practice, I findthat more and more clients are concerned about the impact of future business scenarios (such as metaverse, cloud computing, carbon neutral business, etc.), and will discuss with us potential business risks, looking to find a scenario where legal and business risks are well balanced. This dictates visionary lawyers with a strong legal and business mindset. I believe that lawyers need to be prepared both on the legal and commercial side.

Faced with rapidly changing laws and regulations, we need to keep up with the times by understanding the developments of the legal industry. To understand future business trends and the needs of clients, I participated in the EMBA program of Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business last year. Standing in the client’s shoes and thinking ahead of them, I want to deliver effective legal and business advice beforehand.

In addition, cross-disciplinary and cross-industry skills are necessary for lawyers to provide a full range of quality services. With a close-knit network of professionals across all fields, such as accountants, tax agents and foreign lawyers, we can immediately communicate with our clients to solve their problems from different perspectives.

ALB: What about your professional values and development plan?

Quan: I have always upheld the belief of "standing in the client’s shoes and solving their problems." I will keep working toward my ultimate goal as the most trustworthy lawyer.

For this end, we need to first develop the business on demand, for example, to further improve the IP counseling service solution for listing on the Science and Technology Innovation Board according to the needs of clients. Secondly, we need to strengthen client training and performance publicity, so that any clients with legal service needs can choose competent lawyers, and prevent the phenomenon of "bad money drives out good money". Finally, we will expand our global legal service footprints and improve our foreign-related service capacity to help Chinese enterprises go global. While securing our advantages, we will further seek cooperation with foreign law firms to safeguard Chinese enterprises overseas and foreign enterprises in China.

 

从客户角度出发，提供全面完善的法律服务  ——专访2022 ALB China 十五佳女律师、隆安律师事务所高级合伙人权鲜枝律师 (ZH/EN)

隆安律师事务所高级合伙人权鲜枝律师，清华大学计算机硕士、美国芝加哥肯特法学院法学硕士、中国政法大学经济法在职博士，曾任最高人民法院知识产权案例基地专家，现任国际商标协会INTA法制委员会亚洲区主席、美国知识产权协会AIPLA GNE亚洲区主席、中国政法大学兼职导师、北京朝阳律协知识产权专业委员会主任等社会职务。同时，权律师获评强国知识产权论坛“最佳年度知产大律师”称号，精通中英日语的她也是司法部首批全国千人涉外律师之一。

作为隆安知识产权团队的创始合伙人之一，权律师带领着逾200人的专业团队屡创佳绩。今年，权律师更是再次登上2022 ALB China 十五佳女律师榜单，向ALB分享了她在专业领域的亮眼成绩、独特的竞争优势，以及深耕法律领域的职业心得。

 

ALB：权律师，恭喜您上榜2022 ALB China十五佳女律师榜单！回首过往职业生涯，有哪些您难忘的高光时刻？在您看来，哪些特质帮助您更好地带领团队发展？

隆安律师事务所高级合伙人权鲜枝律师：执业以来，我的业务范围在不断扩展：从专利申请到诉讼，从专利到商标、著作权、商业秘密、技术合同的知识产权全域服务，从知识产权领域到公司法和其它民商法领域的法律服务，由0到1的实战经验将我们团队的法律服务范围从专利领域扩展到整个民商法领域。

在过去20年的职业生涯里，有很多难忘的时刻：当隆安被评为5A级专利代理机构时、当收到专利客户发来的感谢函时、当第一次代理商标诉讼就成功撤销了商评委的无效决定时，当工作两年即被破格提拔为高级合伙人时，当代理的诉讼案子入选全国知识产权法院经典案例时，当在LESI国际大会上做专题发言时，当入选大型国企法律顾问单位时，当成功办理私募基金管理人登记时、当第一次完成投融资项目时、当成功代理合同纠纷案、劳动仲裁案、股权纠纷案、保险案件时、当隆安荣列“中国知产律所“综合排名第一时……这些高光时刻既见证了我努力提高业务水平的过程也见证了客户和业界对我努力成果的认可。

在我看来，我早期的职业经历帮我养成了“重客户、重质量、善管理“的特质。从清华大学计算机系毕业后， 五年的程序员工作使我有机会接触项目经理和客户经理的岗位，为我在项目管理、质量把控与客户服务方面打下了良好的基础。因此，如何了解客户需求、如何分工，如何把控项目进度，如何把握成员特质，使其在业务和性格上打好配合，如何建构严格的质量管理体系等，都是我在团队建设当中尤为自豪且在不断精进的方面。这种特质为我带领团队在各个法律领域攀登专业高峰奠定了良好的基础。

ALB：在您看来，怎样的核心理念和竞争优势是您获得客户认可及市场成功的关键？

权鲜枝律师：对我个人而言，想要获得客户的认可与市场的成功，最重要的有两大方面。第一，扎实的专业力。只有具备足够强大的专业实力才能真正为客户的利益保驾护航。例如，凭借我们对专利法的深刻理解和丰富的实践经验，我们的专利申请授权率远远高于业界平均水平，我们代理的涉日专利侵权案件在知产宝的统计中名列全国律所胜诉率第一。这跟我们团队极其重视专业能力和工作质量的理念密不可分。例如，知识产权领域的一条龙服务是我们团队的一大特色。从最初的挖掘到申请，从运营到维权，我们都有严格的质量管理体系来把关每一步的工作。再以民商事诉讼为例，每次开庭前我们都预备了模拟法庭，通过对对方的预判而提前做好预案，从而进一步提高胜诉率。

第二，敏锐的商业洞察力。例如，在处理合同纠纷、侵权纠纷、股权纠纷等时，我们不仅关注该案件的成败，更关注的是该案件对客户未来商业发展的影响。根据客户与纠纷对方的关系、客户的真正商业需求，制定 “整体纠纷解决策略“，避免出现 “打赢官司、输掉市场“等不利后果。在日常法律顾问服务中，我们会根据客户的商业发展计划，预测客户未来的法律需求（比如关键设备信息处理者的数据合规需求），提前做好专业准备。这样，站在客户的立场，从客户商业目的出发、全方位考虑问题才能提供全面解决方案，最终为客户争取最大化的权益，我们也因此赢得了市场口碑与客户信任。

ALB：如今，客户愈发看重律师的前瞻能力和法商思维，您认为当下客户对律师提出了哪些新要求？您如何适应这些转变，以更好地为客户提供优质服务？

权鲜枝律师：我在执业过程中，越来越多的客户在要求我们针对公司未来业务场景（比如元宇宙、云服务、碳中和业务等）分析法律风险的同时，希望我们给出能够平衡法律风险和商业风险的建议。这就要求我们律师要有足够的前瞻能力和法商思维。为此，我认为在法律和商业方面，律师都需要做好准备。

首先，在法律方面，面对变化日新月异的法律法规，律师首先需要了解相关法律的未来走向并保持业务的先进性。其次，在商业方面，要了解未来的商业趋势，洞悉客户可能出现的商业需求。去年我专门考取了长江商学院的EMBA班，以期能够跟客户站在同样的起跑线上，甚至能够比客户看得更远，进一步提高从法律和商业两个维度为客户提前建言献策的能力。

此外，为更好地提供全方位优质法律服务，我们配备了会计师、税务师以及外国律师等其他领域或法域的合作专家服务网，力争从法商各个角度及时为客户排忧解难。

ALB：展望未来，您有着怎样的职业理念与发展规划？

权鲜枝律师：展望未来，“从客户立场出发 、真正为客户解决问题”是我一贯的职业理念，“成为客户最值得信赖的律师”则是我的最终发展目标。

为此，首先是业务领域要做到按需发展，例如，根据客户的需求，进一步完善科创板知识产权辅导服务方案；其次是加强客户培养和业绩宣传，让有法律服务需求的客户能够选择有实力的律师，防止出现 “劣币驱逐良币“的现象；最后则是全球网络的布局，进一步加强涉外业务，与国外律所合作配合，为中国企业在海外的发展、外国企业在中国的发展保驾护航。