27 ASIAN LEGAL BUSINESS CHINA • 亚洲法律杂志-中国版 WWW.LEGALBUSINESSONLINE.COM/CHINA development, our offices in Tianjin and Taiyuan have continued to grow in business size and revenue contribution, becoming a new driver for revenue growth in the North China market.” Wang Jing & Co. represents another type of firms on the North China market. It is headquartered in Guangzhou, but out of business considerations, ventured into North China very early on by establishing presence in Tianjin. Guo Xinwei, partner in the Tianjin office of Wang Jing & Co., shares with ALB: “Started out as a maritime and shipping firm, Wang Jing & Co. attaches great importance to its presence in coastal port cities. Tianjin Port being the most important port in North China, the first-generation partners of our firm were active in Tianjin’s maritime and shipping legal services market as early as the 1990s. After years of hard work, the Tianjin office was officially established in 2004. Since its establishment, the Tianjin office has handled many major and complicated maritime and shipping cases locally, building up its competitive edges.” “After the Tianjin office was set up, the firm quickly realized that Tianjin not only has a developed shipping industry, the Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area, which was leading the country on many fronts at that time, is also home to many foreign-invested enterprises. Thanks to a long track record of providing legal services for foreign parties, after several years of hard work, the Tianjin office now boasts dozens of foreign-invested enterprises as stable clients, a crucial pillar of its business,” shares Guo. TIANJIN: GROWING OPPORTUNITIES FOR EXPORT-ORIENTED SERVICES Adjacent to Beijing, Tianjin is an important municipality in North China that is directly under the Central Government. Although its economic volume has always been limited by its size and population, Tianjin boasts many advantages in education, healthcare, transportation and other fields, and it has been working hard to transform these advantages into growth drivers. Having been immersed deeply in the Tianjin market, Guo has keen observations of local economic changes and corresponding new demands for legal services. Looking back on the past few years, he highlights several trends in particular: “First, Tianjin’s financial leasing business has developed tremendously. The China (Dongjiang) Shipping Industry Week, which is built around the financial leasing industry, is already in the fourth iteration this year.” “In recent years, the Tianjin Municipal Government has also proposed the concept of ‘Integrated Development of Port, Industry and City’, and enthusiasm from foreign investors has picked up again. Some signs can be seen from our business. In addition, to support concepts such as green port and smart logistics, Tianjin’s technology industry is also a new area worth paying close attention to.” According to Wen Junqi, member of the management committee of Docvit’s Tianjin office, “with a strong industrial foundation and a solid base for export-oriented economy, Tianjin has attracted a batch of quality domestic and foreign enterprises. In recent years, the city has actively promoted adjustment to its industrial structure and economic transformation and upgrading, and its modern services industry, high-tech industry and advanced manufacturing industry are booming, creating promising market prospect for the legal services industry.” Presently, Docvit has already built up leading advantages in the fields such as human resources compliance, dispute resolution, corporate law, government and State-owned enterprise legal services on the Tianjin market. In particular, “our human resources compliance and labor law practice rank first tier in Tianjin... Serving over 500 entities presently, the team has successfully handled many influential labor dispute cases, and has also successfully advised clients on solutions for areas such as personnel optimization, management compliance, rules development and revision, system construction, and union formation,” says Wen. Speaking of changes in Tianjin over the past few years, Wen also points out that Tianjin has made significant progress in areas such as port economy, international trade and foreign investment. “Tianjin’s port economy has continued to prosper. In particular, the rapid growth of container throughput has contributed to the rise of logistics, warehousing, processing and other port-related industries. In addition, foreign investment has also shown new trends in Tianjin, which also REGIONAL REPORT requires legal services providers to provide more professional and efficient services.” Recently, Docvit’s Tianjin office has provided legal services for many Fortune 500 companies and domestic trade companies such as Australia and New Zealand Wine, Zhong Niang Wine Group, Sun Hope Group and Mega International Trading Group. In this process, Wen notices that companies not only have a higher demand in volume for legal services, but are also putting forward more detailed and specific service requirements which are no longer limited to “trade contract review, maritime and shipping dispute resolution, intellectual property protection, foreign investment compliance review, etc.” SHANXI: ENERGY AND ESG AS NEW GROWTH DIRECTIONS In September 2019, Docvit set up an office in Taiyuan, Shanxi. Wang Xiaojun, director of the management committee of the Taiyuan Office, shares that Docvit brought fresh ideas to Shanxi’s legal services market at that time. “When almost all firms in Taiyuan and even across Shanxi province were using the traditional model, Docvit’s Taiyuan office opted for a new integrated management model which integrates various resources to a greater extent, serves as a reference for a new development direction of law firms, and provides a platform for individual lawyers to develop professionally.” Using this management model, the Taiyuan office has managed to build up strong service capabilities in areas such as government legal services, dispute resolution, and construction engineering in less than five years. According to Wang, “in terms of government legal services, the Taiyuan office has been retained as legal advisor to the Taiyuan Municipal Government and the Wanbolin District Government, and has provided legal services for many key projects of the city. We have also represented administrative departments in charge of housing and urban-rural development and natural resources in administrative lawsuits. In the field of construction engineering, we not only assist State-owned construction enterprises to solve unique problems such as engineering projects, personnel and legacy issues, but also help
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