Shanghai's Pudong New Area steps up efforts to build an international legal service center

Shanghai Pudong New Area has been ramping up efforts to improve its foreign-related legal services, aiming to better support the city's high-level opening-up, as well as local businesses' international expansion.

File photo: China Daily

Over the years, Pudong has seen remarkable achievements in its legal framework and regulatory innovation. Centered on key sectors such as biomedicine, international shipping, and commercial mediation, dozens of regulations and management measures for Pudong New Area have been established as of September.

Among them, more than 20 are related to foreign-related affairs. They primarily focus on enhancing the facilitation of international trade, promoting institutional opening-up, and improving the quality of foreign-related legal services. These efforts were made to continuously fill institutional gaps in specific domestic sectors, and establish a foreign-related legal framework aligned with international standards, according to the Pudong New Area Judicial Bureau.

In the commercial mediation sector, Shanghai enacted the nation's first provincial-level regulation governing commercial mediation, and established the country's first commercial mediation organization to be registered and assigned a code by the judicial administrative authorities. Moreover, the nation's first foreign-related case in which a commercial mediator independently conducted mediation was successfully concluded in this area, further expanding the institutional scope of commercial mediation.

The bureau also introduced a slew of talent policies to cultivate legal professionals and grow a legal service cluster in the area. Shanghai's first Shanghai-Hong Kong partnership law firm was established in Pudong, and the city's first foreign legal advisor was appointed following the implementation of new hiring regulations. Such moves effectively helped break down pre-existing barriers to practice, providing companies with one-stop, cross-jurisdictional services that are based in Shanghai and extend globally.

To date, Pudong has clustered a number of globally influential international organizations and diverse legal institutions — including judicial adjudication, notary services, legal technology, and out-of-court restructuring — offering companies one-stop access to comprehensive international legal services.

Meanwhile, as more Chinese companies are expanding globally with their products, brands, technologies, and industrial chains, the area is actively aligning international legal offerings to safeguard their cross-border operations.

Currently, Pudong's free trade zone is home to 11 joint offices of Chinese and foreign law firms, more than 30 representative offices of foreign law firms, and 36 overseas branches established by 11 domestic law firms. Together, they provide enterprises settled in the area with cross-jurisdictional, one-stop international legal services.

Additionally, the area is making continuous efforts in connecting local businesses with global quality legal services, while offering various training courses on cross-border trade compliance, counter-sanctions measures, cross-border intellectual property protection, and more.

Huang Aiwu, director of the Pudong New Area Judicial Bureau, noted that standing at the front line of the nation's reform and opening-up, Pudong is relentlessly exploring ways to promote institutional innovations, clustering high-end resources, empowering overseas expansion, and attracting global talents.

"Pudong remains unwavering in its commitment to Shanghai's construction of an international legal service center," Huang said. "The area is actively upgrading its foreign-related legal services, aiming to contribute its experience and practices to the city's and the nation's high-level opening up."