Beijing lawyers break through barrier
By Liu Li (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-06-14 05:59

Beijing licensed its 10,000th practising lawyer yesterday, marking the first Chinese city to break the milestone.

Seven in 10,000 Beijing residents are lawyers. "The highest among Chinese cities, the ratio is up to the standard of moderately developed countries," Dong Chunjiang, division chief of the Lawyer Supervision Department under the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Justice, said yesterday at a press conference.

"The development of lawyers based in Beijing is really amazing. There were only 19 lawyers in 1979 when China resumed the current law system after the 'cultural revolution.'"

He attributed the industry's rapid development to judicial advances and economic development in the country during the past 26 years.

And it is not expected to let up in the years ahead. Chen Qingning, a grade 2 postgraduate student in the Law School at Peking University, said yesterday, "I expect that there will be more severe competition in the lawyers' industry when I graduate."

He said he wants to practise law in Beijing after graduation next year.

Many Chinese universities with technology institutes have added law departments in recent years.

"I am afraid that employment of law graduates will be negatively influenced," Chen said. "More and more law students will go into the market even though there already are so many lawyers," he said.

Chen said being a lawyer in Beijing is a popular career choice among his schoolmates.

"Commonly, lawyers based in Beijing enjoy better pay and reputations than those working in other regions," he said.

Dong, the lawyer supervision official, agreed that as the country's political and cultural centre, Beijing attracts many talented people from throughout the country.

He pointed out, however, that among the practising lawyers registered in Beijing, one-third have no permanent residence in the city.

"This indicates many are rushing to Beijing, making the number of lawyers in the capital reach 10,000 today," Dong said yesterday.

Beijing has 892 law firms, including 757 local ones, 55 branches of companies in other regions and 80 offices of firms from abroad and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

Geng Jingyi, vice-director of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Justice, said yesterday that more management and service functions would be transferred to the municipal lawyers' association.

(China Daily 06/14/2005 page3)

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