Chinese law firms, aware of the tough competition ahead now that China is a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), are making all-out efforts to raise their service level to meet international standard.
With that WTO entry last month, foreign law firms can expect more access to the nation's huge legal services market because China vowed to lift many foreign law firm restrictions a year after accession.
"The biggest difference between Chinese and foreign law firms lies in the quality of their legal service," said Wu Mingde, vice-director of the Lawyers' Management Department under the Ministry of Justice.
Most of the nation's 9,000 law firms are small in scale and loosely managed. Many of these firms are learning that they need better management with effective means of evaluating and motivating employees to ensure high-level legal services.
One way is to introduce the management system standards of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
Beijing's L & A Law Firm, for instance, passed the ISO9002 quality assessment last month after China's WTO accession.
ISO9002 is a well-known series of standards related to quality management that senior managers use to improved performance.
"It will help us improve management and deduce risks in doing business," said lawyer Xu Jiali, a leading partner of that law firm.
Two other domestic firms, one in east China's Shandong Province and another in southwest China's Sichuan Province, passed the ISO9002 quality assessment last year.
"It is not necessarily the only way to improve service quality," said Liu Guiming, editor-in-chief of the Chinese Lawyer, a monthly magazine. "But it is at least an indication that some Chinese lawyers have come to realize that quality of service is a lifeline in competition."
(China Daily January 3, 2002)
