[author]CISLS
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The 24th Lecture of“Interdisciplinary Salon of Law”organized by The China Iinstitute for Socio-Legal Studies was held successfully
On the afternoon of September 24, the 24th Lecture of “Interdisciplinary Salon of Law” hosted by The China Iinstitute for Socio-Legal Studies of Shanghai Jiao Tong University was successfully held in Room 206, North Quad Building, Xuhui Campus. The topic of the lecture was “Networking of Legal Services and the Career Development of Young Lawyers”, which was delivered by Sida Liu, Professor of the Faculty of Law and Adjunct Professor of the Department of Sociology of the University of Hong Kong. Prof. Cheng Jinhua, Librarian of SJTU and Vice President of The China Iinstitute for Socio-Legal Studies, presided over the salon, and Prof. Ji Weidong, Senior Professor of Liberal Arts of SJTU and President of CALS, delivered an opening speech. Prof. Lin Xifen, Vice Dean of KoGuan School of Law, Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Vice President of The China Iinstitute for Socio-Legal Studies, Prof. Zheng Ge, Co-Director of Planning Committee of KoGuan School of Law, Shanghai Jiao Tong University and The China Iinstitute for Socio-Legal Studies, Prof. Qiu Yaokun, Associate Professor of KoGuan School of Law, Shanghai Jiao Tong University and The China Iinstitute for Socio-Legal Studies, and Mr. Tan Jun, Assistant Researcher of KoGuan School of Law, Shanghai Jiao Tong University and The China Iinstitute for Socio-Legal Studies, took part in the conversation. Prof. Calm, Executive Vice Dean of the School of Foreign Rule of Law, East China University of Political Science and Law, Prof. Yu Xiao, Associate Professor of the School of Philosophy and Law and Politics, Shanghai Normal University, Prof. Dai Liang, Assistant Professor of the School of Economics and Management, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen), and many other teachers and students from universities participated in the talk.
The host, Prof. Cheng Jinhua, welcomed Prof. Liu Sida and briefly introduced the guests.
On behalf of the China Academy of Law and Society, Prof. Ji Weidong expressed his welcome to Prof. Liu Sida and said that Prof. Liu Sida has very in-depth research on the legal profession, and this lecture will also bring us the cutting-edge research trends of the legal profession, and he hoped to take this opportunity to strengthen the exchanges between the research groups of sociology of law of the University of Hong Kong and Shanghai Jiaotong University.
Professor Liu Sida shared his research results on the phases of the topics of “Networking of Legal Services” and “Career Development of Young Lawyers”. He divided the process of legal service networking into four stages: the first stage, lawyers, law firms with the help of the network for publicity and marketing; the second stage, the referee network and other new big data technology to bring significant changes to the lawyer industry; the third stage, the rise and development of the network of legal service platforms for legal services to provide a new channel; the fourth stage, the emergence of the network of push the order of the lawyers industry to impact on. The fourth stage, the rise of net push firms and the impact on the order of the lawyers' profession. Prof. Liu further discussed the challenges faced by young lawyers in their career development in the context of the growth trend of the number of lawyers in China, and put forward a series of practical suggestions. He utilized vivid narrative techniques and combined sociological theories with practical cases to present a fascinating lecture to the audience.
During the conversation phase, Prof. Zheng Ge believed that at a time when sociology is becoming more and more empirical, Prof. Liu Sida is one of the very few sociologists who insist on focusing on theories and is able to incorporate theories into storytelling. Second, Professor Sida provides a good theoretical structure for the analysis of legal services in the age of networkedness from both the temporal and spatial dimensions. Once again, while the quality of legal services will be significantly affected by the networked firms, there are more links behind this issue, which need to be analyzed more deeply.
Prof. Lin Xifen pointed out that Prof. Sida's concerns are very cutting-edge and shared four points from the perspective of legal technology and market competition. Firstly, legal technology has a dispelling effect on the legal profession; secondly, legal technology will lead to more and more competition in the legal profession, and changes in supply and demand may lead to lower and lower prices for legal services. Again, in the context of the Internet, marketing will become an important factor affecting the survival and development of lawyers. Finally, how to achieve quality and efficiency in the context of increased competition in the legal profession is an issue we need to focus on at present.
Associate Professor Qiu Yaokun thought that Professor Liu Sida's sharing was very vivid, combining the theory of sociology of law and concrete examples, and he pointed out that the competitive impact brought by the networkization of legal services should be a continuous change process, and that the networkization of legal services also brings a series of benefits to satisfy the different needs, and that it is worth exploring whether to solve the dilemmas of young lawyers' practice under the impact of the networkization through the regulation or through the market. Regulation is worthy of in-depth discussion.
Assistant Researcher Jun Tan found Professor Liu Sida's lecture extremely inspiring and further analyzed the several stages of the development of networking from the perspective of social demand. He also expressed his views on whether China is also experiencing a contradiction between the over-supply of lawyers and the lack of legal services provided by poor or middle-income earners, whether the impact of networking brings about a decline in the quality of legal services, and how to make use of the Judicial Bureau and the Bureau of Industry and Commerce to strengthen the regulation of management of legal consulting firms and other issues were analyzed.
During the free discussion session, Prof. Ji Weidong pointed out that Prof. Liu Sida used very vivid language as well as an approachable storytelling style to describe the cutting-edge trends of China's lawyers' profession, and prompted the students and young scholars in the audience to pay attention to the theoretical background of the content of this lecture. Prof. Ji Weidong then made an in-depth analysis of the enterprise model of lawyer services versus the free competition market model, the differences in service quality inherent in platform firms and net-push firms, and how the profession of lawyers is differentiating itself in the face of an increase in the number of lawyers.
Prof. Calm introduced the exchange and cooperation between HKU and Shanghai Jiaotong University and East China University of Political Science and Law, and explained the professional managers and knowledge management work of Shanghai law firms, emphasized the stratification phenomenon of law firms and lawyers, and finally suggested that lawyers should pay more attention to the current economic development and take the initiative to connect with the needs of real industry development. In addition, other teachers and students raised questions about the differences between public lawyers in China and the United States, and the rationality of limiting the number of lawyers.
Professor Liu Sida answered the above with the talk and questions, he proposed that the number of lawyers can be limited by reducing the passing rate of the LSAT and other multiple ways, and that the elitism of the legal profession comes from the risk-taking characteristics to a large extent, and the standardization of lawyers' non-litigation business increases the possibility of which the simple work is replaced by the AI, and the litigation business which is difficult to be standardized is on the contrary, more irreplaceable, and more suitable for the Young lawyers.
The lecture was successfully concluded with warm applause.