Some Experiences of Being the Director of a Law Firm -- Wang Guangren's Speech at the Training Course for Directors of Law Firms in the Province

Leaders and colleagues:
Hello, everyone! Today, in the face of many elite lawyers in the province, I am really nervous about how to be a good director of a law firm. When I was a lawyer in 1980, I was determined to be a good lawyer. I worked hard for 20 years and achieved a little success. When I was the director of a law firm in 1988, I was determined to be a good director, bring out an excellent team of lawyers, and create a famous law firm, but this wish is still far from it, and I am deeply ashamed. The director's experience of more than ten years includes the hardships of starting a business from scratch, the joy of first success, and the frustration of setbacks. However, the belief of "treating lawyers as a career" has always inspired me and made me so far. I have not given up the pursuit of this goal. In June last year, under the guidance and care of the leaders of the ministries and agencies, our institute, as a pilot for the restructuring of state-owned assets in the province, took the lead in transforming into a partnership lawyer's office as a whole, radiating new vigor and vitality. After the transformation, the whole institute unifies its thinking, does not turn to the reform and transformation, seizes the opportunity for great development, defines the goal, formulates measures, and makes concerted efforts to start a second business. At present, the morale of the whole institute is high, the team is growing, the market is expanding, and the management is at a higher level. In the first half of this year, compared with the same period last year, the volume of business and fees have nearly doubled, showing a good momentum of development.
Let's talk about some of my experiences as a director and communicate with you. Please correct me.
1. should have a sense of mission and responsibility
To do a job, only when you realize its true meaning and value, will you be willing to do it sincerely, and will do everything possible to do it well. The same is true for the director of a law firm. Only when we realize that being a director is a kind of trust and expectation, a kind of mission and responsibility, can we shoulder this burden and do a good job. In this regard, I am deeply educated and inspired by my old director, Mei Yongxiang, who is known as the "first lawyer in Qilu. Director Mei was an old lawyer in the 1950 s. He was treated unfairly in 57 years. It can be said that the lawyer's experience was humiliation and pain for him. But when the lawyer system was restored 20 years later, he returned to the post of lawyer without hesitation and actively established the Jinan City Legal Advisory Office. At that time, Director Mei was 50 years old, but he was so dedicated and dedicated to his work, so patient and subtle training of our young people who knew nothing about the law at that time, and the monthly salary at that time was only a few tens of yuan. In doing so, Director Mei, I think, is by no means pursuing the development of official career or the enjoyment of money. What he wants is his love for the cause of lawyers; what he wants is to live up to the great trust of the party organization; what he wants is the growth of the younger generation, and what he wants is the development of the cause of lawyers and the soundness of democracy and the legal system. We should learn from the spirit of the older generation of lawyers and regard being a director as a responsibility and a mission. Only in this way can we devote ourselves wholeheartedly and be intoxicated; face difficulties and challenges without fear; experience setbacks and grievances, without complaint or regret.
In the face of the unprecedented development of the lawyer industry and the increasingly severe challenges and competition, especially the accession to the WTO is approaching, our lawyers themselves still have serious problems in their practice concepts, professional quality, institutional scale, management level and social image. Adapt. For the development of the cause of lawyers, in order to make lawyers an important force in the construction of democracy and legal system, lawyers must move towards the lives of the masses, must move towards economic construction, must move towards the political arena, and play their due role in various fields. Compared with the 1. two hundred years of history of the lawyer system in developed capitalist countries, we have only 20 years. Therefore, in a certain sense, our generation of lawyers are pioneers and paving stones of the lawyer industry. We should, with the spirit of "the day will come down to the people of this country", bravely shoulder heavy burdens, strive to be a good director, and make due contributions to the development of the lawyer career in New China.
Recently, I made a recruitment revelation, the title is "invite to join". The content is that after the transformation, Zhongcheng Renhe Law Firm is full of vigor and vitality, and the development ideas established with "world vision and strategic thinking" and the implementation of the four projects of brand, market, management, and team will surely be innovative and brilliant. We believe in being a lawyer first, and starting a business requires more dedicated people. We pursue youth to shine in starting a business, and life to sublimate in dedication. We sincerely invite like-minded people to join us, share the hardships and joys of hard work and starting a business, and become pioneers of the lawyer career. This recruitment revelation fully illustrates our pursuit of the lawyer's career. I think that if every director of our law firm has such a pursuit, our lawyer career will certainly develop rapidly.
2. should think hard and think out ideas.
Chairman Mao once said that when a leader is to give ideas, the second is to use cadres. Ideas are ideas. Only when there is ideas can there be a way out and twice the result with half the effort. A director of a institute cannot be busy with business all day, nor can he be bogged down in everything. We must be diligent in thinking, according to the situation, combined with the specific conditions of the local firm, formulate practical and practical development ideas, and truly be the helm of the development of the lawyer firm.
When our institute was established in 1988, there were only four people with weak strength and little business. According to the situation at that time and the specific situation of the institute, I formulated the development idea to open up the situation: that is, in politics, put the firm and correct political direction in the first place; Take "unity, hard work, development, and dedication" as the style; take "high-level, high-quality, high-efficiency, and export-oriented" as the direction. In terms of business development, we adopted the strategies of "grasping the leader, leading the system", "building the network and creating the situation", and quickly established legal advisory relationships with more than 30 government ministries, commissions, offices and bureaus in the form of free legal advisers, and then extended to enterprises through these units, which quickly opened up the situation and occupied a considerable legal service market, at that time, it was dubbed the "enclosure movement" by its peers ". To this day, we have benefited from this development. After that, our institute constantly put forward new development ideas according to the situation; in 1992, it took the lead in implementing benefit wages; in 1994, it implemented one institute, two systems; in 1995, it proposed that "spiritual civilization and material civilization should be grasped with both hands, and social and economic benefits should be harvested". These ideas have strongly promoted the rapid development of the institute, which has developed into a large-scale and well-known institute in a relatively short period of time, and was rated as the first batch of provincial civilized law firms at the end of 1996.
What needs to be mentioned in particular is that as the director of the institute, we must consider the issue of reform. Reform is the driving force and the vitality of a lawyer's development. Now that we are about to join the WTO, we need to develop towards specialization, scale, and industrialization, and the lawyer system needs to achieve comprehensive innovation. We have been stagnant for 4. five years after 1996 because of obstacles to reform. Therefore, a desired development must continue to reform and innovate in accordance with the situation and create new mechanisms that adapt to the development of the situation. Of course, no matter how the lawyer system is changed, the purpose of serving the people wholeheartedly cannot be changed, and the provision of high-quality legal services to the society cannot be changed at all. At the beginning of last year, when we finally took the big step of overall transformation, we immediately put forward the development idea of "reform and transformation without turning, seize the opportunity for great development", made the development plan of "laying the foundation in one year, developing in two years, and creating a great cause in three years", formulated a goal of striving for the establishment of ministerial level civilization, And fully implement four projects -- brand engineering, market engineering, management engineering, team engineering.
Brand Engineering: Brand is a huge intangible asset of a institute. The implementation of brand engineering is to establish a good social image of Zhongcheng Institute, start Zhongcheng Institute's brand, create brand with image, and promote development with brand.
Market Engineering: A measure of a firm's competitiveness is its legal services market share. As the director of the Institute, we should not only consider a specific case, but also try to grasp the whole legal service market. The implementation of the market project is to consolidate and tap the potential of the existing market, constantly open up new markets, form the legal service market pattern of the Institute, and focus on sustainable long-term development. Our institute has actively established 100 key consulting units, based in Jinan, facing Shandong, and striving to go out and open up new legal service markets.
Management engineering: management includes team management, quality management, customer management, financial management, file management, daily behavior management and other aspects, which is an important guarantee for sustainable long-term development. As the director of the institute, he must work hard on management. At present, our institute will invest 300000 yuan to update equipment, improve conditions and realize scientific and modern management. According to the development of the new situation, we should formulate an all-round control system for the quality of practice, and compile the work manual of law firms, so as to institutionalize, proceduralize and standardize all kinds of work.
Team engineering: talent is fundamental, a need to develop, the key lies in the team to grow and improve the quality of lawyers. While actively recruiting talents, we should take various forms to rapidly expand the team of lawyers.
In order to ensure the realization of the goal, we decided to take ten guarantee measures. We re-elected the party branch, improved the trade union, and the league branch; strengthened political and ideological work, strengthened the construction of professional ethics and practice discipline; invited professors from the municipal party school to give lectures on the "Three Represents" and how to practice the "Three Represents" Great discussion, give full play to the vanguard and exemplary role of party members; trade unions and league branch organizations once again donated 10000 yuan to Pingyin Ligou Township Primary School to help out-of children, donate 15000 yuan every year to Niubao Township Middle School in Shanghe County, the poverty alleviation unit of the bureau, to set up an excellent gardener award, etc.
The above-mentioned ideas and measures have achieved good results, enabling all lawyers to clarify the direction, invigorate their spirits, boost their morale, and promote team building and business development. Therefore, the director should think hard, learn from the advanced, master it thoroughly, and figure out his own ideas, so as to invigorate and do a good job.
3. must be willing to bear hardships and be happy and dedicated.
To be a director of a law firm, one must have the ability, be willing to bear hardships and be responsible. The director of the institute should consider development ideas, manage, develop business, coordinate internal and external relations, train and guide young lawyers, attend many meetings, and set an example everywhere. This will inevitably delay a lot of personal time and energy, affecting personal business and income, which requires the director to have dedication. I often say that when you are a cadre, you can't judge a hero by being an official, and when you are a lawyer, you can't judge a hero by earning money. A lawyer is not a good director even though he is highly competent, but he is bent on personal considerations. To be a good director, one must be prepared to suffer losses and be willing to sacrifice some personal interests for the development of the lawyer's career and the interests of the whole institute. Only in this way can the director have prestige and charisma. Only in this way can there be cohesion and combat effectiveness. Of course, this kind of loss is also relative. If the law firm is built and the brand is launched, the benefits of the whole firm will go up. Will personal income also rise?
4. should learn more and be good at business.
The law firm is a highly operational unit, and these businesses are constantly evolving and changing. As a director, one must have a sense of urgency to update one's knowledge, keep up with the development of the times, and always have a sense of crisis of being eliminated. I often tell young lawyers that if I have not been eliminated or outdated so far, it is because I am always worried that I will be eliminated and outdated. When the director can't get caught up in the hustle and bustle of everything, he must make time and energy to study. I have ordered more than a dozen legal publications myself. No matter how busy I am, I will set time for myself to study. I often tell the young lawyers in the institute: "often go home to see, honor your parents; often go to the bookstore to update your knowledge". For a director, updating knowledge is not only the need of personal business, but also the need of the development of the office. It is difficult to guide other lawyers without improving their own business, and it is difficult to improve the overall level of the whole institute. As a director, he should be diligent in learning, constantly improve his professional level, strive to become an expert in a certain lawyer profession, and lead the lawyers of the whole institute to consciously improve their professional quality and case handling ability, so as to promote the improvement of the service quality of the whole institute.
5. should attach importance to culture and take good care of it.
To be attractive, cohesive and combat effective, a firm should not only rely on good operation mechanism, management mode, distribution mechanism and good economic benefits, but also rely on the common practice concept and values of the whole group. This is the real basis for a unit to form a team. To form a common practice concept and values, we must attach importance to and strengthen cultural construction. The culture of a lawyer's firm is the comprehensive embodiment of the overall thought, idea, emotion, sentiment, spirit, civilization and so on. In a certain sense, it is the core competitiveness of a firm.
As the director of the lawyer's office, we must first firmly establish the correct practice concept and value concept, set an example, practice by example, actively advocate, do a good job in the cultural construction of the institute, and form the common practice concept and value concept of the whole group. Over the years, our institute has conscientiously carried out cultural construction centered on the concept of "treating lawyers as careers" and achieved good results. I insist on reform without turning, not discouraged in the face of setbacks, and still maintain high morale and unremitting pursuit. It is very important that the whole institute has a common practice concept and values.
A lawyer is a career, and the significance of a career lies in dedication. To this end, we propose to "always maintain the spirit of professionalism and safeguard the interests of clients everywhere", and actively advocate that lawyers should love the cause of lawyers and devote themselves to this cause. Lawyers are a career, and the career depends on everyone working together. To this end, we put forward "one family, one mind, one strength", vigorously promote team spirit, fight the world together, and give full play to the overall advantages.
A lawyer is a noble cause, and a noble cause needs noble men. To this end, we put forward "to be a lawyer, to be a man first" and "a lawyer to be a model for the construction of spiritual civilization". According to the requirements of Director Liang of the Provincial Department of Justice, to be a "teacher of law, a teacher of civilization, a teacher of justice, and a teacher of the law", and adhere to the "spiritual civilization and material civilization with both hands, and a bumper harvest of social and economic benefits". Direction.
Lawyer career is a rigorous career, the need for a high degree of responsible spirit. To this end, we propose that "being responsible to the law, to the country, and to the parties is the greatest responsibility to ourselves" and "we are pursuing excellence and perfection in every business". For 13 years my institute has maintained a record of zero complaints.
Lawyers are an emerging career. We must develop and work hard. For this reason, we propose the style of "unity, hard work, development, and dedication", and advocate "dare to be the first and strive to be first-class". Today, these practice concepts and values have been integrated into the culture of Zhongcheng Institute and are closely linked to the development of Zhongcheng Institute. No matter how they develop and change, these ideas of Zhongcheng Institute will not change; no matter what difficulties and challenges we face, these ideas and spirits are the foundation to ensure our continuous development.
In short, when a director should first take a lawyer as a career, he should have a strong sense of mission and responsibility, and in his work, he should set the direction, develop ideas, grasp management, attach importance to culture, and take the lead. Only in this way can we build a good office and truly be a good director. These are some superficial experiences of my more than ten years as director. Please criticize and correct me if there is anything wrong.
Thank you all.

Two OO year June 27