Recently, two lawyers have attracted widespread attention: one is Zhang Wenpeng, a “trainee” from Shandong Xiaolin Law Firm, and the other is Ma Yunchan, a lawyer from Ningxia Linxiang Law Firm.
Zhang Wenpeng is the “first trainee” in the legal profession who has not yet shed his “trainee” status after more than 6 years of internship, and Ma Yunchan is an old lawyer who has been practicing for more than a decade.
Currently, both of them are facing the biggest troubles of their careers.
The same is that they have both received a “notice of investigation” from the local law association. The Qingdao Lawyers Association’s reason for “investigating” Zhang Wenpeng is “suspected of violating internship management regulations and damaging the professional image of lawyers.”
The Wuzhong City Lawyers Association’s reason for “investigating” Ma Yunchan is that in the case of Yan Mouli, (there was) “helping to pass on words and interfering with judicial litigation activities”, and asked her to “actively cooperate with the investigation”.
The difference is that the Qingdao Lawyers Association subsequently sent a “Notice to Review Case Files” to “Shandong Xiaolin Law Firm”, claiming that “this association has launched an investigation into your firm’s trainee Zhang Wenpeng for suspected violations of internship management regulations and damage to the professional image of lawyers. Now, we are requesting your firm to provide all the case files handled by Zhang Wenpeng since he received his internship certificate…”
And before Ma Yunchan received the “notice of investigation” from the Wuzhong City Lawyers Association, she had been forcibly terminated from her employment contract by Ningxia Linxiang Law Firm, where she had worked for nearly 12 years.
As Zhang Wenpeng’s “backer”, “Shandong Xiaolin Law Firm” responded after receiving the “Notice to Review Case Files” from the Qingdao Lawyers Association:
1. The law firm is the responsible entity for accepting the internship of trainee lawyers and issuing written commitments and relevant supporting materials. Therefore, if a trainee lawyer is suspected of violating internship regulations, the association should first inform the law firm of the specific violations and should not “bypass” the law firm to conduct an investigation…
2. Since an investigation has already been launched, it indicates that there are specific violations. Please explain the specific case files that need to be reviewed in conjunction with the specific facts and provide the corresponding legal and regulatory basis.
3. Taking a blanket approach to review all case files handled by Zhang Wenpeng since he received his internship certificate clearly exceeds the scope of the investigation and reflects a presumption of guilt, which is inappropriate. Please consider it.
4. The case files involve the privacy and trade secrets of the parties involved and should not be provided to third parties, including the association, without legal requirements. Please understand.
5. We do not want this kind of file review to be carried out under orders, with the intention of the sword being aimed at the public!
Damn, that’s tough!
As for “Ningxia Linxiang Law Firm”, where Ma Yunchan worked for nearly 12 years, after the Yanchi County Procuratorate accused Ma Yunchan of the crime of destroying evidence by a defense lawyer, which could not be established, and Ma Yunchan was acquitted by the first-instance court, the law firm, which should have become Ma Yunchan’s strong backing, ignored the efforts of the All China Lawyers Association to provide her with rights protection throughout the process. Not only did it stop issuing any lawyer’s letters for her from December 2020, when the case was transferred by the public security organs to the procuratorate for review and prosecution, but it also prohibited her from taking cases and conducting any lawyer’s business. Furthermore, after the first-instance court acquitted Ma Yunchan, it forcibly terminated her employment contract.
After the first-instance acquittal and the second-instance acquittal, the Yanchi County Court turned around and issued a “judicial suggestion letter”, taking the “the original public prosecution agency’s accusation that Ma Yunchan constituted the crime of destroying evidence by a defense lawyer cannot be established”, which was already written in the judgment, as “interfering with judicial organ litigation activities”, and asked the law association to deal with Ma Yunchan. Ma Yunchan did not have the support of the law firm, and the law association directly asked her to “truthfully provide” materials such as authorization procedures, case-taking records, meeting records, judgments, and written statements of defense.
Shandong Xiaolin Law Firm and Ningxia Linxiang Law Firm, compared to the two, the difference is obvious.
A lawyer who wished to remain anonymous said that lawyers with flaws would bring negative effects to the law firm, especially those lawyers who are not favored and are given special attention. At this time, it is a kind of luck to meet a responsible law firm director. This lawyer said that there are not no law firm directors who are responsible for their lawyers, but some law firm directors do indeed only care about money and the meaning of their superiors.
Some lawyers also said that the law firm director wants to make money, not to be responsible. In many cases, before the superiors have spoken, some directors will take the initiative to get rid of the lawyers. Some law firm bosses only like to collect case management fees for card seats and office rent, and don’t want to do anything else.
Criminal defense lawyer Fu Shifeng said:
1️⃣, Lawyer Ma Yunchan of Ningxia, after being tormented by the black hand for 4 years, finally got an acquittal, but was fired by her former employer, which is adding insult to injury.
2️⃣, After searching, the director of the firm, Zuo Xiaoqi, was formerly the president of the Wuzhong City Lawyers Association (2012-2018), and a specially invited people’s supervisor of the Wuzhong City Supervision Commission; I deeply regret the decision he made, doing so is somewhat… (see screenshot)
On March 4, Bin Yue Yu Yun forwarded lawyer Fu Shifeng’s article “A Speech by a Criminal Defense Lawyer That Went Viral: Speaking Human Words for the People”. I applaud this lawyer who takes “willing to speak human words for the people, not to sing praises for the powerful; I only hope that there is no suffering in the world, even if the medicine on the shelf gathers dust” as his professional philosophy.
As a person, one should speak human words and do human things. Speaking human words and doing human things are things that everyone should do. For example, Director Yu Kai, a senior lawyer of Shandong Xiaolin Law Firm, where Zhang Wenpeng works, he is upright, stands tall, dares to act, and he is a great person. Some directors, bah! (Author: Bin Yu) (Bin Yue Yu Yun WeChat Official Account: lzkj328)
