One of the most popular traditional projects in the course is to visit well-known law firms, listen to partners' experience sharing in their professional fields, and have close communication with partners. On April 28, 2021, students went to Beijing Dentons Law firm to attend a lecture on "basic principles of international arbitration". The speaker of this lecture is lawyer Zhu Yongrui, senior partner of Dentons.
First of all, Lawyer Zhu asked students: "what is a foreign lawyer", and talked about foreign dispute resolution lawyers from foreign lawyers. Then, Lawyer Zhu introduced the general situation of international arbitration, and combined with his own practical experience, vividly explained the basic concept of arbitration, arbitration characteristics, arbitration mode, arbitration agreement, applicable law of arbitration, place of arbitration, lawyer's confidentiality responsibility, counterclaim and defense, hearing and so on.
Lawyer Zhu encouraged the growth of students from the following aspects. First of all, we should exercise legal thinking and pay attention to distinguishing facts and opinions in legal work. For example, the arbitrator asked, "is the project finished?" It's a matter of fact. The lawyer replied, "They can't do it!" This is to expound the lawyer's point of view without answering the question of fact. In addition, when writing legal documents, we should have a critical eye, judge which facts are, make the facts clear, and then express our opinions. When writing documents, we should not be "headline party".
Secondly, learn international thinking. Taking the differences between institutional arbitration and interim arbitration and the effectiveness of arbitration agreement as examples, Lawyer Zhu talked about the differences between international thinking and Chinese thinking. Excellent Chinese lawyers are those who are proficient in international arbitration, have practical experience and international thinking. The cooperation between Chinese and foreign lawyers is the perfect choice for the complicated cases with a large amount of disputes, and the choice of foreign lawyers should be decided by Chinese lawyers. Daily communication between Chinese lawyers and Chinese enterprises, communication with foreign lawyers, integration of international thinking and Chinese thinking.
Finally, Zhu encouraged students to learn not only substantive law but also procedural law, including British civil procedure law. He encouraged students to exercise their defense ability. A lawyer's very important work is to come up with an idea of how to organize evidence, how to use evidence, how to debate and how to cross examine evidence.
Zhu said that international arbitration is a very small business among lawyers, floating on the judicial systems of various countries and a gem in the crown of dispute resolution. Through Lawyer Zhu's wonderful explanation and sharing, the students deeply feel the beauty of international arbitration and the charm of excellent foreign lawyers. Lawyer Zhu's encouragement for the growth of lawyers, guiding the students to work hard, has given the students great help.