China-EU School of Law students attended three international law firms guest lectures as part of their elective course. These lectures were organized to give them a real taste of how international firms work in the Chinese context and with what kind of questions lawyers deal with on a regular basis.
First, on 23 April, Senior Associate Ingo Vinck from the Beijing office of the major law firm Taylor Wessing delivered a lively mergers and acquisition lecture to the students at the China-EU School of Law so that the students could learn another aspect of cross-border investment, namely merger and acquisition negotiations. Assistant Professor Dr Nicolas Soelter hosted the guest lecture.
Lawyer Vinck focused on two key points: the contents of the M&A negotiation and how to negotiate. Moreover, he shared his experience with structural issues involved in these transactions. As he patiently answered the students' queries, they were therefore confident to ask questions about his field of expertise.
On 24 April, students visited the Beijing office of Uría Menéndez, which is one of the most prestigious law firms in the Ibero-American market. They were accompagnied by Assistant Profe ssor Zurab Gvelesiani.
Senior lawyer Antonio Sánchez Cerbán and the lawyers Yushi Zhou and Zhe Zhou welcomed the students and gave them a short history of the law firm and outlined the vision of Uría Menéndez. The lawyers then conducted an intensive lecture session on mergers and acquisition in Europe. They analyzed step by step the most important legal issues in cross-border mergers and acquisition deals, also including issues such as cultural gaps.
Finally, on 25 April, students visited the Beijing Office of Beiten Burkhardt with Assistant Professor Monika Prusinowska. This is a German law firm with more than 270 lawyers and 15 offices worldwide.
Simon Henke and Corinna Li gave a lecture to the students. They assist Chinese and international clients with their market entry, projects, investments and business activities in Germany. Corinna Li explained Chinese law and regulations on outbound investment. The foreign investment agencies of China are NDRC, SASAC, MOFCOM, and SAFE. Different investment projects have different regulatory requirements: non-sensitive projects adopt record-filing and sensitive projects adopt approval. Simon Henke introduced the different types of investment in Germany to the students. Investing in Germany can take the form of a partnership or company. The three most important forms of partnership are the civil law partnership (GbR), the business partnership (OGH) and the joint venture company (KG). The two most important legal forms of a firm are the limited liability company (GmbH) and the stock corporation (AG). After the lecture, the lawyers answered the students' questions about the law firm's business strategy and career planning.
