China Business Law Podcast

Why do prices fluctuate so much and how much time do customers typically have to decide on a deal?

How can a buyer find other ways to reduce total order costs (e.g. shipping and logistics) beyond price?

How does payment work and how much must be paid upfront on orders?

How to educate buyers who are inexperienced in buying PPE or buying anything from China?

What kind of vetting and other due diligence can be done on manufacturers and trading companies that sell PPE?

Cameron Johnson - https://www.linkedin.com/in/cameronjohnsonshanghai/

Joel Gallo - https://www.linkedin.com/in/joel-a-gallo-167a6b17/

3:10 介绍怎么选择了IPO业务领域

5:30 IPO业务领域的发展趋势 

9:30 在美国、香港、大陆上市的区别，以及律师的业务重心

26:16 科创板IPO的特殊性，以及律师的业务重心

36:50 中概股二次上市

42:00 财务问题对企业的影响

46:40 IPO业务的律师流程，以及法律层面重要的问题

56:50 体育行业经验分享

Joey tells us about his story of moving to the US as a young kid and learning through mentors and internships to find what he loved to do in life.  Art Dicker joins the discussion as well, and Joey and Art discuss how people can make wise career decisions and avoid mistakes when deciding to enter professional fields like finance or law.

2:10 How prior government experience helped Kim in her compliance role today.

3:13 What kind of compliance issues are unique to a retail business?

4:26 Is the scope of a typical compliance role becoming broader now to cover things like data privacy?

8:20 How do you get your message across in training the business teams?

12:04 How do you do trainings for 3rd party business partners such as vendors and distributors?

13:18 Any differences between working with the business teams in China and in other parts of Asia Pacific?

16:38 How to get the senior management to help drive and support the compliance program?

21:21 How about empowering middle management who are often the first to encounter problems?

23:40 Making your presence felt in the region when the compliance team sits in the regional headquarters.

26:38 Is face time still important in a compliance program with the prolific use of video conferencing now?

28:20 Business is getting done despite a dramatic reduction in travel and entertainment with clients because of COVID-19.  Will this lead to a permanent reduction in compliance risk to the company?

29:05 What do you see as changing trends for compliance in Asia Pacific?

Jeffrey has a decade of experience at JunHe LLP, and specializes in China's employment and sports law. In our first episode co-hosted with the American Chamber of Commerce Shanghai's China Voices podcast, we spoke with Jeffrey about some of the key employment law issues that have arisen for foreigners in China during the COVID-19 pandemic, including if a company can force you to be tested or quarantined and if a company can fire you if you're stuck outside the country. 

A startup has numerous "stakeholders" - investors, advisors and mentors, employees, customers, media, and the government.  We lay out what makes good stakeholders, how they work together, and how there can be potential for conflict.

Our panel discussion includes:

-Barbara Ex is the founder of Whitespace

-Julian Mintzis is a startup investor and CEO of Panda Eagle Group

-Helen Han is a startup investor and mentor at Chinaccelerator

-Art Dicker is a lawyer and founder of the China Business Law Podcast.

This week our show is hosted by Agnes Wang, a lawyer in China and co-creator at the show.

1:58 – How has the legal industry changed in the last few years?

8:38 – How “biglaw” came about and how it is hit now in a recession.

11:30 – Clients questioning what they’re paying for from firms and how firms will adapt?

15:56 – How is this affecting people’s decision to go in-house?

21:00 – Law firms integrating into clients and self-disciplining on fees and work scopes.

24:20 – How are in-house counsel expanding their roles within companies?

32:35 – Are in-house lawyers making themselves obsolete by automating process and increasing efficiencies?

40:50 – How people and cultural skills are more important than ever for lawyers especially in-house.

45:20 – How in-house lawyers can drive the decision-making process in a big company.

51:42 – A call to making change in your legal department and its role in the company.

3:50 – Basic product quality and safety due diligence

9:40 – Engaging third party inspectors in China

11:50 – Engaging third party agents for sourcing product

15:55 – Anti-bribery and fraud prevention

20:06 – Diligence requests to and background research on your counterparties

25:18 – Documenting the terms of the transaction in your contract (and getting a lawyer)

30:31 – Identifying red flags and making the decision to walk away from an offer

33:55 – Reputational background search on other key players in the transaction

1:45 – What kind of funding environment are we in now?

4:08 – Will and how would VC funds try to back out of deals?

7:05 – Why VCs may be reluctant to put in more capital to existing portfolio companies.

12:15 – Alternatives to VC funding

14:48 – Investor veto rights – fundraising, change in business models, redemption threats

22:45 – Legal issues for startups trying to reduce costs

25:50 – Predictions on what will change post-virus

1:35 Introduction to the Cybersecurity Law

5:00 Which regulators are competing for jurisdiction?

7:14 How much adaptions do companies have to make to localize their policies?

9:00 How do smaller companies try to comply in a cost-efficient way?

15:20 Coming up with a policy doesn’t have to be rocket science.

17:20 Where do company policies break down?

22:55 Problems of the “ownership” of data policies within big companies

25:40 Companies changing data compliance from a cost center to a value proposition

28:45 Personal liability on data protection officers and legal representatives within companies 

31:18 Will the coronavirus situation impact data collection and data privacy in China?

3:00 - What is force majeure?

5:28 - Are force majeure clauses always in contracts and what’s standard?

8:48 - What if the contract is silent on this issue and how does governing law matter?

11:26 - Force majeure often doesn’t totally excuse the party to perform the contract

14.16 - Chinese trade association issuing force majeure certificates now, what value do these have?

17:50 - How should foreign companies be preparing now for Chinese companies potentially using a force majeure clause in their contracts?

Bonus questions:

23:55 - A lot of parents in China, expats, etc., sending their kids to private schools in China which can’t open.  What can they do?

31:18 - What kind of personality do you need to have to handle sticky issues like force majeure cases and compliance issues generally as a lawyer?

1:15 – How today’s situation compares to Kenny’s time as Legal Director at Kodak China during SARS.

4:00 – What other kind of types of crisis can we look to for guidance here?

9:25 - How can companies use a crisis management framework to respond?

15:08 – The specific role of the legal department in responding.

21:58 – Might the Legal Department actually be one of the best equipped BU’s to address long-term issues involved in a crisis like this?

29:15 – How crisis can create an opportunity for the Legal Department to show its value in terms of strategy for the company. 

30:55 – How Legal Managers can behave like an owner of the business during times like this.

3:00 - The most common disputes with employees at companies.

4:00 - How Jon handles disagreements with colleagues/internal clients

5:45 - Does a legal training get in the way of good communication?

11:15 - Why you should never surprise someone with your decision

12:10 - Coaching managers to communicate well on terminations

13:45 - How to impart legal concepts using non-legal language

16:00 - Lawyers and non-verbal communication mishaps

19:20 - Avoiding the temptation to want to look smart with clients

21:10 - Talking about the law in terms of fairness not rules

22:30 - How company policies can hinder effective decision making

27:00 - Handling political correctness, bad jokes, etc within companies

1:05 - Typical termination case profiles

1:55 - Dealing with termination cases already in flight

4:02 - Handling situations where no clear legal grounds for termination

5:50 - How badly should a company pay to make employee go away

10:21 - Handling employees who just refuse to go

13:15 - Advance preparation for terminating employee

16:20 - Performance improvement plans

18:10 - Coordinating HQ-local cross-border termination cases

23:07 - How can outside counsel offer practical risk assessments

27:50 - Enjoying the practice of law in China as an expatriate

1:05 - Basic principles of the law

3:40 - Implementing the law on the ground

10:30 - Sectors that could come off the "Negative List" in the future

15:15 - Impact of new corporate governance rules

19:17 - Some JVs being compelled to amend corporate governance  

21:30 - Opportunities for VC funds to use more domestic structures

24:45 - The law and the future of VIE structures