Hard economic times in the west have served to make China a “Mecca” for western businesses, western business people and entrepreneurs, and investment money seekers from all points on the globe. Because attorney and General Manager, Edward Lehman has been on the scene for 26 years, and the Lehman, Lee & Xu Law Firm has been here 21 years, the Firm’s reputation for “China Business Know How” is well known. If you plan or hope to do business in China, then you must seek out first rate legal advice from a law firm with experienced and talented attorneys who know China like few others. This is why a myriad of businesses and business people seek out the Lehman Law Firm. They come from all over the world, with a whole variety of wants and legal needs. Let me give you just a glimpse into my day, April 12, 2013 at Lehman, Lee & Xu.
The morning of Friday, April 12, 2013 started off with a 9:00 meeting in our office with a representative of a real estate development company from Athens, Greece. That is me wearing the blue striped tie and Rachel Lin the head of our Firm’s immigration law section on the far right. The development company is hoping to entice Chinese investors into participating in real estate promotion in Greece. They were seeking our insight into Chinese investors and wanting the Firm’s assistance to help them make contact with suitable investor candidates. This meeting took about an hour and a half.
At noon on the 12
th
, a meeting was held in our office with representatives of a Chinese manufacturing company. The purpose of the meeting was to review the articles of incorporation that will be part of a contractual joint venture with one of our clients, a manufacturer, in the United States. The Chinese manufacturer had many questions regarding corporate structure, taxes, and Chinese employment laws. To ensure all questions could be answered fully, on hand from our office was attorney and corporate expert, Li Hong (far left), me (on Li Hong’s left) and at the far right of the photo, attorney and tax law expert, Bexcel Chen. This meeting lasted about 3 hours. After the meeting was finished we prepared a detailed memo of the meeting for our clients in the U.S.
At 3:45 on the 12
th
we were visited by attorneys Dr. Jork Zwicker, on my immediate left, and Dr. Susanne Schollweck, on Dr. Zwicker’s left, both from the Dr. Volker Vossisus Law Firm in Munich, Germany. The distinguished looking fellow on the far right is our Firm’s General Manager Edward Lehman.
This was the first trip to China by our two German visitors. While here they told us a harrowing tale of their “rough” landing at Narita Airport in Tokyo, Japan. They flew to Beijing from Narita. We discussed many aspects of doing business and practicing law in China. We will meet again in October for further discussions. This meeting took about 2 and one-half hours.
The above is just a small snapshot of a day at our Firm. The large number of cases we work with run the gamut from patent law, trademark law, tax and accounting law, immigration law, to mining law, and much more. As I said above, if you want to do business in China you have to know what you are doing. We do, and businesses and people from all over the world come to us to take advantage of what we know.
Hawkeye in China
Lex Smith