American lawyer dedicated to Chinese law industry for 13 years

Besides being a partner at King & Wood, Meg has another identity in the Chinese legal profession, asone of the foreign mediators of the Shanghai Commercial Mediation Center, where her work is mainly to resolve international commercial disputes, currently serving the “Belt and Road”.

Meg, who loves China, hopes to become a “bridge” between Chinese customers and the foreign side. She explained her role in a Chinese law firm.“Since I am working fora Chinese law firm, I can combine my international vision with the understanding of many Chinese colleagues on Chinese corporate culture, thus serving Chinese companies’internationalization.”

Meg is highly qualified. She has represented US, European and Chinese companies at the International Chamber of Commerce, the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission, the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre, the Indian Council of Arbitration and in litigation before US courts in construction and commercial disputes.

She has been involved in a number of high profile arbitrations and litigations throughout China, and has assisted with asset tracing and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards. She has written numerous book chapters and articles regarding the management of evidence and the conduct of negotiations and hearing procedures for Chinese civil proceedings and China-related cross border disputes.

Speaking of her 13 years of experience in the Chinese legal industry, she is very excited."It can be said that I have witnessed the development of Chinese law and saw many gratifying changes in the legal profession. Today, lawyers are involved in the cases more timely. The provisions of the law are also more detailed. The judicial reform makes the profession of lawyers more meaningful.”

"In the past 13 years, I have seen the Chinese legal system is becoming more complex, lawyers are becoming more professional, and people are increasingly trusting the court. People’s legal awareness is also increasing. Ten years ago, you had a two-page contract and then a handshake. Today, people expect more from their contracts, they want to protect their legal rights and they are thinking in those ways. We didn’t have that 10 years ago."

As Meg mentioned, reform and opening up has caused China to undergo earth-shaking changes in a very short period of time. It is not only the achievements of reforms, but also the speed of reforms, especially the innovation in law.

Since opening up gives rise to increased international economic and trade cooperation, domestic dispute resolution methods are no longer adequate to settle international economic cooperation disputes. Therefore, China introduced a diversified dispute resolution mechanism (ADR) in its judicial reform. Established in 2011, the first independent third-party commercial mediation organization in mainland China, the Shanghai Commercial Mediation Center, is China's most iconic ADR institution.