Yunnan lawyers actively help enterprises navigate crisis

Lawyers across Southwest China's Yunnan province have been contributing to enterprises' work resumption since the COVID-19 outbreak earlier this year.

Targeted legal services

Soon after the COVID-19 outbreak, Yunnan's lawyers' association set up a dedicated legal service team to assist enterprises in coping with the pandemic.

After combing through all the relevant laws, regulations and policies, the team worked out legal guidance for enterprises to tackle common issues surrounding their operation, labor management and execution of deals. 

They studied more than 140 related laws, regulations and policies, and published 16 professional articles on WeChat accounts of both provincial and prefectural-level lawyers' associations.

Legal risk assessment

To further enhance enterprises' viability amid the pandemic, lawyers across Yunnan launched a campaign to provide enterprises with customized legal risk assessment service.

Issues ranging from enterprises' work resumption to their financing guarantees were all closely examined by these legal professionals so that enterprises could eliminate as many potential legal risks as possible.

Lawyers also actively helped enterprises resolve their labor disputes through mediation, and offered legal aid to enterprises and employee in need.

During the first half of 2020, lawyers across the province served as enterprises' legal agents in 8,606 financial disputes and 3,610 insurance-related ones, provided services in 1,560 cases on intellectual property rights or bankruptcy reorganization, and helped medical institutions settle 1,878 medical disputes.

Ensuring employment

Echoing the central government's call for stabilizing employment, Yunnan's judicial department and lawyers' association launched a new policy allowing those who apply to become apprentice lawyers to begin their apprenticeship before obtaining the required professional qualification.

Lawyers also actively participated in labor arbitrations, drawing on various methods to resolve disputes between enterprises and employees.

Only six months into 2020, they had helped resolved 4,805 labor disputes across the province.