My Story with Tongwang丨Zuo Renken: 20 Years of Walking with Tongwang
Time:
2021-11-09
Author:
Zuo Renken
Source:
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34
Editor's Note
As Tongwang Law Firm approaches its 25th anniversary, we look back at the past. The people of Tongwang have worked hard and forged ahead, leaving behind many memorable deeds and stories on the road of growing together with Tongwang Law Firm. To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Tongwang Law Firm, Tongwang Law Firm launched the theme essay activity of "My Story with Tongwang". From now on, Tongwang's official account will successively publish the stories of Tongwang people.
20 Years with Tongwang
By Zuo Renken
The editorial department asked me to write about my story with Tongwang. In 25 years, there are too many stories, where should I start?
01 Origin
In November 1995, I transferred from the county to the capital to practice law, relying on my fellow villager Zhong Ge, who practiced in the capital earlier than me, and rented a house with Zhong Ge in Macun. After the spring of 1996, a university classmate of Zhong Ge often came to play chess with him. After introduction, I learned that this person was called Huang Qiangguang and worked in Guangxi Second Construction. After chatting, I found that this Lingshan boy could actually speak Guiliu dialect with us, so it was easy to get acquainted. After getting acquainted, they told me about their idea of opening a law firm focusing on serving construction projects and the future development plan of the law firm, hoping that I would work together. I was also excited after listening to the development plan of the law firm, but I had just transferred from the county to the district-level Guangxi Haitian Economic Law Firm for less than a year, and I was embarrassed to ask the director to transfer the firm. In this way, I was unable to become a founding partner of Tongwang. At the opening ceremony of Zhongwang Law Firm (formerly known as Tongwang) in November 1996, I could only participate as a guest.
02 Join
By 2001, the firm had entered its fifth year of development, and the firm also welcomed the first batch of partners in addition to the three founding partners, Huang Qiangguang, Huang Zhenzhong, and Nong Xingzhun. Liu Xuanhui and I came to Tongwang Law Firm as partners in this year, and it has been exactly 20 years. In the past 20 years, the firm has been developing and growing, from five partners in 2001 to 51 partners now.
03 Haoyue Building Office Building
In 2003, we purchased the 12th floor of Haoyue Building, No. 86 Dongge Road, Nanning City, with nearly 1,000㎡. At that time, we only had five partners, plus full-time and part-time lawyers, with a total of less than 20 people. Should we use half for our own use and rent out half, or use the entire floor for our own use? If we use half for our own use and rent out half, the advantage is undoubtedly to reduce the burden on partners, but the disadvantage is that it is not conducive to the development and growth of the law firm. If the entire floor is used for its own use, it can build a nest to attract phoenixes, which is conducive to the development and growth of the law firm, but the disadvantage is that the law firm will operate at a high cost, and the partners will also have to bear a high cost burden. After full discussion, five young people with feelings and willing to work as lawyers ultimately chose a solution that is more conducive to the development and use of the law firm. In January 2004, we officially moved into the 12th floor of Haoyue Building. To this end, the firm held an "Eighth Anniversary Reception of Tongwang Law Firm" in Yongjiang, and more than 600 guests from all walks of life attended. This was also the first law firm in Guangxi that owned nearly 1,000㎡ of self-owned property office buildings. After moving in, a large part of it was vacant for a considerable period of time, and some lawyers once sighed "empty". To be honest, the cost pressure is not small, but we still have confidence! Looking back now, if we had chosen to reduce cost pressure and only used half of the floor, there might not have been such rapid development later.
04 Liuzhou Branch
In the summer of 2004, the firm decided to open a branch in Liuzhou. After intense preparations, the Liuzhou branch finally opened in November 2004. The local lawyers in the Liuzhou branch were all young lawyers who had just started practicing, and they needed experienced lawyers to lead them to develop business. And I am from Liuzhou area, speak Guiliu dialect, and have been a lawyer for more than ten years, and I am also serving as a permanent legal counsel for several enterprises in Liuzhou. The firm sent me to the Liuzhou branch so that "Provide efficient legal services to consultant units more timely, and at the same time lead the partners of Liuzhou branch to develop business." I was ordered to develop business in Liuzhou. First, I directly arranged them to the consultant units I had served, and also led them to visit unfamiliar customers to develop new customers. I held weekly regular meetings every week to summarize the work of the previous week and the work plan for this week, and also continued to instill the idea of "rolling vegetable fields" to the partners, encouraging everyone to develop more business. I also realized that my own strength was limited. I wanted to use the support of the head office to focus on leading two or three people, first train them, and then let them lead more people to develop. This strategy was indeed effective. At the end of 2007, the colleagues who were given key support had grown up, and I could also end my mission of being stationed in the Liuzhou branch and step down as the director of the Liuzhou branch.
05 Fifteenth Anniversary
In November 2011, I had been practicing in Tongwang for ten years and two months. The 15th anniversary celebration of the firm was held at the Nanning Wharton International Hotel. I participated in the preparation work throughout the entire process. The only regret was that on the day of the official celebration, I was in Bijie City, Guizhou Province. At that time, my client, a group company, was acquiring a mining company in Guizhou Province. As a legal counsel and a member of the negotiation team, I was conducting intense negotiations. Finally, after negotiations, the two parties finally reached an agreement and finally signed the merger contract. Although the business was successfully completed, I still had a small regret because I could not go back to Nanning to participate in the 15th anniversary celebration.
06 Twentieth Anniversary
Having passed twenty years, Tongwang has developed branches in Liuzhou, Qinzhou, and Wuzhou. This year, major events occurred almost every month at Tongwang: In January, Guangxi Tongwang Applied Jurisprudence Research Institute, the first private applied jurisprudence research institute with independent legal person status in China, was initiated and fully funded by Tongwang Law Firm. In February, Tongwang Law Firm was awarded the title of "National Excellent Law Firm" for the third time; the newly adopted articles of association of Tongwang Law Firm established an administrative supervision committee, with the director and deputy director elected by the partnership meeting, and I was elected as the first director of the administrative supervision committee. In March, Guangxi Tongwang Marriage and Family Legal Service Center was established, the first professional institution in Guangxi focusing on marriage and family legal services. In May, the inaugural meeting of Guangxi Tongwang Applied Jurisprudence Research Institute was held in Nanning. In June, Tongwang Law Firm was awarded the title of "Guangxi Excellent Law Firm" for the fourth time. Guangxi Tongwang (Wuzhou) Law Firm was established. The Guangxi Police Association established a legal service station for safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of police officers at Guangxi Tongwang Law Firm. In July, the Liuzhou branch was awarded the title of "Liuzhou Advanced Grassroots Party Organization 2015-2016". In August, the Tongwang Party Branch of the Communist Party of China was awarded the honorary title of "Advanced Grassroots Party Organization of the Autonomous Region" by the Party Committee of the Autonomous Region. In September, Tongwang Law Firm was awarded the honorary title of "National Advanced Collective for Legal Aid Work" by the Ministry of Justice, and the Liuzhou branch was awarded the title of "Five-Star Law Firm Party Branch of Liuzhou in 2015". In November, a grand "Tongwang Night" gala was held to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Tongwang Law Firm. In December, Tongwang Law Firm was rated as excellent with the first place in total score in the 2016 annual assessment of legal service intermediaries by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The above-mentioned major events of Tongwang reflect the great development of Tongwang in terms of affairs management, firm size, and firm business capabilities after 20 years of development. It also confirms that our decision to build a nest to attract phoenixes, even at a high cost, when we had only five Tingyou (partners) in 2003 was correct!
07 Twenty-fifth Anniversary
Time flies, and another five years have passed. This year marks Tongwang's twenty-fifth anniversary, and I have been a Tongwang person for a full twenty years, and the name "Uncle Zuo" has also been established. When I started working at the law firm in 1990, the post-90s generation in the firm had not yet been born, and now they are my colleagues. Although they are still a bit young, with a little training, I believe they will soon be the backbone of Tongwang's new generation. And when I came to Tongwang in 2001, most of the post-80s in the firm were still in school, and now they are basically the main force. But, I am still in my prime, "Uncle Zuo" is still young!
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