The All China Lawyers' Association, Lawyers' Engaging in Securities Legal Business Guidelines (Trial Implementation)

Adopted: April 22 2003
Effective: as of date of adoption
Interpreting authority: The All China Lawyers' Association
Applicability: "Securities legal business" means the legal services provided by law firms on issue, listing and trading of negotiable securities and related business upon lawful appointment, or other securities legal business that should be engaged by lawyers in accordance with relevant laws, regulations and provisions of relevant departments (Article 2).

Main contents: Part Two of the Guidelines deals with the basic guidelines. It stipulates that lawyers engaged in securities legal business shall possess, apart from the necessary legal professional qualifications, basic knowledge of the operation of a company, finance, accounting, financial market and securities (Article 7). Article 20 stipulates that if the securities legal business involves legal matters of another legal jurisdiction, the law firm or lawyer may suggest the client to engage a foreign law firm and lawyer that possesses the relevant qualifications in that legal jurisdiction and the relevant experience and capacity in specified business areas to provide the legal services. Parts Three, Four and Five deal with the acceptance of appointment, due diligence investigations, and issue of securities-related legal documents and legal opinions respectively. For lawyers engaged in foreign-related securities legal business, if a legal document or opinion is issued in Chinese and another foreign language, the lawyer should clarify the different effect of the documents or opinions, or the way to resolve conflicts between two texts of the same effect (Article 45).
Related legislation: PRC Lawyers Law (Amended), Oct 28 2007, CLP 2007 No.10 p83; PRC Securities Law (Amended), Oct 27 2005, CLP 2006 No.1 p31 and Professional Ethics and Conduct of Lawyers Disciplinary Code (Revised), Mar 3 2002, CLP 2002 No.3 p8