The 4th Ashurst Guantao Academy was successfully held and completed in London
From October 1st to October 6th, 2023, fifteen young partners and senior associates from various offices in Guantao participated in the 4th Ashurst Guantao Academy (“Academy”), the International Training Programme held at Ashurt's headquarter in London, UK. At the beginning of the activity, Mr. Cui Liguo, Guantao’s Founding Partner and the Director of the Management Committee, reviewed and introduced to the delegation the history, culture and achievements of Ashurst and Guantao’s cooperation with each other; Ms. Karen Davies, Global Chair of Ashurst, introduced about Ashurst's history, culture and business; Ms. Jini Lee, Head of Region for Asia of Ashurst, focused on Ashurst's recent milestones and future strategic direction. Mr. Yuan Yan, Partner in Ashurst's Beijing office, shared with the delegation in a round-table discussion on the challenges of cross-border transactions. Ms. Jenny Cheung, Director of Markets & Growth – Asia of Ashurst, shared with the delegation about how Ashurst's Business Development & Marketing Department operates and how it maintains customer relationships.
During the week-long training, Ashurst and Guantao introduced each their main practice areas and carried out relevant discussions on collaboration. Key practice teams from Ashurst's various offices around the world presented to the delegation about Ashurst's practices relating to real estate, energy and infrastructure, digital economy, international arbitration, competition law, Africa, debt restructuring and insolvency, and investing in Germany. The delegation had a lively discussion with Ashurst on the aforementioned practice areas, with the focus on ways to further expand collaboration in the future. The event aimed to further promote mutual understanding of both law firms’ business and personnel, and to deepen cooperation and exchange, with a view to enhancing the linked-ability to provide high-quality foreign-related legal services to clients.
In addition to the training at Ashurst's London headquarter, the delegation also visited the Competition Appeal Tribunal (which is currently chaired by Mr. Ben Tidswell, former Ashurst Global Chair). The Tribunal's President, Sir Marcus Smith, attended the presentation session and had a good interaction with the delegation.
The day after the visit to the Competition Appeal Tribunal, the delegation visited XXIV Old Buildings and toured the Inns of Court and the Royal Court of Justice, led by Steven Thompson KC.
Before the Academy was officially launched, the delegation had a day of ice-breaking and team building activities with Ashurst colleagues.
In order for the delegation representatives to get to know each other better, learn from each other and create more opportunities for collaboration, the delegation also organized internal sharing sessions and office business introduction meetings after class. Through a series of activities, such as morning run, opera, drama, museum, and cruise ship, the representatives got to know each other's business strengths, representative cases, values and hobbies, which has laid a good foundation for future internal collaboration.
Guantao’s Managing Partner Mr. Zou Jun also attended some of the courses and the closing ceremony. Mr. Zou expressed his hope that through this Academy, the lawyers from Guantao will appreciate the over 200-year rich history of Ashurst and the brand-new image of the international firm, and to further cultivate and improve their professional, interpersonal and conceptual abilities.
Guantao is a leading Chinese law firm headquartered in Beijing and Ashurst is a leading international law firm headquartered in London. Guantao and Ashurst entered into an alliance in 2008 and have built a close working relationship over more than a decade. In February 2018, Guantao and Ashurst established a joint operation office in Shanghai Free Trade Zone to provide one-stop service to both firms' clients. The joint office successfully combined its international expertise and Chinese legal services capabilities to provide seamless, high-quality services. The Academy will further strengthen closer business ties between the two law firms to jointly provide more excellent legal services to clients.
The delegation representatives are selected from all offices of Guantao. They are mainly young partners and senior associates with outstanding abilities in their respective practice areas and good English skills. The delegation representatives are good at intellectual property, capital market, general corporate, mergers & acquisitions, dispute resolution, energy and infrastructure, international trade and investment, real estate, shipping, data protection, antitrust, banking and finance.
List of the delegation representatives
Beijing office: Mr. Li Hongjiang, Mr. Xu Rongyuan, Ms. Han Xu, Mr. Zhou Hang, Ms. Bai Lu, Ms. Zhou Qian
Hangzhou office: Ms. Zhou Wanning, Ms. Sun Yan
Shenzhen office: Mr. Zheng Zhifan, Mr. Cai Guojian
Nanjing office: Ms. Wu Xuan
Xi 'an office: Ms. Zhang Hongfang
Shanghai office: Ms. Zhou Zixuan, Ms. Liu Jing, Mr. Shen Kai
