For Lawyers Referring a China-Side Matter

Written for the lawyer, not the client

You are a solicitor, an avocat, a notary, a private-client or a litigation lawyer, and a client's matter is largely settled inside your own system — until one part of it sits in mainland China and stops moving. An estate with an apartment in Shanghai and a bank account no one can touch. An arbitral award or a judgment you have won, behind which the losing party's assets sit in China. A Chinese supplier or debtor who has stopped answering. A dismissal or an injury that happened on the mainland. Your jurisdiction cannot reach across that line, and the Chinese institutions on the other side of it do not correspond in your language.

This page is written for you, not for your client. Every other page on this site speaks to the person with the problem; this one speaks to the professional who already holds the relationship and needs a dependable point of contact inside the Chinese system — Chinese counsel who works in English and can act on the China side of the matter alongside you. Referrals reach me this way from lawyers, notaries and advisers abroad, and from within the firm's own network.

How we work together

You remain your client's lawyer in your own jurisdiction, and that relationship stays yours. On the China side I act as Chinese counsel on the matter: I advise on the Chinese law that decides it, and I act before the notaries, registries, courts and counterparties inside mainland China.

That usually means working with your client directly as well as with you. Chinese procedure requires the client's own signed power of attorney, and many decisions turn on facts or documents only the client has. How much runs through you and how much passes directly between me and your client is agreed at the outset, and you are kept informed either way. Some referring lawyers want to be in every exchange; others make the introduction and let the China side run. Both work.

What referrers generally need is not more Chinese law but someone inside the Chinese system who can be instructed in English and who takes responsibility for the China side. That is the role.

What can be handled on the China side

The China-side work spans more than any one practice area, because the matters that reach this wall do. Across all of them the pattern is the same — something has to be filed, proved, registered, enforced or recovered inside mainland China, by someone licensed to appear there.

Cross-border succession and estate disposal

Where a client inherits property, bank accounts or company equity in China: the notarial route, or the court where it is not open; transfer of title into the heirs' names; a later sale; and the separate foreign-exchange procedure for remitting the proceeds out of China. The full mechanics are set out on the claiming an estate in China hub, and the remittance side on China's foreign-exchange rules for individuals.

Recognition and enforcement of foreign awards and judgments

Enforcing a foreign arbitral award against assets in China under the New York Convention, and seeking recognition and enforcement of a foreign court judgment where a treaty or reciprocity allows it. See enforcing a foreign arbitration award in China.

Commercial litigation and debt recovery against Chinese parties

Claims against a Chinese company or individual — breach, non-delivery, unpaid invoices — starting with the step most overseas parties skip: confirming the counterparty exists and owns something before anyone spends money, and preserving assets early. See how to sue a Chinese company and collecting a debt from a Chinese company.

Foreign-related labour disputes

A client dismissed, or left unpaid, under a China employment relationship, through the compulsory labour-arbitration stage and, where needed, the court. See labour arbitration for a foreign employee.

Foreign-related personal-injury compensation

A client injured in China pursuing compensation against those responsible — on the road (traffic-accident injury compensation), at work (work-injury compensation), or otherwise.

If your matter has a China side that is not on this list but sits in the same territory, describe it. I will tell you whether it is one I take, or one I should refer on to a colleague within the firm.

Diligence you can run before you introduce anyone

You will want to satisfy yourself, and your client, before sending a matter across a border. Three things are independently verifiable.

• A current PRC licence. I am admitted to practise in the People's Republic of China (admitted 2024), licence number 11101202411865284, which you can check on the Ministry of Justice's national public register of lawyers — the same register on which a Chinese counterparty's own counsel appears.
• A full-service firm behind the file. I practise at Yingke Law Firm, one of the largest law firms in China, with an international network. For a referrer that matters in concrete ways: a formal conflicts check before a matter is opened, professional indemnity cover, and the depth to bring in a colleague where a matter turns on a specialised or unfamiliar point rather than being run thin.
• English as a working language. English is my working language — TEM-8 and Cambridge BEC Higher, and interpreting in diplomatic settings — so you instruct, and are reported to, in English, and your client is not depending on a translation of a translation.

What I do not offer is seniority: I was admitted in 2024. For a referring lawyer the credibility that counts here is the verifiable combination above — a real PRC licence, an established firm's backing, and genuine working English — rather than years at the bar.

How a referral usually works

The shape will be familiar to anyone who has worked with counsel in another jurisdiction.

1. A conversation first. We start by talking the matter through, by email, a call, a video meeting or WeChat, whichever suits you and your client, to see whether there is something worth doing on the China side and which route is open. Nothing formal is needed at that stage; where the matter calls for it, I follow up in writing so there is something concrete to decide on.
2. Documents and authentication. Cross-border matters live or die on the document chain. Since November 2023 mainland China has been in the Hague Apostille Convention, so public documents from member states need an apostille rather than consular legalisation; powers of attorney and other private documents are notarised locally first, then apostilled where the issuing country is a Convention member (or legalised through a Chinese embassy or consulate where it is not, or where it objected to China’s accession), and translated into Chinese. I set out precisely what your client's documents have to look like from their country, in what order. See using apostilled documents in China and notarisation and authentication for China.
3. Communication and reporting across time zones. I work in English and report progress in the way agreed at the outset: to you, to your client, or to both together. That includes flagging early where a Chinese court's foreign-related procedure will run slower than a domestic one. Background on that system is on how the Chinese court system works.

Engagement and terms

Nothing is open-ended. The scope of the China-side work and its cost are agreed in writing before work begins. Under Chinese rules a lawyer accepts instructions through the law firm, so the engagement is always with Yingke Law Firm, with me as the handling lawyer; fees are paid to the firm against a signed agreement and an official invoice, never to an individual.

Who the firm is engaged by depends on the matter. Your client can engage the firm directly for the China-side work, or your firm can instruct us on your client's behalf. Both are common in cross-border matters, and we settle which fits at the start. Where your client is the party before a Chinese notary, registry or court, they will normally sign a power of attorney in their own name either way.

Tell me about the matter and we can work out the arrangement that suits it.

What I will not do

• Take over work that is yours. You remain your client's lawyer for everything in your own jurisdiction. My role is the China side of the matter, and I do not try to move your client's home-jurisdiction work to me.
• Advise on your own law. I am licensed in the PRC. Your jurisdiction's succession, tax and procedural questions stay with you or a colleague there; I am glad to work alongside you.
• Promise a result. Chinese rules of professional conduct forbid guaranteeing an outcome, and no honest lawyer in any system does it. You will get a candid view of the prospects and the risks, not a promise.
• Take a matter I cannot properly staff, or one that fails a conflicts check. If there is a conflict, or the matter needs depth I should bring a colleague in for, I will say so at the outset.

Introducing a matter

If you have a client whose matter has stopped moving at the China end, tell me about it. A few lines is enough to start: what the matter is, where in China the asset, counterparty or dispute sits, what you have already done in your own jurisdiction, and what you need from the China side. I will come back with a view on whether it is one I can take, and how we might structure it.

I am Joy Wang (Wang Zhe · 王喆), a PRC-licensed attorney at Yingke Law Firm in Beijing — licence number 11101202411865284, admitted 2024, working in English and Chinese. Write to me at [email protected].