2020 ALB 律所先驱者

2020 ALB Trailblazers – China

榜单现已揭晓！

Ranking by ALB 《亚洲法律杂志》

按律所名称排序

大成律师事务所

Beijing Dentons Law Offices

北京道可特律师事务所

Beijing DOCVIT Law Firm

澄明则正律师事务所

CM Law Firm

家理律师事务所

Jiali Law Firm

君合律师事务所

JunHe

金杜律师事务所

King & Wood Mallesons

万商天勤律师事务所

V&T Law Firm

北京瀛和律师事务所

Winteam500 Law Firm

元达律师事务所

Yuanda China Law Firm

虹桥正瀚律师事务所

Zhenghan Law Firm

虽然律师事务所一度被视为颇为传统、甚至堪称保守的机构，今天，创新及适应力则在法律市场竞争中扮演着重要角色。从使用全新技术，到设立全新的工作模式及方法，成为“先驱者”的道路绝不限于一条。在ALB推出的全新“律所先驱者”排名中，我们评选出了10家在原创力方面脱颖而出的中国律所。

愈是变动的年月，律师事务所依靠敏锐度和适应力脱离危机、实现长久发展的能力愈发显得重要。如今，一些律所正逐渐脱离“保守”形象，尝试用创新方法解决既存难题，也使自己能够“时刻准备着”，面对不安的未来。

也许在未来的某天，当我们回望2020年，它在我们的记忆中会成为“亚洲法律市场大变革之年”。这一年的开局对于律师事务所来说就充满张力：客户预期不断变化、科技变革日新月异、大量优秀同仁的涌现进一步催化了法律市场竞争度。随后，新冠疫情的到来轻松吹破了一切我们曾以为坚固的事物。

伴随律所做出各种尝试，试图缓解业务遭受的重创，有件事似乎变得更明显了：创新和大胆开始变得如此重要，它们不仅能让律所脱离当下的震动，也会为未来的可持续增长铺设舞台。

正是牢记着这点，2020年，ALB首次推出了“律所先驱者”榜单。这是目前中国法律服务市场上少有的关注创新力的榜单，也因如此，我们十分惊讶并欣喜于参与者对于“律所创新”一词广博多元的理解。这些参与者中，既有头部律所，展现着它们在创新层面的实力；也不乏规模较小的律所，让我们看到雄心与乐观心态调和在一起后可能发生的化学反应。

这个新排名得到了中国法律服务市场的热烈反馈，我们看到，尽管大家对于创新的理解不尽相同，但大体可以从管理制度、分配制度、业务模式、协作网络、技术创新、灵活性等角度考量这个话题。在上榜律所简介中，我们也从上述维度，介绍了上榜律所的创新之道。

在正式介绍这些律所前，我们想再分享两个有趣的观察：第一，面对相同“痛点”，有时律所会给出截然不同的解决方案；第二，和以往相比，这份榜单更多元地糅合了所谓“大所”“小所”“地方所”甚至“精品所”。

我们也希望借由这份榜单，开启何为“律所创新”的讨论，因为即便只是今天微现火苗的尝试之举，明天也可能发展为决定生存的重要指标。

大成律师事务所创建的“下一代法律全球转介网”（Nextlaw Referral Network）目前是全球规模最大的律师协作网络，拥有来自200个国家的超过700家律师事务所。和传统律师协作网络不同，该平台不收取会员费，对于律所不进行规模限定，同时也没有“一地一所”的限制。通过专有技术，会员律所可以搜索、联络客户需求地的合适律所，并对他们的服务进行评分，以保障客户能够在陌生法域同样得到高质量服务。会员还可以利用这一平台追踪自己的所有推荐及被推荐记录，形成个性化推荐选择。这一平台同时入驻了多家法律科技供应商，以折扣价格向会员律所提供相关服务。

新冠疫情期间，大成上线了“COVID-19 Hub”，该信息中心针对员工、客户及合作伙伴，协调全球48个国家的区域办公室，实时整合各国政府公告、防疫资讯、以及涉及劳动法、数据隐私保护、不可抗力、税务、竞争反垄断等领域专业资讯。疫情期间，大成还在直播App“大成律师”（Dentons Lawyer）中上线了“大成学习假期”（Dentons Learning Holiday），免费向律师和客户提供培训课程，自2020年2月来共上线了超过100门课程、观看量超过170余万次。

While law firms may have once courted a traditional, somewhat conventional image —today, innovation and adaptation are key. From employing new types of groundbreaking technology to establishing new ways of working and new approaches, there are many different ways to be a trailblazer. For ALB's new Trailblazers 2020 rankings, 10 Chinese firms stand out for their originality, leadership and impact.

A year of upheaval has demonstrated that law firms need to be nimble and adaptive if they are to come out of this crisis and thrive in the long run. Here are some firms that are using innovative approaches to tackle existing challenges and also make themselves future proof.

It is likely that years from now, when we look back on 2020, we'll remember it as the time of the Big Shift in Asia's legal industry. At the start of this year, the traditional law firm model was already under a considerable amount of strain, with shifting client expectations, rapid advancements in technology, and a plethora of high-quality competition. And then turned up COVID-19 to deliver what appears to be a decisive blow.

As law firms scrambled to contain the fallout to their businesses, one thing started to become obvious —that innovation and boldness were the critical keys to both surviving the current shock, but also set the stage for sustainable growth in the future.

Keeping this in mind, we sought submissions for the ALB Trailblazers listing of innovative law firms. Given that this was  the first edition, we were surprised at the diverse responses from across the legal industry — marquee names in their respective markets showcased their innovation credentials, while smaller law firms highlighted just what could happen if firms had a mix of ambition and a positive mindset.

The rankings were well received by the legal industry players in China. Although innovation is defined in different ways, overall we can look at it from a few aspects, namely management, distribution, business model, legal network, technology innovation and flexibility. We share how the winners enable innovation using these aspects.

Before we introduce the trailblazers, we would like to share two noteworthy observations. Firstly, law firms sometimes propose very different solutions to the same pain points. Secondly, the winners' list presents a more diverse representation that includes not only marquee names and smaller law firms, but also local firms and boutique law firms.

With the Trailblazers listing, we hope to initiate a discussion on the innovation of law firms. A small step taken today could be an important indicator of survival in the future.

Created by Dentons, the Nextlaw Referral Network is the world's largest legal network, connecting more than 700 law firms from 200 countries. Unlike conventional legal networks, it is free and open to all law firms regardless of size, and is not geographically exclusive in membership. The network utilizes a proprietary technology platform to help member firms research, contact, and rate the performance of network members to guarantee that clients receive the highest quality legal advice and business solutions. Members can also easily record and track the types of referrals they are receiving and sending, and where the referrals are going to or coming from to better shape their offers and assistance effectively. It also serves as a distribution channel of curated legal technology for its members, at discounted prices.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dentons launched the COVID-19 Hub. The law firm united regional offices in 48 countries to integrate global consultations and summarised them in the hub, which allows its employees, clients and partners to find the latest government announcements and pandemic updates, as well as information about labour law, data privacy protection, force majeure, taxation, competition and antitrust law. During the pandemic, the law firm launched the Dentons Learning Holiday program on its live-streaming mobile app known as Dentons Lawyer to provide free training courses to its lawyers and clients. Since February, Dentons has live-streamed more than 100 courses, which have drawn over 1.7 million views.