China, Dec. 2005 to January 2006

The Corporation for Professional Conferences in late 2005 vividly showed the contrast between the “old” China and the “new” China. We met with the extensive Temple Law School family – both people who studied in Philadelphia and those participating in the Temple classes in Beijing. We met at the Zhong Lun law firm, where our host Liu Chi is, a senior partner, who received his L.L.M. from Temple in 1986. Mr. Liu is president of the Temple Law School Alumni Association of China. We also visited the office of Baker and McKenzie in Shanghai. It was located in the largest building in Shanghai, the Jin Mao Tower, an 88-story building. This is in the Pudong section of Shanghai, with dozens of skyscrapers, an area that was just rice paddies a few years ago. In both settings, the facilities were modern and the lawyers every bit as knowledgeable and forward thinking as those in major firms in the United States. This contrasted with the “old” China that still prevails in Xian, the home of the ancient capital and the terra cotta warriors, and in places such as the Forbidden City and the Great Wall of China.

Posted by Alex Miller on behalf of Richard B. Klein

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