Raising the standard of Chinese law firms - Paul Gillis

Paul Gillis

The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) has fined three Chinese law firms for their shoddy legal work in IPO´s. A positive development in trying to raise the standard of Chinese law firms, writes professor Paul Gillis at his China Accounting Blog. "It´s about time." 

Paul Gillis:

The IPOs in question were all on China’s stock exchanges, and accordingly come under the regulatory authority of the CSRC. It is about time that the CSRC has taken action to raise the standards of legal practice on listed companies. The first crackdown on the accounting profession took place in 1997 and it was brutal. A quarter of Chinese CPAs faced discipline or eviction from the profession in the 1997 rectification. The legal profession is overdue for rectification. 

The CSRC’s jurisdiction does not extend to overseas listed Chinese companies. Overseas listed Chinese companies of any meaningful size tend to use well-known international law firms. But these international law firms are not allowed to opine on matters of Chinese law, so local firms are used for this purpose. 

Some local firms are well known for their willingness to issue clean opinions on variable interest entity (VIE) structures even in the face of considerable doubt as to whether the agreements that underpin these structures are enforceable. Many Chinese lawyers do not believe these agreements are enforceable, but those lawyers are not engaged to issue opinions on VIEs. The SEC has been tough on companies using the VIE structure, but is not in a position to challenge Chinese lawyers on matters of Chinese law. The CSRC does have that power, but it lacks jurisdiction over these companies. That is one of the things that the Singapore Solution can fix.

More at the China Accounting Blog.

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