Shanghai lawyers support fostering of world-class business environment

At the beginning of this year, Shanghai released the latest version of its action plan for optimizing the city's business environment. As one of the city's initial 19 institutions committed to business environment enhancement, the Shanghai Bar Association (SBA) has mobilized lawyers across the city to serve as legal advisors, policy promoters and advocates in supporting the creation of a world-class business environment and providing robust legal guarantees for high-quality development.

The SBA has proactively facilitated the participation of lawyers serving as deputies to the people's congresses and members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in policymaking and legislative deliberations. Leveraging the role of grassroots legislative liaison points, the association has conducted targeted research on the action plan, working out a 20,000-word report.

As a policy promoter, the SBA has collaborated with multiple departments to facilitate policy publicity. It has organized four special training sessions jointly with the Shanghai Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau on labor laws and regulations to publicize pro-business policies in the human resources sector. In collaboration with the Shanghai Municipal Development and Reform Commission, the SBA has launched a new portal - "Business Environment" - on its website and mobile app, providing real-time updates on policies, regulations and case databases to empower lawyers in providing targeted services to enterprises.

To fully tap into its role as a policy advocate, the SBA has compiled and published the document, the Chinese-English Lawyers' Interpretation of Policies and Regulations of Shanghai Municipality on Optimizing Business Environment, helping domestic and foreign enterprises learn about the city's policy updates. For seven years running, the SBA has provided public interest legal consultations for exhibitors at the China International Import Expo.

In addition, the association has published ‌nine operational guidelines‌ spanning 230,000 words across critical areas including bankruptcy procedures, labor rights protection and commercial dispute resolution, establishing standardized compliance benchmarks for businesses. The SBA also released the Guide for Overseas Service Outlets of Shanghai Law Firms to promote a precise alignment between foreign-related legal service institutions and enterprises going global.

Looking ahead, the SBA is planning an inaugural legal compliance service product competition, focusing on improving Shanghai's capacity in foreign-related legal services. The initiative aims to provide strong legal support for the city in creating a world-class business environment and enhancing international influence and competitiveness.