Jiangsu pioneers a pilot development zone for foreign-related legal services

As a frontline region in the country's opening-up, East China's Jiangsu province took a major step to advance its foreign-related legal services as early as December 2023 by proposing the establishment of the country's first high-quality development pilot zone in this field, and outlining 15 key tasks, including building high-level platforms and cultivating a high-caliber talent pool.

Over the past two years, Jiangsu has made remarkable strides in advancing its foreign-related legal service system through the successful implementation of a series of initiatives. Key platforms such as the Suzhou International Legal Services District, the Jiangsu (Nanjing) Foreign-Related Legal Service Center, and a center for foreign law ascertainment and research have been established. The province has also deepened collaboration with local universities to cultivate practice-oriented foreign-related professionals, and encouraged legal service institutions to provide targeted legal guidance for local enterprises expanding abroad to address their pressing legal needs in cross-border operations.

These efforts have accelerated the province's development of a legal service system that aligns with its strategic goals of becoming a global hub for sci-tech innovation, an internationally competitive advanced manufacturing base, and a globally attractive and two-way open hub, providing legal support for the province's high-level opening-up.

Building comprehensive platforms for foreign-related legal services

Leveraging the dynamic foreign-related economies of Suzhou and Nanjing, Jiangsu has promoted the development of legal service agglomeration zones in these cities. These zones integrate high-quality legal resources to provide rapid responses to enterprises' cross-border legal demands.

Earlier this year, the Suzhou municipal government issued an implementation plan for the development of its International Legal Services District. Building on the existing Suzhou Free Trade Zone Legal Service Center, the district focuses on four key areas: international commercial dispute resolution, cultivation of foreign-related legal service institutions, foreign-related investment and trade services, and exchanges in foreign-related rule of law. Through policy integration, resource pooling, and institutional innovation, the initiative aims to build the district into a globalized, professional, and digital legal services hub.

In October, the Jiangsu (Nanjing) Foreign-Related Legal Service Center was inaugurated in Nanjing's Gulou district. It brings together 17 institutions specializing in international commercial arbitration, commercial mediation, foreign-related notarization, and foreign law ascertainment, offering enterprises comprehensive legal services and diversified dispute resolution channels.

Notably, as early as December 2020, the Nanjing Arbitration Commission established the Jiangsu (Nanjing) International Commercial Arbitration Center, which was included in the Ministry of Justice's program for cultivating world-class arbitration institutions with Chinese characteristics. The commission also set up a service point within the China-United Arab Emirates Industrial Capacity Cooperation Demonstration Zone, offering arbitration services for investing enterprises.

Currently, the development system of the province's physical platforms for foreign-related legal services has taken shape, creating a high-quality and full-chain legal service ecosystem serving domestic and international market entities.

Enhancing the quality of foreign-related legal services　

Jiangsu has integrated global legal service resources with digital tools to overcome spatiotemporal barriers in cross-border legal services. For instance, Suzhou launched the "Global One-Hour Legal Service Circle" project, accessible via the "Sushangtong" application, a mobile government service platform for businesses. Similarly, Wuxi has launched an instant response system for global legal services, providing full-cycle legal protection for local enterprises expanding overseas.

Progress has also been made in safeguarding trade secrets. The Nanjing Notary Office has developed a blockchain-based platform for trade secrets protection, which encrypts sensitive documents such as corporate contracts and trade-related communications in real time.

Currently, notary offices across Jiangsu provide integrated notary services combining foreign-related notarization and consular legalization, handling over 200,000 foreign-related notary cases annually on average.

Moreover, the province has deepened its "Industrial Chain + Legal Services" campaign, rolling out targeted measures to support private enterprises in global markets. It has developed specialized legal service products, such as licensing transaction support for biopharmaceutical firms and tools for cross-border judgment recognition and enforcement. The province has also compiled and published more than 30 legal guides for sectors such as photovoltaic energy, ensuring that legal services are aligned with industrial chains and enterprises' needs.

Collaborating to cultivate a foreign-related talent pool　

Jiangsu has intensified efforts to cultivate a high-caliber foreign-related legal talent pool. In August this year, the Office of the Commission for Overall Law-based Governance of the Communist Party of China Jiangsu Provincial Committee, together with the province's Department of Education, Department of Commerce, and other agencies, organized the first practical training session at the province's collaborative training base for foreign-related legal talents. This event featured seminars with enterprises expanding globally on practical legal challenges, expert lectures on high-frequency foreign-related legal issues such as responding to lawsuits, arbitration, compliance, and strategies for intellectual property rights disputes, and hands-on practice at enterprises for participants.

In 2024, the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Justice, leveraging the province's rich educational resources, founded an alliance dedicated to foreign-related rule of law with 14 universities, including Nanjing University. Specialized collaborative training bases — two at the national level and five at the provincial level — have been set up, offering lectures and practical training sessions across various foreign-related sectors such as adjudication, arbitration, notarization, services provided by lawyers, and enterprise-related legal services. Through these efforts, the province has built a collaborative cultivation model of foreign-related legal talents that integrate industry, education and legal practice.

To cultivate high-caliber and practice-oriented foreign-related legal talents, Jiangsu has incorporated lawyer cultivation into its provincial talent development strategy. It has sent over 200 lawyers for training and exchange programs in countries and regions including the United Kingdom, Australia, Singapore, and China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. The province has also held conferences to promote foreign-related legal services, and supported the growth of key foreign-related legal service institutions — law firms and notary and arbitration organizations — to build a multi-tiered, comprehensive, and professional matrix service network.

Currently, Jiangsu has established a provincial foreign-related lawyer talent pool of 379 lawyers, providing specialized legal services across nine areas, including international trade, maritime issues, energy and infrastructure, intellectual property rights, and information security. Among them, 91 are included in the national foreign-related lawyer talent pool, while 45 are recognized as national foreign-related leading talents and 4 are part of the country's cross-border lawyer talent pool for the Belt and Road cooperation.