Earn Important Work Experience in China

Clinical Program

Participants may enroll in a one-week Labor Law or Intellectual Property Law Clinic from May 28 to May June 1. There are ten spaces available in each clinic.

Participants work in "store front" law offices or in law firms with CUPL law students and attend lectures, go on field trips and meet with clients - i.e., Chinese citizens who cannot afford to pay a lawyer for legal services.

There is a $150 fee for participation in a clinic. Students are awarded one pass/fail credit. The fee covers the cost of providing attorney supervision to the participants.

To broaden the academic experience, students in the summer program are eligible for admission into a clinical program. The program is entirely voluntary and enables students to earn one (1) additional ABA-approved credit at nominal cost.

The clinical program provides students an opportunity to work in a legal clinic providing assistance to needy Chinese clients. Students can work in the intellectual property law or the labor law clinic.

In each clinic, the student will gain an in-depth knowledge of an important facet of Chinese law and participate in assisting clients with problems related to that field. The clients may include (i) young university student entrepreneurs seeking to protect an invention; (ii) workers from rural areas seeking to enforce wage and worker safety laws; and (iii) residents who fear development near their homes is endangering their health and the health of their families. The work is intellectually stimulating and fills a current void in a nation that has not yet developed a comprehensive system for dispensing legal assistance to the poor and under-represented.

The Employment Legal Clinic is located in the CUPL downtown campus at 25 Xitucheng Rd, Beijing. The Intellectual Property Clinic is located at the Gao Bo Lung Hua Law Firm in the Chao Yang District.

Internships

A number of internships in major Beijing law firms are available for Chinese-speaking participants. The internships commence at the conclusion of the course program for a period of two weeks.

There is a $150 fee for participation. Students are awarded one pass/fail credit.

Only Chinese Nationals are licensed to practice law in the P.R.C. Thus, all members of the law firms offering internships are Chinese citizens who have passed the National Lawyers Exam. However, because many clients the law firms represent are from the United States, Europe, Japan, Taiwan, and other Pacific Rim nations, many members of the firms have been admitted to Bars of other nations, including the Bars of the U.S. states. The firms with whom we place students have lawyers who have been educated abroad as well as in the P.R.C.

We make an effort to place students in firms that perform the type of work in which the student has a particular interest. Thus, if a student is interested in intellectual property, we will endeavor to place the student with a firm that has expertise in Chinese patent and trademark law. However, we cannot guarantee that every student will be placed in a firm that performs a particular type of legal service. The experiences students have will vary with the firm's needs at the time the internship is performed. In the past, students have participated in meetings with clients; have assisted in drafting documents; have prepared correspondence; and have drafted legal memoranda.

In performing such tasks, the summer interns at times work closely with lawyers from one or more of the approximately 100 foreign law firms that have been authorized to establish offices in the P.R.C. but who are precluded from engaging in the practice of law within the P.R.C. because its members are not Chinese citizens. As of this date, Chinese lawyers are not permitted to associate with foreign law firms.

The summer clinics and internships offer students a unique opportunity to see first-hand how Chinese lawyers navigate the maize of often conflicting regulations promulgated at every level of Chinese government (national, provincial and local), and to see the importance of personal relationships in obtaining the requisite approvals.

The practice of law in the P.R.C. is as much about navigating the maize of often conflicting governmental regulations, and knowing where and how to obtain the required approvals, as it is about substantive rules. Exposure to P.R.C. lawyers skilled in obtaining the required approvals provides students with a unique opportunity to see the distinction between the written law and its application.