Another China Lawyer Story

Great story from Caixin Online about Yang Jinzhu ousted by the law firm he founded after suggesting some members of the PRC judiciary aren't exactly squeaky clean and as he says...."Money is important for a lawyer," Yang wrote. "But for a real lawyer, there should be something more important than the pursuit of money." http://english.caing.com/2010-11-17/100199481.html China's Tarzan of Jungle Law Advocates Reform Ousted by the firm he founded, online critic and attorney Yang Jinzhu is challenging China's legal establishment By staff reporter Liu Chang 11.17.2010 16:38 The provincial justice department official pounded a table, demanding that the lawyer before him, Yang Jinzhu, immediately yank a sensitive blog posting off the Internet. It was the afternoon of September 30, just a few hours after Yang had uploaded an article entitled Dare to Ask Which Comes First on his personal blog site. Yang Jinzhu An experienced and well-connected lawyer, Yang had rocked China's legal establishment with a critique calling for the resignations of top justices at the Supreme People's Court. His demands were laced with angry comments such as "rule of law in China is dead," and he said he would "launch his non-violent protest activities starting October 8." The justice official warned Yang that he'd stepped into a dangerous minefield, and that if he failed to delete the posting he would face "unpredictable consequences." Yang refused to obey and walked out. The next day, National Day in China, Yang posted a blog in the morning and another in the evening, each as acidic as his previous essays. Under the heading Yang Jinzhu Tells You Truth, he challenged the chief justice of the Supreme People's Court, Wang Shengjun, to a debate, and said the Chinese justice minister, Wu Aiying, should step down. And he wasn't finished. A week later, Yang posted a new essay called The Mission of Chinese Lawyers that once again stood up to what he sees as a judicial system gone awry. "Faced with the backtracking of justice in China, few Chinese lawyers speak out," he wrote. "The collective silence has turned what should be a dynamic group of Chinese lawyers into a flock of sheep." With that, Yang stepped right on a landmine. And two days later, he was expelled from the legal firm he helped start, the Hunan Tong Cheng Law Firm in Changsha. A statement from Tong Cheng, one of the province's largest law firms, said Yang had been removed for "making a series of erroneous statements online." It added that he had ignored "repeated warnings" against such behavior, and that his personal expressions on the Internet had "seriously damaged the firm's image and prestige." Founder, Thinker The decision to show Yang the door could not have been an easy for his fellow attorneys. He was the firm's senior partner as well as honorary chairman, with the biggest office and a sterling reputation that brought plenty of business. Indeed, Yang's name alone won the firm plenty of clients. This year, though, Yang agreed to take up three, highly sensitive cases. Perhaps the most prominent involved Chen Ling, the wife of a deputy director at the Hunan Provincial Public Security Department. Chen had been accused of financial crimes. Her husband was investigated as well after writing letters to the central government and posting blog entries on the Internet begging for an end to what he calls persecution of his blog-posting wife. Yang agreed to defend Chen and wrote several blog postings about the case. He used his pen to ridicule the provincial public security bureau spokesman. And he asked for a review of Chen's case by the Communist Party secretary of the Hunan Provincial Politics and Law Committee. Yang argued that he had been targeted even though there was "no accusation from a litigant" specifically directed at him. "This is rare," he said, boldly adding that it seemed "transgression of public authority" was behind the allegations. In challenging authority, Yang broke from a professional career path that had afforded him a quiet, comfortable life. During some 20 years of practicing law, he had successfully served as a private legal advisor to more than 20 party officials working in various Hunan government posts. He also worked as a legal consultant to the Hunan provincial government office in Beijing and the Hunan State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission. In his spare time, Yang hiked and played cards with colleagues. He stayed connected by, for example, rarely missing dinners organized by his law firm. He was so well-connected that "I could have been a steady servant and continued serving the public authorities," he wrote in his essay called The Mission of Chinese Lawyers posted on the Internet on October 8. Back in 2008, however, Yang had already started veering away from pure law and toward more intellectual endeavors. That was the year he cut back on lawyering and started to spend half his time writing. He sought to follow in the footsteps of the famous writer and philosopher Lu Xun. Yang has never forgotten his past. Growing up during the Cultural Revolution period, he suffered as a boy and felt "concern for the nation and its people." In 1975, Yang's father was tortured and later committed suicide. Crying was forbidden during his funeral procession. Yang often mentions these experiences. He's described the Cultural Revolution as "an era when there was absolutely no rule of law. So I think rule of law is superlatively valuable." As an experienced lawyer, Yang was in a good position to contribute to intellectual discussions about law reform in China. He chose to join scholars such as Jiang Ping, who has warned for years about a potential backtracking for the nation's legal reforms. Yang belongs to a group of legal experts who argue that reform moves in China so far have failed to improve the judiciary. They oppose the kind of reforms that revive traditional political and legal thinking, and strengthen the practical value of the justice system. Yang's yearning for change worried him so much that he accepted inherent risks by posting controversial blogs essays. He found support: Strangers often sent him good wishes by text message, and many prominent lawyers using their real names penned their support on his blog. Yang sometimes approached his serious subjects with a light style and humor. Yet he wasn't afraid to criticize. Friends said he acted like a naughty child: The more he argued, the happier he was. "Yang had an extremely unique way of showing us the legal profession's 'prisoner's dilemma'" game theory in China, which challenges attorneys' sense of justice, said Zhang Qianfan, a Peking University professor of constitutional law. Lawyers should be at the core of any nation's legal community and a mainstay for upholding laws and regulations, Zhang said.? But if a country's legal system is obsolete, he argued, lawyers cannot fulfill this role, nor resist administrative interference. When that happens they adhere to the hidden rules that govern their profession. And as long as lawyers are denied basic protection of professional rights, Zhang said, any rule of law "tower" in China will be no more than a castle in the air. Zhang said Yang alone cannot be expected to prevent the deterioration of rule of law reform in China. That's because rule of law is "everyone's business," he said. "Only with the collective courage and the undertakings of those in the legal profession can it be bolstered." Before running afoul of his law partners, Yang was handsomely rewarded: His annual salary since 2002, for example, exceeded 1 million yuan. But these days, he's more interested in defending justice than his bank account. "Money is important for a lawyer," Yang wrote. "But for a real lawyer, there should be something more important than the pursuit of money."