Chinese Corporate Lawyers Face Challenges in Maintaining Corporate Social Responsibility in the Age of Globalization

Abstract

In China, the term "lawyer" is defined as "a practitioner who has acquired a lawyer's practice certificate pursuant to law and provides legal services to the public."' Since the reforms to the regulation of lawyers in the early 1980s, the Chinese legal services industry has developed dramatically, and the swift expansion of the legal profession is evident in both quantity and quality. By the end of 2009 there were over 166,000 practicing lawyers, compared with just several hundreds in the early 1980s. Chinese lawyers have become better able to pursue the interests of their clients, and their income from legal practice has increased substantially.4 The process of professionalization has contributed to a trend towards specialization, and more lawyers have begun to specialize in commercial