Mr. Zheng Ke: Dedication and professionalism are the foundation of lawyers' practice
Text/Peng Chuan
Understanding a man can begin with the path he has walked under his feet. Rush to the law firm before 8:30 every morning to start the busy day, and when I get home in the evening, if there is nothing else to do, I will continue to study the law. On this "bitter" road of life, he is like an "ascetic monk" who walks alone in the desert for more than 20 years without hindrance, cutting thorns and thorns, and enjoying it.
Having worked as a policeman, working in the office of the district party committee, and now becoming a lawyer, the word "diligence" has always been with his life, becoming a ladder for him to appreciate the infinite scenery of his career.
He is Zheng Ke, a senior partner at Beijing Dentons (Ningbo) Law Firm. A lawyer who has a simple belief in the rule of law, has always regarded dedication and professionalism as the foundation of lawyers' practice, and regarded them as a conscious pursuit, as well as a warm-hearted legal person.
From police officer to lawyer, no regrets
In the 1980s, China set off a spectacular "literary fever". At that time, Zheng Ke was also interested in literature, especially liked to read novels, and was impressed by the fact that there was a magazine called "Selected Novellas" at that time. Therefore, when he volunteered after graduating from high school, he had planned to apply for Chinese major. However, his brother, who had already enrolled in the department of Chinese, persuaded him to change his major, saying that legal talents were needed for the future development of the country. In this way, he finally chose the Law Department of Ningbo University.
For this reason, he was also depressed for a while.
After graduating from college in 1991, Zheng Ke wanted to go to the court to work, but for some reason he missed the time to recruit new people, and by chance, he became a policeman.
To this day, Zheng Ke still clearly remembers that he came out of the court with some disappointment that day, and suddenly found that behind him was the office building of the Public Security Bureau, so he went to ask whether to recruit people with the mood of trying it out. In the hallway, he met a deputy director who, after learning about his studies, asked him to go back and wait for a reply. Within a few days, the political work department of the Public Security Bureau made a special trip to the school to understand the situation. Then he went to work at the Public Security Bureau.
"After 5 years of public security work, my biggest gain was to learn Ningbo dialect, which is the basis for me to be able to smoothly talk with local clients in my future lawyer work in Ningbo." In addition, it is to develop a careful work habit. Zheng Ke said. At that time, Ningbo was still relatively closed, and many ordinary people could not speak Mandarin and could not understand Mandarin. He remembers once making small talk with a colleague who said that his parents basically didn't watch TV because they couldn't understand Mandarin, "which surprised me at the time."
In August 1996, Zheng Ke resigned from the police and worked in the office of the Beilun District Party Committee of Ningbo City for 5 years, and has been the chief of the section. At that time, he did not want to leave the system to become a lawyer until an accident occurred.
"I passed the bar exam in 1999, when my career plans had begun to waver, but I hadn't yet made up my mind." Zheng Ke said. It was then that his private contact with a state-owned company in another district was made known to the district's Justice Bureau. When the Bureau of Justice looked at the 31-year-old section chief with a promising career, he moved the idea of becoming a lawyer and doubted whether he had been punished by the organization, so he suddenly came to the organization department of the Beilun District Committee to investigate. "In this way, everyone knows what I want to do as a lawyer." It happened that at that time, there was a middle-level competition, and the unit leader asked Zheng Ke if he really intended to be a lawyer. "I don't think I have any room to hesitate at this time." Weighing the weight between left and right, he finally submitted his resignation report.
In this way, in 2000, Zheng Ke embarked on the road of lawyer.
The years do not live, the seasons are like a stream.
In the blink of an eye, more than 20 years have passed, although he was a lawyer after several turns, and many colleagues in the district party committee office later took up leadership positions and developed very well, but looking back on his decision to turn to a lawyer, Zheng Ke said that he did not regret it, and he felt that he had found a suitable career for himself. "It is a blessing for a person to be able to pursue a profession that he really likes." He said.
Take the road of specialization, deeply cultivate real estate and construction projects
Specialization allows lawyers to go further.
Today, Zheng Ke has been deeply involved in the legal service segment of real estate and construction projects for more than ten years, and now serves as the deputy director of Dacheng Real Estate and Energy Committee.
Like many lawyers who came from that era, when he first entered the industry, he also took all kinds of cases, and the professional subdivision was not obvious. "At that time, the phenomenon of lawyers taking the road of specialization was not common. The industrial subdivision of Ningbo City, where I practiced, was not yet obvious. Zheng Ke said. The segmentation of the legal services market is the economic premise of the professionalization of lawyers.
He said that it was the needs of customers that made him choose the direction of specialization later. Around 2006, he took over a very small dispute over a contract for the sale and purchase of building materials. In the process of work, he found that the legal services of real estate and construction projects involved many government departments, cumbersome laws and regulations, and complex disputes. "That means it has a higher threshold for expertise." However, in stark contrast, our level of legal services does not meet market expectations, and it can be said that there is a lot of lack. As a result, he saw a broad space for learning and development, and then gradually focused his business direction on the field of real estate and construction engineering.
Ten years to sharpen a sword. Today, Zheng Ke has become an outstanding expert lawyer in this field.
Talking about the professionalism of lawyers, he said, "My basic understanding is: First, in the early stage of practice, there is no need to overemphasize specialization, and we should try to contact as many cases as possible, including criminal and administrative, in order to expand our knowledge, which is very helpful for taking the road of specialization in the future, for example, handling real estate and construction engineering business will also encounter criminal and administrative problems." Secondly, after practicing for a certain number of years, we should actively transform into specialization, which is an inevitable requirement for improving the level of lawyers' legal services and core competitiveness. ”
Suddenly, like a spring breeze in the night, thousands of trees and pear blossoms bloomed.
In the years of practicing law, Zheng Ke has witnessed the rapid development of China's real estate economy in recent years, and has also felt the significant changes in the legal service market related to it.
"The increasingly rich and diverse investment models bring complexity to engineering projects, and put forward higher requirements for lawyers specializing in real estate and construction engineering." This, he said, also forces lawyers to grow themselves in constant transformation. "Over the years, lawyers in the field of real estate and construction projects in the mainland have become more specialized in their business and the competition has become more intense. For example, in the past engineering cases, the judicial appraisal of engineering costs relied more on appraisal institutions, but now, lawyers basically have to participate in the whole process of material organization, on-site inspection, determination of pricing standards or pricing methods, review of engineering quantity, application of engineering specifications, etc., and the depth of participation has greatly increased. This pressure eventually turned into motivation and promoted the improvement of lawyers' professional capabilities, and as a result, a group of expert lawyers gradually emerged in China in this segment. ”
In order to adapt to this change, Zheng Kehe and his team have put forward higher requirements for their own legal service capabilities on the basis of constantly summarizing experience and learning from the strengths of others. The real estate and construction engineering major involves many laws and regulations and updates quickly, so first of all, the team requires members to always maintain the habit of learning. "Last year, the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors invited me to join the association, which I thought was a good learning opportunity, so I joined the association." Zheng Ke said. Second, members are required to always pay attention to the spirit of relevant documents and grasp the dynamics of the industry. Moreover, it is to require everyone to treat the work carefully and meticulously. Before the first hearing of the case, they will generally summarize the disputes in the case from the perspective of the adjudicator according to the plaintiff's request and the defendant's reply, and put forward a pre-trial opinion on the focus of the case dispute for the court's reference. Zheng Ke said that now the court "has a small number of cases", it is often difficult for judges to conduct in-depth research on the case before the first trial, and the purpose of providing pre-trial opinions on the focus of case disputes is to help judges summarize the focus of case disputes and sort out trial ideas, so as to improve the efficiency of the trial, and it is also conducive to the understanding and acceptance of their own views by judges.
One point of hard work, one point of harvest.
In the more than 20 years of his relationship with the lawyer's career, Zheng Kehe's team has achieved remarkable results in many aspects: the business volume has grown steadily, and many high-quality cases, including projects with a contract amount of more than 2 billion yuan and disputes involving nearly 400 households, have been undertaken, and many of them have finally realized benefits far beyond the expectations of customers.
In addition, they also have unique experience in the disposal of financial non-performing assets and the handling of mining disputes, which are closely related to real estate. Zheng Ke and his team filed a third-party revocation lawsuit on behalf of the bad financial creditors, and the total amount of the original judgment of the project money claim was reduced by 5 million yuan. In a mining dispute case, the client's initial expectation was 41 million yuan, and after hard work, they finally got more than 100 million yuan for it, exceeding the client's expected goal.
"Whether it is the disposal of non-performing financial assets or the handling of mining disputes, it is very complicated, and the requirements for the professional ability and comprehensive quality of lawyers are relatively high." Zheng Ke said. Today, mining disputes, as a type of real estate dispute, have become one of the key businesses of their team.
Emphasis on details and innovation to help the development of the industry
Small details, big power.
The reason why Zheng Kehe and his team have been able to fight many beautiful battles over the years, in addition to having a team of lawyers with excellent quality, responsible for cases and superior technology, there is also a "secret" is to pay attention to details. Their rigorous and meticulous treatment of work has left a deep impression on many customers.
In 2004, the Supreme People's Court issued a judicial interpretation stipulating that construction project cases should be handled under ordinary jurisdiction, which caused many controversies.
Zheng Kehe and his team have undertaken such a case.
The general contractor construction unit A and the subcontracted construction unit B Company, after the end of the project, had a dispute in the settlement, and they did not want to be pushed into the defendant's seat, and the bank account of company B was also frozen. "Company A doesn't understand." Zheng Ke said that first of all, the location of the project involved in the case is Ningbo, Zhejiang, but the plaintiff sued in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province; secondly, the plaintiff is not Company B, but a "third party" that they do not know at all, and the plaintiff's signature cannot be found in various work materials. They then appealed to the court for jurisdictional objections, which were quickly dismissed. The plaintiff claimed that Company B subcontracted the project to him, and that it had filed a lawsuit with Company A and Company B as co-defendants, because Company B was an enterprise in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province, so the Jiangsu court had jurisdiction.
"After the jurisdictional objection was dismissed, Company A approached us, both anxious and angry. They felt that the Jiangsu court had decided the case. Zheng Ke said that Company A intends to appeal.
After intervening in the case, Zheng Ke first understood the basic situation of the case, and then rushed to Jiangsu. In the field investigation, they learned more about the plaintiff's work resume, marriage registration and other related information. Through a series of meticulous work, they found that the plaintiff had been engaged in the silk reeling industry and had no experience in engineering construction; at the same time, they confirmed the relationship between the plaintiff and the project leader of Company B, who were son-in-law and father-in-law. The truth of the matter thus surfaced - the subcontracting relationship between the plaintiff and Company B was all fictitious, in fact, the father-in-law let the son-in-law sue himself for the jurisdiction of the case.
Despite the complete chain of evidence, at the second instance, for the sake of prudence, Zheng Ke and his team not only submitted an application for a hearing to the Changzhou Intermediate Court, but also often communicated with the second-instance judge by phone. In the end, the Changzhou Intermediate People's Court revoked the first-instance ruling and transferred the case to the jurisdiction of the Beilun Court in Ningbo, Jiangsu Province.
When Company B saw that the jurisdiction of the case had been transferred, it offered to negotiate with Company A to resolve it.
In this case, Zheng Kehe and the team faced the work carefully and seriously, and were highly recognized by Company A. "When we met many years later, they also mentioned the case." Zheng Ke said that his words were full of relief.
In another project settlement dispute, the client was asked for more than 800 yuan of project money, and Zheng Kehe and the team also finally confirmed through a lot of meticulous and rigorous work that the client not only did not owe money to the plaintiff, but also, because of the two previous advances to the wages of migrant workers, the actual money paid by the client had exceeded the money that should be given to the plaintiff. Immediately they filed a counterclaim on behalf of the client, and finally not only was the 8 million yuan claim rejected, but the court also ordered the other party to return the more than 1 million yuan of project money that had been overpaid before, and compensate for interest.
A leaf knows autumn. These are just two of the many cases handled by Zheng Ke and his team, but they are enough to see their work style and professional strength.
"Rigorous and meticulous is a working attitude, but also a work ability." Zheng Ke said.
The professionalism of Zheng Kehe and his team is also reflected in their ability to innovate and flexibly solve complex practical problems.
Construction dispute cases, because of the special issues involved in the project cost, project quality and other special issues need to start judicial appraisal, coupled with the high appeal rate, high retrial application rate, and low rate of parties to serve judgments, often take a long time. Zheng Ke's team has conducted statistics on this, taking an intermediate people's court in Zhejiang Province as an example, the shortest trial limit for construction contract cases decided by the court in the first instance from 2016 to 2019 is 352 days, and the longest is 840 days. Lengthy trial periods often impose heavy financial burdens and chain litigation on the party claiming the project, and in serious cases, even lead to the brink of bankruptcy. In order to alleviate the pressure on the party that was owed the project payment, Zheng Kehe and the team put forward the idea of the prior judgment earlier in the industry, that is, for the project progress payment owed by the contractor, or the uncontroversial project completion settlement amount of the contractor or the contractor, the court should make a partial judgment on the facts.
In a mining contract dispute case, they made full use of the provisions of the "expected benefit claim" and received a court judgment supporting 64 million yuan, exceeding the client's expectations.
In the handling of real estate cases, it is found that there are local regulations that do not comply with laws and regulations, and Zheng Kehe and his team will also reflect to the relevant departments in a timely manner and suggest modifications to help the reform of the release and management service. For example, since 2002, the relevant decisions issued by the State Council have clearly abolished the provision that comprehensive acceptance before delivery is a statutory condition for the delivery of real estate. However, in a dispute over the contract for the sale and purchase of commercial housing represented by zheng ke in 2018, Zheng Ke found that the housing construction department of a certain place was still implementing the comprehensive acceptance of the completion of commercial housing, and used it as a condition for the developer to hand over the house. "This undoubtedly impacts the delivery conditions stipulated in the model text of the contract for the sale and purchase of commercial housing formulated by the market supervision department, and increases the burden on the developer." He said. To this end, after the case was won, they immediately suggested that the local municipal housing department implement the State Council's regulations on abolishing the comprehensive acceptance of commercial housing completion.
Be the best you can be and enthusiastic about giving back to society
The best investment in the world is to invest in yourself.
In Zheng Ke's view, an excellent lawyer, in addition to having high ambitions, should also be a person who talks about politics and does not make political mistakes; a person who speaks of law strictly follows the rules of law; a person who understands business and has market awareness and economic concepts; and finally, a cultured person who wants to learn the knowledge of other disciplines such as history.
In addition, the body is the capital of the revolution, so good health is the first priority. "In recent years, the news of the sudden death and untimely death of lawyers has come from time to time in the news, which has touched me a lot. Once people have no health, they have no career, let alone family happiness. Zheng Ke sighed. To this end, he devotes himself to sports in his spare time. He is a paraglider enthusiast and likes cycling and basketball.
"As I grew older and the number of years of practice increased, I was able to clarify the order of my life and work. Physical health is the most important, followed by family happiness, followed by career. He said.
Zheng Ke in life is a warm-hearted person.
There is a basketball court near their neighborhood, because there is no light, and students often shoot at night with street lights or even battery car lights. Zheng Ke, who saw this scene, bought a solar lamp and hung it on the fence next to the basketball court.
He has always been enthusiastic about public welfare undertakings, and he also actively participates in the work of the industry committee, giving red envelopes to security guards on duty during the Spring Festival, and actively participating in donations.
In 2020, the family of the victim of a traffic accident approached Zheng Ke through a friend to consult on legal issues, and although the traffic accident case did not fall within his scope of practice, Zheng Ke rushed to the scene of compensation negotiations. The deceased in the traffic accident was a takeaway brother, leaving two children, one 7 years old, one 5 years old, the wife was also an ordinary migrant worker, the parents of the deceased were old, and the financial resources mainly depended on the deceased. "When I arrived at the scene, maybe I was crying and tired, maybe I was tired of rushing from out of town, and the two children were lying on the sofa, their faces full of loneliness and sadness." Zheng Ke recalled. Seeing two children so young suddenly bereaved of their fathers, he couldn't bear to look at it more. When I got home, I told my wife about it, and she was very sympathetic. The next day, he specially drove to the children to send two red envelopes, 5,000 yuan each, and encouraged them not to be depressed, but to study hard to change their fate.
"I am willing to continue to help if I have difficulties in the future." Zheng Ke said.
The road is long and the road is long, and I will seek up and down.
Today, the giant ship of rule of law China is driving at full horsepower, chopping waves, and sailing to the vast world. In the future, there will be more beautiful scenery along the way, waiting for legal people like Zheng Ke to build them one by one.