According to Chinese laws, the establishment of foreign law firms' representative offices in China shall obtain the permission of relevant administrative departments of justice under the state council. The foreign law firms, foreign organizations or individuals cannot engage in legal service under the name of consulting company or others within the territory of China. And this article will introduce the reviewing process and the required documents to set up a representative office of foreign law firms in China.

(1). Prerequisites

1.Foreign law firms have engaged in legal practices in their home country without punishments due to violation of lawyer's professional ethics or practice discipline.

2.Representatives of the R.O. shall be practicing lawyers and the members of local Lawyer Association, moreover, have performed legal services no less than two years without criminal punishment or violation of lawyer's professional ethics and practice discipline. Chief Representative shall have performed legal services no less than three years; meanwhile, he/she must be the partner or person in the same position of the foreign law firm.

3.Have actual needs to establish China law and perform legal services.

(2). Required documents

1.  Application for setting up or assigning representative organization signed by the superintendent of the foreign law firm. (The Chinese translation of the proposed representative office name shall be"×× Law Firm ××Representative Office");

2.Certificate documents which can prove the law firm has been established legally in its home country;

3.Cooperative agreements or article of association, as well as the list of superintendents and partners of the foreign law firm;

4.Authorization of the proposed representatives of the R.O. from the foreign law firm, and the confirmation that the proposed Chief Representative is the partner or person in the same position of the foreign law firm.

5.Documents proving that each proposed representative lawyer and Chief Representative have performed legal services no less than three years, as for the other proposed representatives, no less than two years.

6.Proof documents issued by local Lawyer Association, which can prove the proposed representatives are the members of Lawyer Association in their country.

7.Proof documents issued by the native lawyer administrative organization to prove the proposed representatives had no criminal punishment or violation of lawyer's professional ethics and practice discipline.

The above documents shall be notarized by the applicant's native notarization institution or notary, authorized by their diplomatic administration or the competent agencies authorized by the diplomatic administration, moreover, certificated by the Chinese embassy or consulate in that country.

(3). Administrative organization

The applicants shall submit aforementioned documents to the judicial administrative departments of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities. If the representative office shall be established in Beijing, one has to apply to the judicial bureau.

(4). Procedures and processing time

The applicant can apply and submit application materials to provincial Judicial Department, where the application shall be examined and reviewed in three months, and then the review opinions as well as application materials will be submitted to judicial bureau. The judicial bureau will make the decision within six months, so, the processing time is nine months in total.

(5). Results

The applications passing the review will be submitted to judicial bureau for approval, and then the judicial bureau will send the notice for registration, issue the practice license of representative office of foreign law firms (copy).

(6). Conducting criterion

Management Regulations of the Foreign Law Firms' Representative Offices in China, Provisions on Judicial Bureau's Executing Management Regulations of the Foreign Law Firms' Representative Offices in China, as well as other relevant regulations are the Conducting criterion.