« Beware the Supersize Law Firm |
Main
| Obama Administration May Offer New Opportunities for Law Firms »
Chinese Lawyers Lose Their Jobs After Calling for Bar Association Elections
The American Bar Association gets its fair share of criticism from lawyers who don't appreciate the political positions that the ABA adopts or who feel that the organization is dominated by large firm interests. But here's a story about the government-controlled bar association in China that should give even the ABA's most rabid opponents some new-found appreciation. According to the International Herald Tribune, seven Chinese lawyers lost their jobs after they signed a petition calling for open elections in the government-controlled Beijing Lawyers' Association. Zhang Haitao, an assistant to the director of the Yitong firm, which asked several lawyers to leave, explained that inspectors from the justice bureau visited the firm numerous times last month and their activity was "deliberately affecting the running of the business." As a result, said Haitao, "We couldn't let the business of the whole firm be damaged because of some individual lawyers so we had to let them go."
Posted by Carolyn Elefant on November 6, 2008 at 12:00 PM | Permalink
| Comments (0)