A law intern's look at China and Chinese law.

I spoke with a lawyer in our firm about the “opinion” published by ACLA. This lawyer is handling several mass cases. His opinion of the article was hands-down negative. Words used to describe the new rule were “annoying,” “unnecessary,” and “embarrassing.” He called the rule embarrassing because of it can cause him to lose face with his clients if the local bar tells him he could not take his clients case. The lawyer told me that he expects class action cases to become more and more popular in China and, as a result, the new ACLA rule will eventually be changed. To me, this is another sign of China’s current state of transformation. A lawyer can dislike a law, expect the social conditions to change, and confidently expect a law to change along with society. It would be my guess that this rule will not last a decade. Until the rule changes, the lawyer I spoke told me he plans to ignore the rule as much as possible.