January 20, 2017 (NEW YORK) – Litigation partner Michael Cardozo recently spent a week in Beijing and Shanghai as part of a delegation arranged through the Paul Tsai China Center at Yale Law School. Michael was invited on this endeavor to meet with high ranking lawyers who represent the Chinese government entities on the local and national level to discuss the role of government lawyers in the U.S. and China. Michael, who prior to rejoining Proskauer in 2014 served as New York City Corporation Counsel, was joined by a former General Counsel to the U.S. Department of Commerce (who was formerly the Deputy General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Defense) and a former longtime lawyer in the U.S. Department of Commerce.
The meetings were organized in response to Chinese authorities' recently announced rules aimed at strengthening the "rule of law." China mandated that by the end of 2017, every Chinese government office should have a legal advisor. As a result, the government leaders had an interest in learning how U.S. government law offices operate. In addition, the nation is also making changes to its regulation of lawyers and the procedures that must be followed to become a lawyer.
Michael and his two colleagues participated in many discussions with top government lawyers in Shanghai and Beijing, as well as with members of China's high court, sharing their personal knowledge and experience, as well as explaining what government lawyers in both countries do at the local and national levels, and how lawyers are organized, trained, supervised and disciplined. Michael and the two other group members also had the opportunity to learn about their counterparts' roles
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