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Ⅰ. The Macro-environment of the GBA

The development of the legal profession in the GBA also faces enormous challenges. Firstly, to ensure

the orderly progress of the integrated construction of the legal service market in the GBA, the international
competitiveness of legal services in the nine Mainland cities still needs to be improved. We need to increase

efforts to support Chinese lawyers in going global and accelerate the building of world-class law firms. We
need to enhance the international influence of arbitration and commercial mediation institutions, and establish a

brand image for foreign-related legal services. In addition, to build a highly credible and competitive regional or
international arbitration brand as a pivot, we need to comprehensively enhance the overall strength, international

credibility, and influence in dealing with commercial arbitration. Secondly, we need to further enhance the
training of foreign-related legal talents in the nine Mainland cities and build a high-quality foreign-related legal

service team. According to statistics from the Guangdong Justice Department, as of July 2023, Guangdong
Province, as the province in China with the largest number of lawyers, has nearly 74,000 lawyers. Among them,

only 98 top leading professionals were selected to be included in the “List of 1,000 Elite Lawyers specialising
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in foreign-related legal matters” of the Ministry of Justice of the PRC. The GBA needs to resolutely implement
the important instructions of President Xi Jinping on cultivating a group of international first-class arbitration
institutions and law firms, and promoting the construction of a high-quality foreign-related legal service team

and a group of high-level foreign-related legal service institutions in accordance with the requirements of the “Plan
on Building the Rule of Law in China (2020-2025)”. Finally, the legal profession in the GBA needs to strengthen

self-regulation and interactive communication. Mr CHAN Chak Ming, Then-President of The Law Society of
Hong Kong, has pointed out that self-regulation is vital in buttressing the independence that lawyers need to fulfil

their professional and legal roles. Meanwhile, due to regional restrictions, there is still room for innovation
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in the exchange, interaction, and cooperation development models among lawyers in Guangdong, Hong Kong,

and Macao. In actual practice, some partnership associations operating in the GBA have encountered certain
difficulties in business cooperation and development, and there are situations where the “association” is nominal

and not real. To improve the cooperation and exchange mechanism, it is necessary to improve and implement the
mechanism of the Joint Meeting for Lawyers Associations in the GBA, as mentioned by Mr CHEN Fang, Vice-

36 Guangdong Justice Department of Justice: Actively Building a High Ground for Foreign-related Legal Services to Facilitate the
Opening up of Guangdong’s High-Level legal services to the Outside World, Guangdong Justice Department (July 17, 2023),
http://sft.gd.gov.cn/sfw/xwdt/sfxz/content/post_4219418.html
37 Speech by Mr. CHAN Chak Ming, President of The Law Society of Hong Kong, at the Opening Ceremony of the 2022 Legal Year
(January 24, 2022), https://www.hklawsoc.org.hk/-/media/HKLS/Press-statement/SC/2022/20220124_SC.pdf

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