Ethen Gai Meets Former Hong Kong Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng

On May 14, Ethen Gai, founder of Winson Law Firm, and Jing Li, deputy director of the Legal and Compliance Management Department of China Electric Power Construction Shandong Electric Power Construction Company, attended the Innovation Forum held by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, and visited Teresa Cheng, former Secretary of the Department of Justice of Hong Kong and an adjunct professor of Tsinghua University.

Gai introduced the basic situation of Winson Firm to Professor Teresa Cheng and shared the current situation of dispute settlement and the difficulties of rights relief of Chinese enterprises in the Middle East. Ethen Gai said that he expected Professor Cheng to continue to pay attention to the survival status of Chinese-funded enterprises, especially state-owned central enterprises, in the Middle East, and invited Professor Cheng to take the opportunity to visit the Middle East to continue to guide and legal empowerment on relevant international arbitration and investment arbitration cases.

Li focused on the difficulties faced by state-owned central enterprises in the Middle East market in the selection of external lawyers, the training of foreign-related legal talents and other issues, and conducted in-depth communication with Professor Cheng in combination with issues related to the settlement of international engineering disputes.

Professor Cheng listened to the reports of Gai and Li, and analyzed the impact and coping strategies of international arbitration, international engineering, and the application of common law between the United Kingdom and the United States on Chinese enterprises. Professor Cheng stressed that the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are important nodes of the Belt and Road Initiative, and Chinese lawyers should go abroad to provide legal services for Chinese enterprises, which is the general trend. Professor Cheng gladly accepted the invitation from Gai on behalf of Winson Law Firm and sent Winson Law Firm to accelerate development and do a good job in the judicial interests of Chinese enterprises.

Gai also visited Yuejiao Zhang, the former chairman of the WTO Appellate Body, and had in-depth communication with Professor Zhang on the current situation and feasibility of international investment arbitration in the Middle East. Professor Zhang is China's first former judge and chairman of the World Trade Organization Appellate Body, China's first arbitrator appointed by the President of the World Bank International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes, a member of the Special Committee for the Revocation of the Award, and the Director of the International Arbitration and Dispute Resolution Project (IADS) of Tsinghua University.