悟道中人

It is not a pleasant experience of being criticized by others. This is especially the case if we have put a lot of time and efforts to the fulfillment of a task and expect others to show at least a tiny bit of respect to the piece of work.

Criticism, however, may come about for various causes and may not necessarily relate to respect. Maybe the one who criticize you is of a strong preference of a peculiar way of doing things. Maybe he just does not get enough background information to put the task under a specific context. Maybe he cries out for other reasons unknown to you. The reason why we feel upset about criticism is that we care too much about other’s opinion. On many occasions, it is often not our fault that results in the questioning. If we understand we are doing the right thing, then it is not necessary to worry and we should be relieved.

Taken from another perspective, criticism may suggest that there are people who do care about the things you do. The worst scenario might be that you never get any respond from anyone and you are like struggling alone in the middle of nowhere. Criticize is after all a reaction, although being a negative one. In truth, negative response might just be a precious opportunity to improve ourselves. It seems that people are more likely to learn in adversity than in progress. Therefore, a justified and well-grounded criticism could accelerate a learning process and ultimately being a positive thing. This echoes a Chinese proverb:”Faithful words offend the ears, good medicine tastes bitter.”

July 26-28, 2009

1. sleepy afternnon

2. drag back to peace

July 23-25, 2009

1. no excuse for being pissed off

2. Mcdull: not as good as expected

3. mandatory/discretionay dichotomy: getting clearer

July 16-18, 2009

1. sleepy afternoon

2. humid Saizeriya

July 13-15, 2009

1. a 3-day round trip

2. back to Plaza 66

3. a solemn promise

July 11-12, 2009

1. as planned

July 10, 2009

1. do the first note

2. it comes automatically

3. indefinite optimism

July 8-9, 2009

1. black 10 miniutes

2. high school muscial at Shanghai Grand Theatre

3. IMAX Transformer 2

July 7, 2009

1. hurry for tickets

2. start doing bible

Training is one of the most valuable benefit I can get from my internship. Usually, we have two lunch-time training sessions every week (each time about one hour and half), focusing on drafting and translating skills respectively.  We also have a relative longer training session every month for work-related practical topics. Typical example are discussion on Company Law and seminar on due diligence.

Today I attend a monthly training workshop on legal presentation. The international training manner of the firm presented to us many hands-on skills to deliver an excellent presentation, from how to communicate with body language to the appropriate ways to use visual aids. The session lasted about three hours and were held in a extremely interactive manner. Participants were required to fully involved in the various practical activities, including a 5-minute mock presentation to an audience consisting of partners and senior associates. At the end of the session, each presenter was given individual feedback on his/her performance. Even during the break, a tricky assignment was given to a selection of participants to practise their presentation skills. (So people will have only a limited time to prepare to asees their ture presentation ability.)

Among the various skills taught during the session, “establishing creditability” worths mentioning. “Establishing creditability”  means when you present to your audience, you have to justify yourself by answering the question: why it is you who are standing on the podium, not the audience. A brief introduction of your expertise will help improve your creditability among your audience. This can be done during the introduction part when you just finishes introducing yourself. You tell your audience your past experiences in a specific area and assure people that they get the right person to talk. Interestingly, during my mock presentation on “risk management in a law firm”, I said, for the sake of practising what I had just learned, “I have a expertise of risk management in various industries for more than a decade and I would like to share with you my experience and lessons” and I did act quite like a senior expert. During the assessment, an associate said she nearly believed I was really an expert during the first few minutes of my presentation and this made her really focus on what I was talking (Actually I was talking nonsense, jokingly). Perhaps I do have an talent for being an actor. (The more possible reason might be I acted two plays during Mr. Clayton’s Legal English course and various others during undergraduate.)

Some other useful skills in presentation:

• using pause effectively to control your delivery
• avoiding conflict between words spoken and body languages
• establishing eye contact with EACH person in the room or, in other words, spread your love among everyone

July 6, 2009

1. Outlook and time management

July 4-5, 2009

1. WTO case done

2. riot in Xinjiang

July 3, 2009

1. find a important literature

2. swimming really makes you relaxed

July 1 – July 2, 2009

1. happy b’day to the Party

2. reunion of the Zhu’s

June 30, 2009

1. really bad traffic in Pudong

2. how to integrate Twitter with Sapce?

Oops, I wanna quit! For young people, persistence is something hard to maintain. For “being young” by itself denotes a sense of uncertainty. It is difficult to stick to an idea or continue to do something which requires a considerable period of time. Curiosity will not last long before one sheds something away. We often demand more stimulates than we actually need and we are used to finding excuses for our hasty and impatience. We complain about the dull task each day and try to squeeze out funny break times. We are desperate at not having our goals fulfilled, particular when we think we have reach as far as we can.

In fact, the reason why we often cannot be in a tranquil persistence is we are short of a foresight for long-term expectation. This may be cause by a lack of plan, a deficiency in recognizing ourselves, or a blind idea about how to set a target. The great changes during a transitional period even aggravate the situation where we in a fastening working path find it more painful to hold on than to give up. We like to move back to our tiny and cosy backfield to find protection and recognition. We are afraid of being viewed as inability to cope with easy jobs in the frontline, so we keep changing places to get used to and usually the result is less than satisfactory.

Then what’s the solution? The simplest answers is to maintain the status quo if you are still on the frontline. Keep to your inner fear and be tough. The bullets may not always be as many as you thought and, more importantly, you will find yourself equipped with more weapons and masculine enough to get your teeth into coming challenges. This usually happens gradually which you are not aware of. And when you do realize that, you are way behind your past.

Step back, you’ll get nothing.

Step forward, nothing you won’t get.

Mar. 23rd-26th, 2009

1.Gang of 5

2.dang or sun?

3.priority counts

Mar. 21st, 2009

1.Examination 1977, hope for generations

Mar. 22nd, 2009

1.Fisrt Draft done

Mar. 21st, 2009

1.Examination 1977, hope for generations

Mar. 20th, 2009

1.Home efficiency

Mar. 19th, 2009

1.Contract law worth studying

Mar. 17-18th, 2009

1.Real OT

2.I Love Jincai

Mar. 16th, 2009

1.Three different perspectives re fresh graduates finding jobs 

Mar. 16th, 2009

1.Three different perspectives re fresh graduates finding jobs 

Mar. 15th, 2009

1.Discussion: know what you want, be where you are 

2.channel-hunting

3.AP practice

Mar. 13-14th, 2009

1.Boss can be a good man

2.Equality and mutual respect, a big lesson

Mar. 11-12th, 2009

1.big sleep at home.

2.the alarm has not been lifted

3.back to pool 

Mar. 10th, 2009

1.nightmare! but after all gone through it. 

Mar. 9th, 2009

1.China Unicom: Is i-phone a leverage? 

2. Making miracles everyday, even if it is little by little.

Mar. 8th, 2009

1. How to translate Women’s Holiday?

2. Come or go, be responsible for your choice 

Mar. 7th, 2009

1. What’s new for THE coming years?

2. Always respectful and know the limits

Mar. 6th, 2009

1. PB anniversary

2. Do not **** ard

Mar. 5th, 2009

1. celebrating dinner for HSUR programme 

2. are you ready for another opportunity?

Mar. 3rd-4th, 2009

1. staring at the screen for too long time.

2. rest home happy sleep.

Mar. 2nd, 2009

1. Metro Line 2 broke down.

2. Hurry up the whole day.

Mar. 1st, 2009

1. Swim best even if you’re naked.

2. Protraction will make nothing.

Feb. 28th, 2009

1. No pain, no gain.

2. Never take what you’ve got for granted.

I am a scorpion, a sort of person who purportedly pursues perfectness. That brings me a lot of happiness and trouble. The happy thing is I have much more chances to savor the highness of being on the top, that perfect yet a bit cold summit. The trouble is, jokingly, no easy to get down to the bottom to obtain human warmth especially when the summit is no longer what she was.

So perfect can be imperfect. This is actually an interesting balance of what you get and what you lose. Perfectionist has a great defect in that he never surrender to even a tiny bit of discomfort; they want everything, and they want everything in perfect. In reality, things are changing that requires observation and flexibility. You want all and you lose all. On many occasions, you are not kissing what you really want; you are being fooled by her crystal fake eyes. Giving her up ASAP, therefore, might be interpreted as another form of wise if it would bring you into another round of craze for irrational perfectness.

Admittedly, perfectionism is something that you can hardly control. It is very easy to be indulged in that fantastic illusion shaped by overwhelming, out-dated and almost stupid mentality or modes of conduct. The solution is "starting from the inside" and "pushed by the outside". Contribute your energy to what you really need. While you can not help but climbing up the helpless ladder, find someone who are understanding and willing to drug you back to the bottom, that earth full of imperfectness. That might create a balance of nearly perfectness, a situation where you can never reach the top but just keep right.

Nearly perfect, cheers!

Nov.5th-6th,2008

1.HSUR:get started 

2.execution: to very point

Nov.3rd-4th,2008

1.a very important idear for HSUR

2.outline for oral preparation

Oct.30th-Nov.2nd,2008

1.Crazy OT for the Moot

2.7-day new experience

3.Shopping for the winter

Oct.28th-29th, 2008

1.SHAC is a showroom for ECUPLers

2.Respect and Care:it's the fundaction

Oct.27th,2008

1.cut class for relaxation

2.hasty afternoon

3.inquiry for the interpretation of Order No.81

4.enterprise and carrer path:the way to explore

Oct.25th-26th, 2008

1. family dinner at Xiangmanlong

2. honey b'day

3. random shopping

Oct.20th-24th, 2008

1. offer from HS

2. lectureing and being lectured at Songjiang

3. good news from Michael

4.Betty starts in Lujiazui

Sep.22nd-Oct.19th, 2008

1.new position at S-A 

2. 6-day great loop

3.interview with HS

Recently I just finished assisting an attorney in preparing for a commercial dispute between a multinational and a local company. The case goes to arbitration these days and I have learned a lot from the preparatory experience. Share some points with you.

Client’s need is of utmost importance during the whole process. Law students like me tend to observe a case from a single and narrow perspective-----the legal way. But in reality a case is much more complex than expected and therefore require observations from a multi-faceted angle. Client’s commercial interests play a significant role in determining the direction of the case as well as the legal tools approriate to use accordingly. When facing several legal options, you have to choose one that is can optimize the interest or minimize the loss of your client. Businessman does not want to pay for any meaningless legal game. In addition, it is helpful to perceive the subtle relationship among different departments in a company. You have to find a way that can best balance or distribute the risks arising out of the disputes, especially those related to legal department, who is meant to control the commercial risk of the company’s transactions but in many times are subject to their business-oriented boss who are legally lay person.

During the preparation stage, effective communication, both oral and written, with client is a key part lawyers have to pay attention to. At the beginning of the process, many facts are not fully discovered or even intentionally omitted by clients due to their own considerations. Lawyers have to ask to-the-point questions to be fully informed while understanding client’s concerns. With the picture getting clearer, lawyers can scheme rational legal plans to the best interest of the client. When facing a sudden addition or change of situation, lawyers should take a proactive manner to reach the client and make them up-to-date.

Besides oral communication, drafting legal opinion is another way of reporting the ideas and plan of lawyer to the client. In this respect, it is necessary to be cautious  to be concise and not to write or promise too much because many elements of the case is still developing and may subject to changes which is out of the lawyer’s control. Lawyer’s have to aware that once he gives clients their word, it is no way to getting it back. And in a lot of situation, there is a potential risk that a pure commercial risk may be transferred to the overconfident lawyers who should not have taken the responsibility.

Last but not least, be aware and let the client know that law is not almighty. The functioning of law, especially in china, is limited by many elements outside law: bargaining power, market competitiveness,  political influence even interpersonal relationships. You might be justifiable on the merit but you are not promised a just result. Law is but one way to solve the problem and on many occasion she is not that strong. After all, living lawyers have to master the living law to resolve the disputes in living life.

Sep.19-21th,2008

1.back to YL

2.Where to travel?

3.Everything runs smooth;Good Rp for Betty's SK preparation

Sep.17-18th,2008

1.half done with IFL

2.frequent visitor of SHL

Sep.16th,2008

1.visit to Auntie Wen

2.mid-autumn with Betty

Sep.13-15th,2008

1.visit to Auntie Wen

2.mid-autumn with Betty

Sep.12th,2008

1.What is multi-? Can you handle?

2.I love thick meat

Sep.11th,2008

1.Safori Interview

2.IFL:half way done

Sep.10th,2008

1.Never express your gratitude too late

2.Dictation resumes

Sep.9th,2008

1.ICA reveals freshness

2.seredipity from my adviser

Sep.8th,2008

1.first lecture of the new semester

2.nearly go to GE

3.Never vent your anger on the innocent

Sep.6th-7th,2008

1.back to Uni

2.Reread Mr.Zheng's IPL

3.second-half planing