Mr. Xiangwen LIU and Ms. Changyu FU, partners of Zhong Lun Law Firm, were invited to host the 6^th China Anti-Corruption Compliance Forum during March 22^th to March 23^th 2018, made the keynote speech and issued professional opinions on conducting compliance investigation and establishing whistle-blower program.

The Forum was organized by IBS, and strongly supported by the National Health and Family Planning Commission of the PRC (NHFPC), State Administration for Industry and Commerce of the PRC (SAIC), the People’s Procuratorate of Beijing Municipality, Daimler, Reckitt Benckiser, Braun, Syngenta and other governmental agencies and transnational enterprises. Attendees of the Forum included the directors of legal affairs/general counsels/chief compliance officers of Fortune Global 500 enterprises, governmental officials, and lawyers, etc. The speakers had profound discussions regarding the hot issues on changes of legislation and enforcement in anti-corruption/compliance, and communication about their practices and experiences in company compliance, to provide practical guidance to professional colleagues.

Mr. Xiangwen LIU, partner of Zhong Lun’s Beijing office, hosted the first-day conference, and spoke on the topic of “How to conduct the company compliance investigation" on March 22. By analyzing the case, in which the Chinese general downstream seller was subject to a compliance investigation by its supplier, a transnational corporation, Mr. LIU made the thorough introduction on the usual procedures to conduct a company compliance investigation, including review of the factual materials, combing of the legal relations, settle of the investigating purpose, formulation of the investigating strategy, advancing of the work and the draft of the investigation report, and shared his experiences and solutions to both the control of legal risks and practical difficulties, such as how to interview the incooperative interviewees and the legitimacy of deposition. The speech received positive feedbacks widely, especially for the part regarding to moving forward deposition and interviews.

Ms. Changyu FU, partner of Zhong Lun’s Beijing office, also hosted the panel discussion on the topic of “An encouraged Whistle-Blower Program when implementing in China" on March 23^rd. The panelists expressed their attitudes to the Whistle-Blower Program itself and the necessity thereof firstly. Then they presented certain questions they have encountered in the implementing Whistle-Blower Program. Based on the questions, Ms. FU made an in-depth analysis on the situations and plight of the implementation of Whistle-Blower Programs. Besides, she shared her views and experiences regarding to Whistle-Blower Programs. Ms. FU stressed that with Whistle-Blower Programs implemented widely, they failed to operate as expected due to the ignorance of the incentive and protection to the blowers, the lack of further authentication on the clue reported and the restriction by the cultural factors. A company should have taken all the abovementioned issues into consideration for the better implementation of Whistle-Blower Programs. Ms. FU’s opinions and perspectives achieved great acknowledgement from the attendees.

Zhong Lun Law Firm has an outstanding team of lawyers in the compliance and regulatory practice field, including 22 partners (17 in domestic offices and 5 in overseas offices) and over 100 professionals consisting of former prosecutors, former judges, former government officials (including public security, State Administration of Industry and Commerce (SAIC), National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), customs, Quality supervision and Inspection and Quarantine，State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), environmental protection, tax, anti-trust, etc.), as well as attorneys, admitted in China and other jurisdictions, and former compliance officers of major Chinese and international corporations. By providing comprehensive services, which are tailored to clients’ needs, and by handling numerous high-profile cases initiated by both domestic and foreign authorities, Zhong Lun has established its position as a pioneer in this practice area. Zhong Lun was awarded as the top law firm of the year (on compliance/regulatory practice) in 2016 and 2017 by independent ranking agencies including China Business Law Journal, China Law & Practice, Asialaw Profiles, etc.