On June 13, 2024, the “Jixinghui” Session 9 and the Second Phase of Criminal Defense Series Lectures were successfully held jointly by the Longan Bay Criminal Compliance Research Center and the Longan Guangzhou Youth Lawyers’ Department. The event invited Lawyer Luo Jie, Deputy Director and Secretary-General of the Longan Bay Criminal Compliance Research Center, senior partner of Longan Guangzhou, and founder of Qiming Criminal Defense Team, to give a special presentation. Lawyer Xie Xin, senior partner of Longan Guangzhou and deputy head of the Youth Lawyers’ Department, served as the host of the event.
Lawyer Xie Xin
Senior partner of Longan Guangzhou, deputy head of the Youth Lawyers’ Department
Lawyer Xie Xin welcomed the lawyers from within and outside the firm who participated in this sharing event. She expressed her gratitude to the Longan Bay Criminal Compliance Research Center and the Youth Lawyers’ Department for organizing this event. This was the second phase of the “Jixinghui” criminal defense series lectures. She especially thanked Qiming Criminal Defense Team for its support in organizing these events. Qiming Criminal Defense Team has carefully planned and prepared for this series of lectures. More professional content will be offered in the future. She hopes to turn the “Jixinghui” criminal defense series lectures into a brand IP for the Youth Lawyers’ Department and the Longan Bay Criminal Compliance Research Center, so that more key points, difficulties, and valuable experiences in criminal defense can be shared. At the same time, the Youth Lawyers’ Department also hopes to cooperate more with other research institutions and professional departments in Longan, and offer professional sharing sessions with different themes for young lawyers.
Lawyer Luo Jie
Deputy Director and Secretary-General of the Longan Bay Criminal Compliance Research Center, senior partner of Longan Guangzhou, founder of Qiming Criminal Defense Team
Lawyer Luo Jie briefly introduced his legal service team, Qiming Criminal Defense Team, which specializes in criminal legal matters. Their areas of practice include criminal defense, criminal compliance, victim claims and representation, criminal property disposal, and mitigation. They have handled many typical cases in areas such as duty-related crimes, economic crimes, and criminal compliance.
Then, Lawyer Luo shared his insights on “The Examination and Effective Cross-Examination of Criminal Evidence – Using Cases to Explain the Law, Achieving Major Sentences Changes Through Evidence Defense”. Lawyer Luo Jie shared some cases where his team has successfully used evidence defense in recent years. For example, in a 2024 death penalty review case related to drug transportation, the Supreme Court determined that some facts presented by the defense lawyer were unclear. The court accepted this and did not approve the death penalty. Another example is a case of duty-related crime, where the amount involved of over 7 million yuan was eliminated through a property assessment report. In another case of unjust law enforcement, issues related to illegal evidence collection were identified through the examination of audio recordings, and illegal evidence was excluded. Lawyer Luo Jie believes that effective evidence defense should first serve the purpose of defense. It is also important to focus on the important aspects and ignore the trivial details. It is a continuous process of discovery and exploration. Then, Lawyer Luo specifically explained how to examine evidence, including “plea opinion documents”, preparing the file index, creating a list of evidence items, according to the elements of the crime, and focusing on the key points of disputes.
Lawyer Luo explained the methods of examining and effectively cross-examining evidence from three perspectives: key points of examination, problems in judicial practice, and coping strategies. He used cases to illustrate these points. In terms of the defendant’s statement, there are problems such as incomplete or misrepresented statements, and obtaining confessions through inducement or threats. In terms of witness testimony and victim statements, there are problems such as highly copied statements, incomplete transmission of relevant testimony, and subjective assumptions based on witness testimony as the basis for judgment. In terms of expert opinions, there are problems such as using special audit reports as evidence to avoid cross-examination rules, and using witness testimony as the basis for audit, with audit qualifications not meeting requirements. Lawyer Luo focused on the problems in judicial accounting expert opinions in judicial practice, and pointed out that special audit reports are like “expert witnesses”, and the cross-examination rules apply to expert opinions. Finally, Lawyer Luo briefly introduced the key points of examining and cross-examining criminal evidence such as documentary evidence, physical evidence, examination/inspection/identification/experimental investigations, audio-visual materials, and electronic evidence.
During the interactive discussion, Lawyer Luo and the present lawyers discussed issues such as refunding amounts in fraud cases and the boundaries of corporate criminal compliance risk management. Lawyer Luo said that she hopes this sharing can help everyone build confidence in the theory and cases of cross-examining criminal evidence, which will be helpful for handling criminal cases in the future.
This event was jointly organized by the Longan Bay Criminal Compliance Research Center and the Longan Guangzhou Youth Lawyers’ Department. It attracted many young lawyers from within the firm to participate and discuss actively. This is of great significance for improving the professional capabilities of young lawyers in criminal defense, especially the development of evidence defense thinking. So far, the “Jixinghui” has been held nine times. In the future, Longan Guangzhou will continue to invite experienced lawyers from different professional fields to give series of special presentations. The criminal defense series lectures launched by the Longan Bay Criminal Compliance Research Center will also continue to be held, so as to promote young lawyers in Longan to continuously explore and deepen their expertise in different professional fields, and gradually develop their core competitiveness.