Recently, senior partner Luo Yang, together with his team members attorneys Zhan Riwang and Li Xuan, joined Beijing Longan (Guangzhou) Law Firm. The team focuses on corporate general counsel services, civil and commercial litigation and arbitration, due diligence for the acquisition and disposal of non-performing assets, and criminal defense. Its arrival further strengthens the Guangzhou office’s professional matrix and its capacity to deliver cross-practice, integrated legal services.

A commercial practice spanning the corporate lifecycle

Led by Luo Yang, a senior partner of Beijing Longan (Guangzhou) Law Firm, the team currently includes two practicing lawyers in addition to him, both of whom hold law degrees. It operates on a tiered structure in which a senior partner leads, core lawyers support, and younger lawyers follow up. Members have long worked together on cases under a mature division of labor, allowing them to serve corporate clients across the full cycle: risk prevention in advance, compliance control in the process, and dispute resolution afterwards.

Practice areas and track record

The team’s main work is standing corporate legal counsel and civil and commercial litigation and arbitration. It also handles due diligence for the acquisition and disposal of non-performing assets and criminal defense, giving it four practice pillars:

Corporate general counsel. The team acts as standing legal counsel to a number of companies in fields including pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, food, apparel, shopping mall and office building leasing, environmental technology, appraisal and consulting, wire and cable, steel trading, and transportation engineering. It focuses on helping clients prevent legal risk in areas such as internal governance, contract management, and employment.

Civil and commercial litigation and arbitration. The team has handled a number of cases with substantial amounts in dispute and a high degree of complexity, involving causes of action including but not limited to equity transfer disputes, disputes over shareholders’ right to access information, company dissolution disputes, subrogation disputes, reputation disputes, unjust enrichment disputes, labor disputes, construction project disputes, and sales contract disputes.

Due diligence for non-performing asset acquisition and disposal. The team regularly provides due diligence services to Guangdong Yuecai Asset Management Co., Ltd., a major domestic asset management company (AMC), on its acquisition and disposal projects, and is familiar with the relevant processes and the risks they involve.

Criminal defense. The team’s criminal cases mainly involve economic crimes, covering fraud, counterfeiting of registered trademarks, money laundering, illegal absorption of public deposits, damaging computer information systems, running casinos, gambling, and assisting information network criminal activities. In one case, it secured a suspended sentence for a client surnamed Chen charged with fraud; in another, it reduced the sentence of a client surnamed Peng charged with running a casino to one year and six months; and in a third, it reduced the sentence of a client surnamed Liu charged with damaging computer information systems to one year. The team also assisted a client surnamed Liu in filing a report in a case that forms part of a series of investigations into the illegal absorption of public deposits.

Team members

Luo Yang

Luo Yang is a senior partner at Beijing Longan (Guangzhou) Law Firm and a member of the Communist Party of China. He completed his undergraduate studies at Shandong University and later studied economic law as a postgraduate student at Sun Yat-sen University. He holds the professional title of economist and has practiced law for more than 20 years. He previously served as a member of the Civil Law Committee of the Guangzhou Lawyers Association and has received honors including outstanding lawyer and outstanding senior partner. Before entering legal practice, he spent several years at large enterprises in marketing and corporate management, and he is familiar with internal corporate structures, operating processes, and risk controls, giving him a combined business and legal background that is a clear professional advantage.

In corporate legal counsel work, when serving as legal counsel to state-owned enterprises, he focuses on reviewing departmental management rules for legality and compliance and on standardizing tiered contract management; his long-standing clients have included Guangdong New Shipbuilding Heavy Industry, a subsidiary of Guangdong Province Navigation Group. When serving private and foreign-invested clients, he focuses on employment contract management, standardizing external business contracts, and preventing risk at an early stage.

In litigation, Luo Yang has a strong grounding in law, strong advocacy skills, and flexible strategy, and he is skilled at handling complex and difficult cases. Over more than 20 years of practice he has handled hundreds of cases before courts and arbitration commissions at provincial, municipal, and district levels, and he is familiar with the judicial environment in South China, particularly the Pearl River Delta, where he maintains good communication with judicial authorities. He has also long provided due diligence and non-performing asset disposal services to large asset management institutions such as Guangdong Yuecai Asset Management, Guangdong Yueke Asset Management, and the Guangzhou office of China Huarong Asset Management, as well as to financial institutions such as China CITIC Bank.

In non-litigation work, with his combined legal and economics background, Luo Yang is skilled at mergers and acquisitions, restructuring, and corporate reorganization. He has provided specialist services in these areas to a number of enterprises, including Guangdong Province Navigation Group, Guangdong Haoyue Shipbuilding Industry, Guangdong New China Shipyard, Guangdong Dongfang Daily Chemical, Yangshan Rural Commercial Bank, and the Lianzhou, Lianshan, and Liannan rural commercial banks.

Zhan Riwang

Zhan Riwang holds a Master of Laws from Hunan University of Technology and has practiced for four years, focusing on due diligence for the acquisition and disposal of non-performing assets, civil and commercial litigation, corporate legal counsel, and bankruptcy reorganization. He has long served Yuecai Asset Management, issuing legal due diligence reports for its non-performing asset acquisition and disposal projects. Over four years he has handled more than 100 acquisition reports and more than 300 disposal reports, and he has made a systematic study of the legal issues arising throughout the acquisition and disposal process, enabling him to propose solutions independently for complex projects.

In litigation, Zhan Riwang has handled more than 60 civil and commercial cases since beginning practice, covering causes of action such as financial lending, equity transfer, private lending, construction project contracts, creditors’ subrogation, reputation rights, labor disputes, unfair competition, and trademark infringement.

In corporate legal counsel work, he has provided standing legal counsel services to ten companies, more than half of them state-owned enterprises, covering day-to-day legal consultation, the issuance of legal opinions and lawyers’ letters, and contract review and amendment.

Li Xuan

Li Xuan holds a Bachelor of Laws from Guangdong University of Finance and Economics and has practiced for two years, focusing on due diligence for the acquisition and disposal of non-performing assets, civil and commercial litigation, and corporate legal counsel. She mainly serves Yuecai Asset Management, providing legal risk assessments and issuing due diligence reports for its non-performing asset acquisition and disposal projects. Since beginning practice she has followed and completed a number of acquisition and disposal projects, and she is able to conduct project legal analysis and issue legal opinions independently.

In litigation, she has handled a number of civil and commercial litigation and arbitration cases involving private lending, construction project contracts, labor disputes, leasing, sales, and marriage and family disputes.

In corporate legal counsel work, she has provided standing legal counsel services to ten companies, including several state-owned enterprises, supporting them in day-to-day legal consultation, legal risk prevention analysis, the issuance of legal opinions and lawyers’ letters, contract review, and amendments to articles of association.

Looking ahead

Going forward, Luo Yang’s team will draw on Longan Guangzhou’s strong middle- and back-office support, its nationwide network of resources, and the locational advantages of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to deepen its specialist practice and coordinate with colleagues, so as to provide clients with higher-quality, more efficient, and more comprehensive legal services. Longan Guangzhou will continue to uphold its core values of “let excellence become a habit, let service become a belief” and to improve its talent development mechanisms, working with all colleagues to write a new chapter of high-quality development through professional growth and upgraded service.