Grassroots lawyers also have their day

Chapter 950 The Main Event!

"Finally, let me add a few more words. Legally, if no written labor contract is signed, the employer shall pay the employee double the wage difference. This wage difference is not based on the labor provided by the employee, but on the employer's illegal act. Therefore, the double wage difference for not signing a labor contract is punitive in legal nature."

Actually, the proper term for "double wages" is "double pay" or "double wage difference." Many judgments that refer to double wages or double pay is not actually in accordance with regulations.

"In similar cases, there are terms like 'economic compensation' instead of 'economic compensation money,' and 'damages' instead of 'economic damages money,'" Wang Chuan said.

"I see! Attorney Wang, do you think it's possible to overturn this case if we apply for a retrial?" Sun Xing asked.

"I can't guarantee that. This kind of judicial opinion may only be the opinion of the local court, or it may be the opinion of the province recently. Because it is highly regional, it is hard to say for the time being."

If your company is willing to give it a try, we can represent you in the retrial case. However, from an economic perspective, it might not be very cost-effective, as legal fees for retrials are relatively high. The total amount in dispute in this case is only a little over 30,000. But from your company's perspective, it is worth trying to protect your rights!

"That's another option. We can draft a retrial application for your company free of charge, and your company can have the legal specialist from the Henan branch apply for the retrial. This will minimize the retrial costs and protect your company's rights," Wang Chuan said.

While they were talking, Wang Chuan was thinking that the amount in dispute was too small, only a little over 30,000 yuan, and it was in another province. The travel expenses and lawyer fees would be a lot. The key point was that the retrial case would require several trips, which would also waste the lawyers' time. It would be better to send a retrial application for free and let the client handle it himself.

"Hmm, that works too. We'll just give it a try. If it works, great; if not, forget it!"

Attorney Wang, thank you for your answers. After this incident, we applied to headquarters for a labor compliance inspection of our subsidiary companies, which has been approved.

"We would like to ask your firm to help us screen for labor and employment risks, and also to provide online training for our employees. What do you think?" Situ Ting said with a smile.

"Great, labor compliance is one of our labor services, but it's not part of our regular legal services and requires a separate fee," Wang Chuan said with a smile.

"Payment is no problem, but I wonder what your fee schedule is for this type of service?" Situ Ting asked.

"Your company is our legal counsel. According to our fee schedule, the fee is 50,000 yuan per entity under your company. We will send a team of lawyers to each of your subsidiaries to conduct labor compliance checks. Travel expenses will be borne by your company and reimbursed based on actual costs."

"As for online labor training, the standard fee for a single training session is 300,000 yuan. However, if we take on your company's labor compliance project, the training will be free," Wang Chuan said.

He understood that for such large clients, what mattered to them wasn't money, but efficiency and professionalism. Therefore, Wang Chuan didn't offer a discount when quoting for the labor compliance project, but the training was free, which was a disguised discount.

"Okay, could you please send us the latest information about the law firm? I'll apply to the company. We have three subsidiaries, all located in other provinces. If each subsidiary costs 50,000, the total would be 150,000, excluding travel expenses."

"No problem, we'll book the hotel. We have partner hotels. You can pay for the travel expenses in advance, and we'll reimburse you for everything you need when you get back. What do you think?" Situ Ting asked.

"Okay, no problem. I'll have Attorney Du prepare the agreement and arrange for the lawyer in charge of the project to contact your company," Wang Chuan said.

"Okay, just contact Sun Xing directly when the time comes," Situ Ting said.

Wang Chuan never expected that coming to provide consultation would actually lead to him landing a project – what a pleasant surprise!

Not long after he returned to the office, Du Wenhui also came back. Cheng Wu was working on the relocation project given to him by General Manager Cao and was not at the office, so Wang Chuan handed over the CM Company labor compliance project to Du Wenhui and asked her to discuss the arrangements with Cheng Wu.

After discussing the matter, Cheng Wu assigned the project to lawyer Yan Yu, who was tasked with leading the labor compliance project for CM Company.

Since the Shen Group's project was put out to tender in mid-June, Wang Chuan has been having Shen Qi communicate with WL Law Firm to find American lawyers who can handle mergers and acquisitions.

Old John has a wide network of connections. Two of the partners who had previously switched firms hadn't fared very well after changing firms. After Old John spoke with them, the two said that as long as there were projects to work on, it wasn't impossible for them to come back.

Old John understood that they were afraid of being sidelined and having no business when they returned.

Wang Chuan understood the difficulties faced by Old John and Smith, and he was just as anxious! If they could secure the overseas acquisition project of the Shen Group, WL Law Firm would be revitalized, the lawyers would be more motivated, and Yuanfang Law Firm would be able to establish itself in the United States. Therefore, he was determined to give Old John and Smith hope!

However, things often don't go as planned. Just as Wang Chuan was eagerly awaiting the bidding results from the Shen Group, Shen Qi brought him bad news.

Yuanfang Law Firm failed to win the bid for Shen's Group's overseas acquisition project. To Wang Chuan's surprise, the two top-ranked firms that were considered frontrunners also failed to win the bid due to price issues. After evaluation, the winning bid was awarded to a large domestic law firm with offices in the United States.

According to rumors, this law firm's business capabilities are not particularly outstanding, and its performance in recent years has been at an above-average level. However, one of its partners is a relative of a leader of the China Securities Regulatory Commission. Although this relative is not good at business, he can get projects and then pass them on to colleagues, earning a lot of commission. As a result, this law firm can get several IPO or M&A deals every year, and it has a certain reputation in the capital circle.

This overseas acquisition project was jointly initiated by Shen's Group and a large domestic automaker, with Shen's Group having relatively weak bargaining power.

A subsidiary of that major automaker was preparing for an IPO, and the law firm that won the bid used connections at the top, so the outcome was predictable.

Not only did Yuanfang Law Firm have no hope of winning the bid, but even several top-tier law firms were filtered out! This made Wang Chuan fully realize that in China, professional ability alone is not enough to do business; connections are also essential! This is especially true for large-scale projects. Superficial fairness is just for show; the real work is the backroom deals.

Previously, Yuanfang Law Firm mainly dealt with small businesses, and the scale of their business was not very large, so the impact was not very obvious. Now that they have landed such a large business, the importance of resources and background has immediately become apparent.

(End of this chapter)