168: Chapter 168 The Current State of Inflation in the Legal Profession! Acquisition of Hongyu Law Firm!

Chapter 168: The Current State of Competition in the Legal Industry! Acquiring Hongyu Law Firm!

Liu Fengshan, Zhou Jianjun, and Guo Shuda had a rather favorable impression of Su Yang.

If for no other reason, Fan Jinding had told them that Su Yang was not only wealthy but also extremely capable!

He owned five companies with over two thousand employees, and he was quite generous toward his staff.

They were quite welcoming of a powerful major shareholder who was wealthy, capable, and generous to his employees.

Moreover, Su Yang's first impression on them was quite good; he didn't seem like a domineering or tyrannical person!

Su Yang had a brief chat with Xu Hongyu, and Xu Hongyu did indeed intend to sell his shares in the law firm.

Although the two parties had not reached an agreement on the price, they were already at a stage where they could negotiate.

Subsequently, Xu Hongyu and Liu Fengshan took Su Yang and Fan Jinding on a tour of Hongyu Law Firm, where they met several of the firm's practicing lawyers.

The salary structure between a law firm and its lawyers is quite complex.

It is generally divided into a salary system, a commission system, a lump-sum system, or a partnership system.

In a salary system, lawyers are similar to company employees, receiving a fixed salary and potential commissions.

The law firm is responsible for assigning cases to the lawyers and bears the corresponding management and operating costs.

Lawyers appear in court as required by the law firm and complete legal service work.

Under this model, legal fees are primarily collected uniformly by the law firm and then distributed to the lawyers according to the internal salary system.

This was exactly the system adopted by Hongyu Law Firm.

The commission system is similar to an affiliation relationship; lawyers take on cases independently, and the law firm does not directly assign cases.

After the lawyer earns a profit, they split it with the law firm according to an agreed-upon ratio.

The split ratio usually involves the lawyer taking the smaller share (such as 30% or 20%) and the law firm taking the larger share (such as 70% or 80%).

Under this model, lawyers enjoy greater autonomy and rights to earnings.

However, they also bear higher risks.

The lump-sum system is where the law firm calculates daily operating expenses, including rent and administrative costs, which are paid by the lawyer in a one-time lump sum.

The paid expenses might be divided equally based on the number of lawyers, known as a 'per-head fee.'

After this, from the legal fees collected by the lawyer, the remaining portion after deducting the paid daily operating expenses may belong to the lawyer or be further split with the firm.

Finally, there is the common partnership system, where senior lawyers may become partners in the law firm.

As partners, they not only participate in the distribution of the law firm's earnings but also jointly bear the firm's operating risks and decision-making responsibilities.

The distribution of earnings among partners is usually determined according to a partnership agreement and may involve several complex factors, such as capital contribution ratios and business contributions.

In addition to paying salaries, Hongyu Law Firm also provided lawyers with other income such as performance bonuses, incentives, and allowances.

In Hongyu Law Firm, top-tier lawyers could earn an annual income of over a million.

Other mid-level lawyers had annual incomes ranging from over a hundred thousand to several hundred thousand.

Young lawyers had relatively poor incomes, but their situation was much better than young lawyers at other firms.

Su Yang was also aware of the general situation of the domestic legal industry.

Lawyers only look glamorous on the surface; it's just like the influencer industry, strictly following the 80/20 rule.

Over 70% of young lawyers have an annual income of less than 100,000 yuan.

Even in a first-tier domestic city like Shenzhen, nearly 60% of lawyers under the age of 40 earn less than 150,000 yuan.

In the last five years, the number of domestic lawyers has roughly doubled, and the internal competition in the legal industry is extremely severe.

Furthermore, being a lawyer relies heavily on the accumulation of connections.

20% of lawyers hold 80% of the industry's resources and earnings.

The remaining 80% of people can only scramble for the remaining 20% of resources and earnings.

At this stage, at least half of the domestic lawyers are struggling to make ends meet.

Many lawyers earn a salary of 1,000 yuan during their internship, which is lower than the local minimum wage, and they can't even afford rent.

There are actually people who rely on loans to go to work!

Their biggest problem is a lack of case sources.

Most cases are taken by veteran lawyers, while young lawyers are dirt poor and can only grit their teeth and endure!

For example, Su Yang knew of a female influencer lawyer in Shanghai.

She worked in Shanghai with a monthly salary of four or five thousand, which was probably barely enough to live on.

As a result, she used her spare time to dance on the internet as a content creator and livestreamer, earning 20,000 yuan a month...

Not long ago, this matter caused quite a stir online, with some old seniors saying she was affecting the reputation of the legal industry!

It was quite surreal!

Hongyu Law Firm was actually quite good to its young lawyers; at least it paid them salary subsidies.

They would also have veteran lawyers mentor them and let them take a portion of the money from the veteran lawyers' cases.

Or they would directly assign some less important cases to them for training purposes.

After Su Yang got a general understanding of the salaries at Hongyu Law Firm, his mood improved even further.

A law firm was indeed a good match for his golden finger!

He also used Business Deduction slightly and found that the development of Hongyu would not be bad after he took over.

Even if he didn't intervene, within a year, the company would slowly grow and expand under the leadership of Liu Fengshan, Zhou Jianjun, and Guo Shuda.

Moreover, just relying on the monthly salary and welfare rebates, that would be a million in income!

Therefore, he made up his mind!

A corporate law firm with relatively concentrated equity and decent development like this was quite rare.

At the very least, the framework was constructed in a way that suited Su Yang's preferences!

It would be relatively easy for Su Yang to let Hongyu grow and expand in the future.

The only trouble was that the company had three other shareholders, but after Su Yang chatted with the three of them, they quickly reached an agreement.

When it comes to business matters, there is nothing that money cannot solve!

After reaching a preliminary agreement with Xu Hongyu, Liu Fengshan, Zhou Jianjun, and Guo Shuda, Su Yang began to send people to conduct an asset appraisal of Hongyu Law Firm.

Hongyu naturally didn't have many assets; the company's office space was rented.

However, it was still necessary to check if their company certificates were complete, see if Hongyu's own operations were 'clean and normal,' whether there were tax issues, labor disputes, or debts... to see if it could be guaranteed that the law firm could continue to develop after Xu Hongyu left.

As it turned out, Hongyu also left Su Yang generally satisfied. Liu Fengshan had strong management and operational abilities. Besides some excellent lawyers, the operations team behind the firm was also quite good.

After contacting the main manager, Liu Fengshan, he also expressed his willingness to stay and work at the law firm and guaranteed he could stabilize the vast majority of the lawyers.

After several days of negotiation, Xu Hongyu finally took a step back and handed over 75% of Hongyu's shares to Su Yang for the price of seven million yuan.

At the same time, Su Yang bought 22% of the shares held by Liu Fengshan, Zhou Jianjun, and Guo Shuda for a high price of 2.5 million yuan.

He left 1% of the shares to each of these three people, mainly because Chinese law has certain regulations for law firm shareholders, requiring that shareholders must include practicing lawyers.

However, Su Yang had already spoken with Liu Fengshan, Zhou Jianjun, and Guo Shuda.

They were prepared for their 1% shares to be diluted, but Su Yang would increase their salary and benefits.

He would also increase their dividends. Since the dividends would be more than what they would get from their shares anyway, they naturally had no objections!

After the price was settled, the following matters were relatively simple.

Su Yang had a group of employees who could handle the tasks for him.

When Su Yang officially took over Hongyu Law Firm, he also heard the system prompt:

[Ding~ You now own a law firm. Your law firm has its first employee. You have received an achievement reward: Persuasiveness Talent, 1 Spirit Point; the law firm under your name can obtain one permanent buff.]

[1. Legal Statutes Memory, Research, and Analysis Bonus, 2. Persuasion Ability Bonus, 3. Negotiation Ability Bonus, 4. Communication Ability Bonus, 5. Legal Document Drafting Bonus, 6. Courtroom Argument Performance Bonus, 7. Client Trust Bonus... Please choose!]

Seeing these special buffs, Su Yang was slightly conflicted.

His understanding of the legal industry was far inferior to the catering industry.

Its complexity was also much higher than catering.

The memory, study, and research of the law should be a basic requirement for a senior lawyer.

Su Yang generally wouldn't prioritize things that could be improved through acquired effort.

The same went for legal document drafting!

What remained were persuasion, negotiation, communication, Courtroom Argument Performance bonuses, and the client trust bonus.

Su Yang looked carefully at the explanations for each bonus and excluded client trust as well.

As long as the law firm and the lawyer were famous, had excellent abilities, and had good publicity, clients would trust them!

This was precisely one of the main reasons why senior lawyers had high incomes.

The gap in a lawyer's ability is actually far smaller than the gap in their income!

After hesitating for a long time, Su Yang decided to choose Persuasiveness and Courtroom Argument Performance!

Generally, when two parties face each other in court, it means they have completely fallen out.

There is no room for negotiation or reconciliation.

This certainly involves relatively major interest disputes.

It could involve millions, tens of millions, or even billions of funds.

In that case, one must win!

And Chinese judges have a certain amount of discretionary power, so their leanings are also quite important.

This happened to be quite suitable for Persuasiveness!

And the application of persuasiveness is not only reflected in courtroom debates.

In other mediations, negotiations, and communications, it is actually also quite important.

It's a more comprehensive, jack-of-all-trades choice!

Even in international or foreign trials, a lawyer's on-site persuasiveness and courtroom performance are very important!

[Ding~ The lawyers of the law firm under your name have permanently obtained a +15% Persuasiveness bonus buff.]

[Ding~ The number of employees in your Hongyu Law Firm has exceeded 10. You have received an achievement reward: 2 Spirit Points; the Hongyu Law Firm under your name can obtain a new permanent buff.]

[1. Legal Statutes Memory, Research, and Analysis Bonus, 2. Negotiation Ability Bonus, 3. Communication Ability Bonus, 4. Legal Document Drafting Bonus, 5. Courtroom Argument Performance Bonus, 6. Client Trust Bonus... Please choose!]

So, Su Yang chose Courtroom Argument Performance.

Let's see each other in court!

[Ding~ The lawyers of the Hongyu Law Firm under your name have permanently obtained a +30% Persuasiveness bonus and a +15% Courtroom Argument bonus buff.]

Seeing this special buff bonus, Su Yang's mood couldn't help but improve.

In addition to this, he also obtained a Persuasiveness Talent.

It basically made what he said more persuasive and easier for people to believe.

Su Yang felt it was pretty good!

The reward of three Spirit Points also left Su Yang quite satisfied.

When he opened companies before, he had never encountered rewards for the Spirit attribute.

Among his current physical attributes, the Spirit attribute happened to be the weakest; these three points of Spirit could more or less help him make up for his shortcomings!

As for the name of Hongyu Law Firm, Su Yang did not change it.

Under the leadership of Xu Hongyu and Liu Fengshan, Hongyu had already been operating and developing for over four years.

In these four years, Hongyu had already accumulated a certain amount of fame in the industry and had relatively fixed clients and connections.

It could be said that the brand of Hongyu was also valuable and was included in the eight million!

If the name were changed, it would be like changing BMW to Baolong.

It might be more domineering, but who would recognize it!

After acquiring Hongyu, Su Yang asked Liu Fengshan to convene a general meeting for the entire law firm.

Xu Hongyu would also attend in person to support Su Yang.

At Fan Jinding's suggestion, Su Yang had already hired Xu Hongyu to serve as the Honorary Consultant for the law firm.

His health was indeed not very good, but he still had the connections, knowledge, and experience.