Paris—On Monday November 25, 2013, Dentons Paris welcomed Ms. Bai Yu, Deputy Director of the Beijing Zhicheng Law Firm and Assistant Director of the Zhicheng Public Interest Group, one of the largest and oldest NGOs in China.  Ms. Bai's visit was organized in coordination with the French Ministry of Justice and the Paris Bar as part of an official visit of eight Chinese criminal law and human rights lawyers (including Mr. Shang Baojun, the lawyer to the family of Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo), who came to study the French legal system and exchange with French lawyers on issues of common interest.

Ms. Bai specializes in providing legal aid to migrant workers and in related human rights and social issues.  She shared her experience working within the Chinese legal and judicial system, using examples from actual cases she has dealt with to illustrate the difficulties met by migrant workers coming from rural areas to cities; issues linked to the hukou system (registered residency status) in China, as well as the issues of public petitioners and Chinese “black jails”.  Ms. Bai has acted as counsel in many major cases concerning minors as well as on death penalty cases. She was also legal counsel for the children's film "Looking Up is Beautiful" and has published a comparative study of public interest law in China and the US called "Harmonious Society and Public Interest Law"  with attorney Tong Lihua.

Ms. Bai was greeted by John Flanigan and Carl Salans, and short presentations were made by members of Dentons' Paris office on relevant subjects (in particular Jean-Luc Bedos on legal aid societies in France, Marc Fornacciari on French public law and Aurélien Chardeau on the criminal law system), followed by a lively and interesting discussion with Ms. Bai and our other attendees (including our local Mandarin speakers, Elsa Jospe and Hugues de Zelicourt).

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