What are the most significant cases, projects and/or transactions that you and/or your legal team have recently been involved in?

Our company is a leading data-driven education company focused on delivering measurable results through high-tech innovations. As the legal team of such company, the most significant cases and projects we have been involved in recently are deeply focused on safeguarding the company’s AI-driven business transformation—a transformation that is reshaping students’ personalised learning models.

The AI projects the company is currently exploring include developing education-specific large language models for deep reasoning and enhanced retrieval, building multi-modal learning systems, designing AI learning agents, and attempting to launch digital human teachers. The core of our legal team’s work is to ensure these projects fully comply with the applicable legal framework. This includes, but is not limited to, collaborating closely with the data and technology teams to establish a strict data security and compliance system, and implementing laws and regulations related to personal information protection and data security. At the same time, we also need to apply laws and regulations concerning AI identification to specific business scenarios. We also need to help our business colleagues ensure that the content generated using AI is both authentic and compliant with laws and regulations.

To advance this work efficiently, we have proactively enhanced our professional capabilities: participating in seminars on China’s latest AI and education-related laws and regulations, collaborating with local legal experts specializing in AI and intellectual property compliance, and maintaining regular communication with regulatory authorities to stay updated on policy developments in advance. This series of efforts will lay a solid foundation for the long-term and stable development of the company.

How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crisis to ensure the organisation’s resilience?

To manage legal aspects amid periods of instability or crisis and ensure organizational resilience, I think the core approach centres on agility in response, strengthening frontline capabilities, and aligning insights with     business needs.

First, flatten the organisational structure by reducing hierarchical layers. This streamlines decision-making by eliminating bureaucratic red tape. The real-time collaboration ensures that compliance guidance and risk assessments keep pace with rapidly evolving business demands, preventing delays that could expose the organization to avoidable legal risks.

Second, prioritise upskilling legal professionals who interact directly with daily operations. Beyond enhancing their expertise in core legal areas like contract law or regulatory compliance, invest in training that deepens their understanding of business workflows. This equips them to provide targeted, actionable risk-mitigation advice on the spot, transforming them from passive reviewers into proactive guardians of the organisation’s legal safety.

Third, leverage AI tools to boost operational efficiency. Automate routine yet time-consuming tasks, such as initial contract screenings for high-risk clauses, legal document categorization, or real-time monitoring of regulatory updates (e.g., changes in data privacy laws). This frees up legal staff to focus on high-stakes, nuanced issues—like negotiating crisis-specific agreements or assessing the legal impact of geopolitical events—that require human judgment.

Finally, ensure legal teams match business partners’ grasp of industry-specific political and economic dynamics. This can be achieved through regular joint briefings, where both teams analyse trends like new trade policies or economic sanctions that affect operations. Such alignment ensures legal advice is not only compliant but also pragmatic, balancing risk avoidance with the need to seize critical business opportunities during unstable times.

 What strategies do you employ to ensure the successful digital transformation of a legal department while maintaining compliance with your country’s data protection laws?  

I believe we need to actively use AI tools, as they will provide significant support in various aspects such as contract review, preliminary elimination of legal risks, and legal teams answering business consultation questions. At the same time, AI vertical large language models are also crucial. For companies in a specific industry, if there are no major policy adjustments, the legal risks will most likely not change significantly. For example, for content-producing companies like ours, we must avoid intellectual property infringement and ensure compliance of advertising slogans—these are all repetitive scenarios. I believe it is possible to train vertical LLMs that are suitable for industry characteristics. Adopting this approach for digital transformation can make work results more accurate and also improve efficiency.

What factors influence your team’s decision to use external legal services versus handling matters in-house, and what criteria are used to evaluate their performance?

When we decide whether to use external legal services or handle matters in-house, the primary consideration is professional expertise. The most obvious difference between external lawyers and in-house legal teams lies in their areas of focus: external lawyers are specialists in specific professional fields, such as litigation, intellectual property, capital markets, and data compliance. In contrast, in-house legal teams are risk control experts for the industry their company operates in—they have a deeper understanding of the legal risks associated with the company’s business operations in that particular industry.

Therefore, when selecting external lawyers, our key criterion is whether they have profound expertise in the specific field we need. Meanwhile, we also place great emphasis on their dedication—specifically, whether they devote themselves fully and take a conscientious approach to addressing the legal issues at hand. In many cases, even for a lawyer with strong professional capabilities, the outcome of handling a legal matter can vary significantly depending on whether they are dedicated to the task or not.

What are the most significant cases, projects and/or transactions that you and/or your legal team have recently been involved in?

Our company is a leading data-driven education company focused on delivering measurable results through high-tech innovations. As the legal team of such company, the most significant cases and projects we have been involved in recently are deeply focused on safeguarding the company’s AI-driven business transformation—a transformation that is reshaping students’ personalised learning models.

The AI projects the company is currently exploring include developing education-specific large language models for deep reasoning and enhanced retrieval, building multi-modal learning systems, designing AI learning agents, and attempting to launch digital human teachers. The core of our legal team’s work is to ensure these projects fully comply with the applicable legal framework. This includes, but is not limited to, collaborating closely with the data and technology teams to establish a strict data security and compliance system, and implementing laws and regulations related to personal information protection and data security. At the same time, we also need to apply laws and regulations concerning AI identification to specific business scenarios. We also need to help our business colleagues ensure that the content generated using AI is both authentic and compliant with laws and regulations.

To advance this work efficiently, we have proactively enhanced our professional capabilities: participating in seminars on China’s latest AI and education-related laws and regulations, collaborating with local legal experts specializing in AI and intellectual property compliance, and maintaining regular communication with regulatory authorities to stay updated on policy developments in advance. This series of efforts will lay a solid foundation for the long-term and stable development of the company.

How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crisis to ensure the organisation’s resilience?

To manage legal aspects amid periods of instability or crisis and ensure organizational resilience, I think the core approach centres on agility in response, strengthening frontline capabilities, and aligning insights with     business needs.

First, flatten the organisational structure by reducing hierarchical layers. This streamlines decision-making by eliminating bureaucratic red tape. The real-time collaboration ensures that compliance guidance and risk assessments keep pace with rapidly evolving business demands, preventing delays that could expose the organization to avoidable legal risks.

Second, prioritise upskilling legal professionals who interact directly with daily operations. Beyond enhancing their expertise in core legal areas like contract law or regulatory compliance, invest in training that deepens their understanding of business workflows. This equips them to provide targeted, actionable risk-mitigation advice on the spot, transforming them from passive reviewers into proactive guardians of the organisation’s legal safety.

Third, leverage AI tools to boost operational efficiency. Automate routine yet time-consuming tasks, such as initial contract screenings for high-risk clauses, legal document categorization, or real-time monitoring of regulatory updates (e.g., changes in data privacy laws). This frees up legal staff to focus on high-stakes, nuanced issues—like negotiating crisis-specific agreements or assessing the legal impact of geopolitical events—that require human judgment.

Finally, ensure legal teams match business partners’ grasp of industry-specific political and economic dynamics. This can be achieved through regular joint briefings, where both teams analyse trends like new trade policies or economic sanctions that affect operations. Such alignment ensures legal advice is not only compliant but also pragmatic, balancing risk avoidance with the need to seize critical business opportunities during unstable times.

 What strategies do you employ to ensure the successful digital transformation of a legal department while maintaining compliance with your country’s data protection laws?  

I believe we need to actively use AI tools, as they will provide significant support in various aspects such as contract review, preliminary elimination of legal risks, and legal teams answering business consultation questions. At the same time, AI vertical large language models are also crucial. For companies in a specific industry, if there are no major policy adjustments, the legal risks will most likely not change significantly. For example, for content-producing companies like ours, we must avoid intellectual property infringement and ensure compliance of advertising slogans—these are all repetitive scenarios. I believe it is possible to train vertical LLMs that are suitable for industry characteristics. Adopting this approach for digital transformation can make work results more accurate and also improve efficiency.

What factors influence your team’s decision to use external legal services versus handling matters in-house, and what criteria are used to evaluate their performance?

When we decide whether to use external legal services or handle matters in-house, the primary consideration is professional expertise. The most obvious difference between external lawyers and in-house legal teams lies in their areas of focus: external lawyers are specialists in specific professional fields, such as litigation, intellectual property, capital markets, and data compliance. In contrast, in-house legal teams are risk control experts for the industry their company operates in—they have a deeper understanding of the legal risks associated with the company’s business operations in that particular industry.

Therefore, when selecting external lawyers, our key criterion is whether they have profound expertise in the specific field we need. Meanwhile, we also place great emphasis on their dedication—specifically, whether they devote themselves fully and take a conscientious approach to addressing the legal issues at hand. In many cases, even for a lawyer with strong professional capabilities, the outcome of handling a legal matter can vary significantly depending on whether they are dedicated to the task or not.