Based in Jinan, Shandong, China | Serving clients worldwide
Ongoing Support
Corporate Counsel: A Lawyer on Retainer, Not on Speed Dial
For companies operating in or with China that do not have local legal staff. Ongoing advice, contract management and compliance — for a fixed monthly fee with a defined number of hours.
Three Tiers
Pick the Level of Cover You Need
All tiers include bilingual working files and direct access by email and WhatsApp.
Tier 1
Essential
$2,500 / month
Annual engagement: $27,500 / year (one month included at no charge)
What is included
- 8 consultation hours per month
- Bilingual contract template set
- Direct WhatsApp & email access
- Quarterly compliance review
Tier 2
Growth
$5,000 / month
Annual engagement: $55,000 / year (one month included at no charge)
What is included
- Everything in Essential
- 20 consultation hours per month
- Priority response
- Supplier contract review
- Employment & HR support
- 2 supplier risk checks per year
Tier 3
Enterprise
$7,500 / month
Annual engagement: $82,500 / year (one month included at no charge)
What is included
- Everything in Growth
- 45 consultation hours per month
- Dedicated lead lawyer
- On-site visits
- Negotiation support
- Preferential rates on disputes
How the retainer fee is set
- Base rates are benchmarked against prevailing international rates for China-related work (roughly USD 350–700 per hour for partner / senior lawyer time), then adjusted for a Jinan cost base and a long-term advisory relationship.
- Each tier bundles a fixed number of consultation hours per month. Unused hours do not roll over.
- Litigation, arbitration, transactional work beyond the tier, and travel are quoted separately.
- The final retainer fee is confirmed in writing after a scope review.
How Fees Work
How the retainer fee is set
- Base rates are benchmarked against prevailing international rates for China-related work (roughly USD 350–700 per hour for partner / senior lawyer time), then adjusted for a Jinan cost base and a long-term advisory relationship.
- Each tier bundles a fixed number of consultation hours per month.
- Unused hours do not roll over.
- Litigation, arbitration, transactional work beyond the tier, and travel are quoted separately.
- The final retainer fee is confirmed in writing after a scope review.
Why Companies Do This
The Preventive Case for a Retainer
Contracts get reviewed before signature
The single cheapest intervention in China trade — and the one most often skipped when legal advice is billed by the hour.
Problems surface earlier
An ongoing relationship means we hear about a supplier issue when it starts, not when the deposit is already gone.
Cost becomes predictable
A fixed monthly fee replaces the uncertainty of ad-hoc instructions. You know what legal support costs each month.
A retainer is not a discount on hourly work — it is a change in when the lawyer gets involved. Most of the matters we see in China were cheap to prevent and expensive to fix: a purchase order issued by the wrong entity, a payment sent to an account that did not match the contract, a certification relied on that covered a different factory. On retainer we review contracts before signature, keep an eye on supplier and counterparty risk, and handle the routine China legal services — contracts, employment, compliance, foreign-exchange questions — as they come up, so the first time you hear about a problem is not after the deposit has been paid.
Not ready for a retainer? Start with due diligence on your current suppliers.