JC Master: A Lawyer’s Story | Broad in Vision, Selective in Acquisition; Deeply Accumulated, Brilliantly Unfolding — Reflections on an Internship as a Young Lawyer

It was nearly dawn by the time I finished revising the client’s documents. Gazing at my reflection in the window, I recalled a day from a few years ago—when I, too, was buried beneath piles of books, tirelessly poring over case‑study reports for my school courses under the glow of a lamp. Back then, my state of mind was remarkably pure: my classmates and I were deeply immersed in lively discussions of legal theory and diverse perspectives, driven by a shared passion to unearth treasures along the shores of jurisprudence.
 

And JC Master is precisely such a golden shore. During meal breaks, my colleagues share their insights from handling cases, and at case‑discussion meetings, we engage in vigorous exchanges of ideas. This egalitarian, open‑minded approach has, for the first time, allowed me to truly grasp the profound meaning of “constantly shifting one’s gaze between norms and facts.” In the six months since joining the JC Master family, I have grown rapidly within an atmosphere where expertise and passion intertwine.
 

The first “shell” I picked up was the field of matrimonial and family law. It was a particular honor to connect with Attorney Zhang Xinran, who guided me into this realm of matrimonial and family law—a world rich in humanistic concern. When handling my very first child‑custody dispute, my focus was still confined to the surface documents, and I failed to grasp the parties’ true underlying needs. Thanks to Attorney Zhang’s patient listening and expert analysis, a deep bond of trust was forged between the parties and our office, enabling us to swiftly finalize an appropriate solution and see it implemented effectively. Through these matrimonial and family cases, I have come to realize that we must anticipate the full picture of each matter even earlier than the parties themselves—both by empathizing with their emotional concerns and by distilling the key issues through legal reasoning, ultimately leveraging our own robust professional expertise to identify the decisive breakthrough.
 

The second “shell” emerged during the refinement of legal documents. In the early stages of drafting pleadings and advocacy briefs, I often carried a student‑like air, habitually piling up intricate reasoning to scaffold my arguments. Attorney Zhang pointed out directly that legal writing should be as precise as a surgical scalpel: state the core claim upfront, then systematically set out the facts and the legal grounds. The foundational thinking about claims‑based reasoning that I had once learned, honed through practical experience, became a key methodological framework for handling cases thereafter.
 

The third “shell” is the lawyer’s awareness of professional risks. The training courses at JC Master and the repeated emphasis on professional risks by my colleagues have been immensely beneficial to me. Unlike the comfortable academic environment of campus, every conversation and every document a lawyer produces can become an unseen obstacle in one’s career; thus, one must approach every word and action with the utmost caution, as if treading on thin ice.
 

Once, the confident seeker of knowledge I was on campus would still feel a quiet apprehension about the future even as I closed my books. But during my time working at JC Master, it was as if the fog over the sea had been dispelled by the light; I too transformed—from a mere shell‑picker drifting with the tide into a tide‑gatherer who knows how to anchor my course amid the waves—glimpsing, in the morning dawn, a more expansive vista far ahead.

Chen Weiguang, Intern Attorney
JC Master (Suzhou) Law Office

Chen Weiguang is an intern at the law office JC Master (Suzhou), working under Attorney Zhang Xinran. He holds a Bachelor of Laws degree from East China University of Political Science and Law, with a primary focus on legal services in areas such as matrimonial and family matters, as well as civil and commercial litigation.