Personal Statement
Program: Financial Law

I have been moderately satisfied with my way of life until I came to know about Forrest Gump, the hero in the movie Forrest Gump. The movie is my favorite, which portrays a particular social background totally different from that of my country, and a colorful cultural atmosphere with which I have never come into contact. Forrest Gump‘s way of life, to get the purest and simplest happiness by simplest means, has helped me understand the most unsophisticated and honest qualities inherent in human beings. From then on, an idea sprung up in my mind to pursue advanced studies in the United States, a nation on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. I hope I can arrive at greater perfection of my personality and academic attainments in a society and a culture full of diversities.

In 1997, I was admitted into the Law School at Wuhan University, one of the top domestic law schools, with excellent academic performance of the top 95 among a total number of 20,000 candidates in my province. When I first set my foot to the sacred hall of law, I couldn‘t help but marvel at the exquisite and majestic structure of the Civil Law System. As far as I am concerned, the charm of law is that it can take an overall view of the social situation and regulate the society from a macroscopic point of view with a requirement of meticulous thinking in a microscopic sense at the same time. Meanwhile, the frictions between legal theories and judicial practices are also challenging in my eyes, and the justice and benefit targets, as reflected by law, are nothing but the ultimate ideal pursued by mankind. My four years‘ studies of the science of law have not only enabled me to acquire a solid grounding in the theories and approaches of jurisprudence, on the basis of which I can undertake further and systematic world-class training, but also develop my ability to independently analyze and settle legal matters. My bachelor thesis, entitled Researches on the Organized Crime, was highly appraised by my supervisor and won the prize of Excellent Thesis. My thesis covers two major problems with realistic importance and urgency in China‘s existing situation: one is about the role played by delinquents in organized crimes; the other deals with worldwide criminal activities performed by the underworld organizations in stealing into other countries.

I used to focus on the legal protection of the civil rights of the minority groups and the disadvantaged groups. It was after watching another movie Philadelphia that I began to pay closer attention to this problem and came to understand the true meaning of "human rights" and "discrimination". I consulted a vast amount of legal literature on the American civil rights movement, with a rich discovery of many well-known cases about how those homosexuals struggled for their rights. In order to be in close contact with social realities, I have once offered to work in the Department of Minority Protection at China Human Rights Protection Center for the Disadvantaged. I have also read many books and teaching materials used in some American law schools with regard to the discrimination cases, such as Cases and Materials in Employment Discrimination. Then I wrote a paper on the legal and moral education and protection of the minorities, which was later published in one of China‘s core periodicals Lanzhou University Journal.

However, since my graduation, the nature of the work that I have been doing is somehow different from the possible employment that my undergraduate studies would have prepared me for. For nearly one year, I have been working as legal consultant at KaiYuan Law Firm for China Construction Bank. In this capacity I have primarily been engaged in offering legal services to other banks and in dealing with many financial lawsuits. The law firm in which I work has been maintaining close business relationship with several American laws firms and my participation in those cooperations has helped me to develop an international awareness in undertaking legal activities. In the meantime, I am also made to perceive the immature legal operations in China. The projects in which I have participated include: (1) representing China Construction Bank (DongShan Branch) in the lawsuit against China Chemical Engineering Dead Company (which involves a total of 30.5 million object of litigation); (2) representing the TongLin Branch in a lawsuit against Jiangxi Securities Company (which involves a total of 24 million object of litigation); (3) representing Xinda Assets Management Company in a lawsuit against JiuJiang Chemical Engineering Group Company (which involves a total of 30 million object of litigation); (4) representing ZhongXin Industrial Bank, Huaxia Bank and China Merchants‘ Bank in a series of lawsuits. Those practical experiences have added important knowledge to my undergraduate studies on one hand and significantly enhanced my ability to handle practical problems. My understanding of legal activities, particularly those in the financial field, has been greatly heightened.

From those activities of legal business, two important results have come about for me. In the first place, I have come to realize that my actual interest is becoming increasingly strong in the legal matters in the field of finance. As China has entered the WTO, there will be a significant increase in legal activities involving both domestic and international enterprises. Foreign financial organizations will operate in China while Chinese financial organizations will operate in foreign countries. The failure to operate their financial activities legally in their respective alien legal environments would inevitably result in serious consequences. Therefore, a native Chinese legal professional with international trainings in financial law will serve as a bridge for both Chinese and foreign financial sectors. On the other hand, as I have pointed out earlier, my actual legal experience in dealing with financial disputes have alerted me to the legal irregularities of China‘s financial activities. How to reduce those irregularities and to bring China‘s domestic financial operations onto the track of legality becomes a challenging issue that nobody can ignore. As a person with a strong sense of historical mission, I take it for granted that, at this important transitional period of China‘s legal development in the financial sector, I should contribute my efforts to this important process. Hence, it is absolutely necessary for me to enhance my professional qualities. It is out of this consideration that I have developed the idea of applying for an advanced education in financial law at your highly esteemed university.

For undertaking this program, I can list the following qualifications. I have been a law student as an undergraduate, an experience which has be important in laying a solid foundation for other legal studies. Next, I have accumulated considerable experience in financial law even within a limited period of time in my work since graduation. This can be my unique strengths in undertaking my proposed program. Finally, it is my gradually evolved interest in financial law that has led me to develop a determination to pursue a lifelong career in financial law. Now that my career objective has been set, all I need to do is to receive the necessary education in this field, to enhance my expertise and finally to apply it. I am clearly aware that all those plans of mine would be absolutely impossible without a quality education in financial law at your prestigious university.