2017年11月15日星期三

“硅谷精神”

近日,我所Michael Lee 律师面向中国旧金山使领馆官员、湖南省贸促会访问团以及硅谷商务人士发表了主题为“硅谷精神”的演讲,以下为演讲全文:

BIOGRAHICAL INTRODUCTION
(Delivered by Host)

Michael Lee is an attorney and founding partner of R.U.I. attorneys – a Silicon Valley litigation and transactional law firm. Michael founded the firm after service as an attorney with the United States Attorney’s Office, the US Internal Revenue Service, and the US District Court. The primary focus of his transactional practice is structuring international business transactions and wealth management services for high-net worth families to promote tax efficiency via US-foreign treaties or sophisticated multi-modal estate planning. Regarding litigation, his practice focuses on complex insolvency, distressed transactions, and tax controversy.

PREPARED REMARKS 
(Delivered by Michael Lee)

Representatives of the Chinese Consulate General, Hunan Association of San Francisco, and all friends and guests here tonight.

Good Evening. It is my sincere pleasure and privilege to speak before you and to be included among such high caliber presenters as have gathered here tonight.


To be fair, even as an attorney, speaking in front of a large group in this context can be intimidating. Thus I often rely on some advice given to me from a federal judge and dear friend of mine who said this about legal writing.

You only need to remember two rules for legal writing:

One, have a point.
&
Two, make it.

Naturally I hope this advice is equally applicable to public speaking, and I hope to achieve those simple goals, now.

As an attorney, per my training, I usually view issues through a legal lens; however, I believe the best foundation and “law” for my remarks tonight are drawn not from the law, but from literature and that of British science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke and his three laws of technology.

Clarke’s three laws are these:

  1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, they are almost certainly right. When they state that something is impossible, they are very probably wrong.
  2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
  3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Silicon Valley prides itself in adhering to all of these laws and of course, we can easily see the application of these laws directly in technology but what about the system supporting this technology. 

I assert, you can find the same ingenuity. 

For the first law, I cite to California’s reinvigoration of the use of the limited partnership as a start-up financing tool. Most of you are probably more familiar with this structure by its colloquial name “venture capital”. Historically, the limited partnership was an awkward vehicle used to finance real estate development - often on the east coast because of local tax rules. Silicon Valley however had a different idea. Silicon Valley saw the same vehicle and saw something else – the ability to combine investment with knowledge to fund projects early with high levels of focus and a firm exit strategy. The VC fund has been a revolution in company capital formation. This conversion of the possible to the achievement of the impossible, fuels Silicon Valley to this day. As an attorney, I could not resist providing you all this somewhat wonky technical example, but I wish to digress for my second point.   

For the second law, I wish to cite something more personal but I believe highly applicable to the Silicon Valley story. I am not originally from Silicon Valley. I grew up far away, outside of a rural town, that I often introduce to people as a city that is mentioned late in the novel, Grapes of Wrath but the family kept driving. The Grapes of Wrath is a novel about a family escaping the ‘dust bowl’ of the midwest and seeking a new life in California, but interestingly or perhaps appropriately were not interested in my hometown. 

Like many of us in this room, I was an outsider. But like Clarke’s maxim, the only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible. Silicon Valley’s great discovery was that the limits of the possible are not geographic. Innovation is powered globally. It is a product of cooperation and interconnectedness. I couldn’t have imagined becoming a Silicon Valley attorney as a child, I believe many likewise look at where they are now and feel the same. The pushing of boundaries be them technological or constructed such as national boarders is a further hallmark of Silicon Valley style innovation.

And lastly the third law, just as with any sufficiently advanced technology, any sufficiently advanced system is indistinguishable from magic. Silicon Valley produces magic. The magic that makes things happen, the magic that solves problems. That isn’t a location, that is an idea. But Silicon Valley is not really a location. It is an idea. It is an idea to combine technological prowess, advanced capital structures, and sophisticated law, to enable great things to happen. 

‘The sum of the parts, is greater than the whole.’

However, we must not forget that this whole, is a product of the parts. We are the parts and we need more parts every day. Thus I welcome you all to become a part of the Silicon Valley idea and wish you all much success in the future.


Thank you and it has a been a sincere pleasure. 

2017年11月3日星期五

生活法律案例系列之一:好的法律建议可以帮你避免陷入经济困境

以下为我们接触的一个真实案例。Sally为化名,实际金额有差异。

Sally 车祸受伤,车祸之后保险公司确认赔付Sally 20万美金,但保险公司无法一次性赔付Sally,需要分若干个月才能赔付完毕。Sally因为之前受伤误工没有收入开销增加,已经拖欠信用卡公司5万多美金,最近信用卡公司一直在不断催帐,Sally非常焦急,前去咨询她的personal injury律师。Personal injury律师说他的工作只是帮助Sally获取车祸赔偿金,保险公司分期赔付也实属正常,没有其他办法再帮助Sally。无奈之下Sally把自己的claims卖给了一家专门购买保险公司人身伤害赔付的公司(A 公司),A 公司承诺一次性支付给Sally 10万美金购买Sally价值20万美金分期付款的claims。为解燃眉之急,Sally无奈之下同意将自己的20万美金分期付款的claims卖给 A 公司换取一次性10万美金的支付额。Sally用这10万美金偿还了信用卡债务后还剩不到5万美金的可支配金额,生活陷入困境。Sally现在找到我们事务所寻求帮助。

在这种情况下我们已经很难帮助到Sally,因为她已经还清了信用卡账单,而且与A公司签订的合同在双方自愿不违反公共政策的情况下会被法庭承认,不能反悔。

如果Sally在信用卡公司催帐的时候直接找到我们,那情况就会完全不同。我们会建议Sally考虑破产申请。因为在破产程序中,personal injury 赔偿金是不会算做破产申请人的资产的,可以被全部保护而不需要用来偿还债务;而信用卡债务因为是unsecured debts会被全部免除,Sally不需要再偿还任何信用卡债务。一来二去,Sally因为没有及时接受到有益的法律建议,已经损失了了20几万美金。

无论是个人还是企业的破产申请在美国已经有超过百年的发展历史。美国是一个破产法体系健全的国家,破产法的中心意图是通过给个人和企业”fresh start”的机会让陷入经济困境的个体重新融入社会,再次成为productive的经济个体。在中国大陆,因为社会信用体系发展尚不成熟以及大量现金交易等原因破产法迟迟无法达到其真正的作用。尤其是个人破产方面,发展极为缓慢。经常听说某位小伙儿因为母治病欠下大笔债务导致姑娘家父母坚决不同意将女儿嫁给小伙儿还债受苦,不禁在想这事儿如果在美国如果有专业人士的介入绝对不会成为一个悲剧,小伙儿和姑娘可能从此幸福的生活在一起共同致富。


回到美国社会,我们生活在美国的华人都应该懂一些基本的美国经济法则(包括破产法)才能更好的保护自己。

Disclaimer: The contents of this article are intended to convey general information only and not to provide legal advice or opinions.

加州睿骋律师事务所 rui attorneys 位于美国加州硅谷中心 downtown San Jose,事务所主要从事公司法、地产法、财产遗产法、税法以及国际税法等领域。
Michael Lee 律师 睿骋律师事务所合伙人
Michael Lee律师曾经效力于美国国税局的法务部、美国联邦检查机关以及美国联邦法院,他对美国的政府部门运作以及法院都非常了解和熟悉。他的业务范围主要涉及公司商业法、个人财产遗产法和税法等。在公司商业法方面,他非常擅长帮助企业建立符合美国法律规定、节税省税的公司结构,以及帮助企业规避各项法律风险。在个人财产规划方面,他熟知国际税法以及充分了解国际人士财产规划的特殊性,尤其擅长为同时拥有海外资产和美国资产的客户做登陆美国前的财产税务规划以及登陆后的资产总体规划和税务分析。

Xiaowei Li 律师 睿骋律师事务所合伙人
Xiaowei Li律师曾经多年服务于美国的跨国企业公司,对美国公司法以及企业运作、合同签订等企业日常问题有非常专业的见解。她长期为美国加州多家中小企业提供法律顾问服务,帮助这些企业在日常经营中降低法律风险以及服实际困难,涉及公司法、劳工法、合同法、商业法等企业经营的各个方面。她主要的企业客户包括建筑开发商、建材公司、地产公司、财务贸易公司、高科技公司、餐厅和Cafe、医生诊所等。