Dehe 20th Anniversary Person of the Year | Cheng Yaozhu: Devoted for sixteen years, earnest practice reveals the truth
Twenty years is a measure of time,
and it is also the chapter of growth written by countless Dehe people together.
On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the establishment of DHHT Law Firm,
a special series of "Dehe 20-Year Personal Interviews" has been launched.
From the perspectives of individual real-life figures,
we look back on Dehe's development journey and envision its future.
After sixteen years of joining Dehe, Cheng Yaozhu seldom spoke loudly, but he was always doing specific things: several neat meeting records became a model for the entire region, he connected party building with business again and again, and he completed persuasion in commercial disputes with evidence and logic.
This issue, let's get close to this unassuming "traveler".
Cheng Yaozhu, the lawyer currently serving as the director of the Supervisory Committee of DHHT Law Firm in Shanghai and the senior partner of the Shanghai office, has successively held the positions of the first Party branch secretary and the total Party branch secretary of DHHT Law Firm. He has long participated in the party building and organizational construction of the law firm. For eighteen years of practice, he has focused on the fields of commercial litigation and commercial dispute resolution, holds securities practice qualifications and futures practice qualifications, and has been hired as an off-campus mentor for the master's degree program in law of China University of Geosciences (Beijing).
01 From Jiaotong University to Dehe, he has been here for sixteen years
It took Cheng Yaozhu one month to do all the practice questions and recite the legal provisions.
When the results were announced, there were forty-plus people in the class, and only two passed, and he was one of them.
Cheng Yaozhu said, "I was not good at talking when I was young." He was not not good at expressing himself, but he was more accustomed to leaving time for listening, thinking, and reasoning.
Choosing law was initially a "misfortune". In 2003, Cheng Yaozhu was admitted to the Kairong Law School of Shanghai Jiaotong University to pursue a master's degree. Two months after enrollment, he took the judicial examination.
"At first, I didn't understand, thinking I would just prepare seriously."
In one month, Cheng Yaozhu did all the practice questions and recited the legal provisions. The results were announced, and among the forty-plus people in the class, only two passed, and he was one of them.
"That time made me feel that if you do one thing seriously, there will always be a result."
This sentence later almost became his life creed: not believing in shortcuts, nor pursuing superficial excitement, where you spend your time, the fruit will bear there.
After graduating from graduate school, Cheng Yaozhu officially entered the legal profession. In the early stage, he worked with Jiang Chun lawyer on many cases, and through repeated practices, accumulated experience. Outside of work, the two also met to play basketball together and met Zhang Hengtong lawyer on the court.
During the years of interaction, basketball became a connection method for Dehe lawyers. When talking about the two basketball partners who later became the founding partners of DHHT Law Firm, Cheng Yaozhu is still deeply impressed. In his opinion, Jiang Chun lawyer plays basketball steadily and is good at controlling the rhythm; Zhang Hengtong lawyer is more aggressive and is accustomed to taking the initiative to break through. The two different styles formed a good complement on the court.
When talking about his role, he smiled and self-mockingly said: "I'm like grabbing rebounds for everyone, doing some dirty and tiring work."
This joke also precisely reflects Cheng Yaozhu's personality traits. Compared to standing in the spotlight, he is more accustomed to doing those tasks that are not easily seen but affect the final result - preparing thoroughly, paying attention to details, and taking responsibility when the team needs it. In 2010, Cheng Yaozhu officially joined Dehe. Since then, from over thirty people to nearly a thousand people across the country, from the Party branch to the total Party branch to the party committee, he has always been "present".
"I am not an observer, nor a simple beneficiary. I am a traveler." In 2016, DHHT Law Firm established a Party branch, and Cheng Yaozhu was elected as the first Party branch secretary.
"To be honest, when I first took over, I had no idea at all."
There were no mature experiences to refer to, nor were there any ready templates to copy. He chose the most simple and effective method: study carefully and record meticulously.
At every meeting, training session, or communication, he wrote everything down in detail and neatly. Over the years, he wrote several thick volumes of meeting records.
By chance, a teacher from the Xuhui District Justice Bureau opened one of them and repeatedly exclaimed: "Your attitude is worth learning."
Later, these meeting records were used as a model to be promoted throughout the district.
The reason these record books were remembered was not only because of the neat handwriting. They recorded the start of Dehehantong's Party building work and also reflected Cheng Yaozhu's most simple working method: when you don't understand, learn; when you can't do it, do it. Make every matter come to fruition.
In Cheng Yaozhu's view, Party building should not remain merely in form but should be combined with the actual development of the legal profession. Since then, he has attempted to understand the needs of enterprises through Party building cooperation and policy publicity, promoting the connection between Party building and legal services.
"Party building is not an additional task; it is an important means for law firms to enter enterprises, build trust, and accumulate case sources."
From several meeting records to the continuous exploration of Party building work, Cheng Yaozhu has always adhered to the same way of doing things: not pursuing grandeur, but doing every matter carefully.
How could a person who is not very good at expressing themselves manage to establish a firm foothold in an industry where "expression" is the core competence for eighteen years?
Cheng Yaozhu's answer lies not in the narration but in the cases he handled.
In a dispute over demolition compensation, the client, as the second landlord, sued the main landlord to divide the government compensation funds. In the first instance, since the compensation amount was not listed in detail, the court dismissed all the claims on the grounds of "lack of evidence".
After entering the second instance, Cheng Yaozhu led his team to search for a large number of similar cases, repeatedly analyzed the compensation logic, and revised the legal opinions one after another. Every number's origin, every item of compensation's legal basis, and every possible judicial path's potential outcome were all dissected and verified by them.
Finally, the second instance court accepted their claim and fully supported the lawsuit request.
"Being a lawyer is often not about how loudly you speak, but about how deeply you think and how meticulously you act."
In Cheng Yaozhu's view, true persuasion does not rely on the intensity of expression, but on solid evidence, rigorous logic, and an understanding of the situation of the judges and the parties involved.
Over the years of his practice, Cheng Yaozhu formed his own working style: not pursuing publicity, but thinking deeply about the problem and doing things meticulously.
"Lawyers need to do more than just prove that they are right; they also need to make others believe that your plan is reasonable and acceptable. Professionalism, logic, and empathy, all are indispensable."
04 Honesty, sincerity, kindness: The unchanged background of sixteen years
The value of a lawyer does not lie in the sharpness of their words,
but in whether they are willing to handle every case thoroughly and shoulder every trust.
At the end of the interview, we asked him to describe himself with three words. After thinking for a long time, he finally said six words: honest, sincere, kind.
Honesty means not competing or being aggressive, and keeping promises and taking responsibility; sincerity means not embellishing, not keeping secrets, and not being perfunctory when facing clients, colleagues, and cases; kindness is not weakness, but maintaining an understanding and empathy for the situation of others within the framework of rules.
Over the years of practice, he has always regarded managing the expectations of clients as an important part of a lawyer's work: "The greatest responsibility to clients is not to agree to everything, but to tell them what can be done, what cannot be done, what should be pursued, and what should be given up."
Sixteen years ago, he once asked himself, can a person who is not very talkative do a good job as a lawyer. Now, he has an answer - the value of a lawyer does not lie in the sharpness of words, but in whether they are willing to handle every case thoroughly and shoulder every trust.
"Dehe has taught me not only how to be a lawyer, but also how to be a person with warmth."
When talking about Dehe's next twenty years, his words were very short: "Bigger, stronger, better, and longer."
For young legal professionals, his advice is also very simple: "Be honest and start from small things. True growth is hidden in every 'small thing' you treat seriously."
05 Sixteen Years of Partnership, Growing Together with Dehe
For Dehe, twenty years is a growth journey written by countless partners;
For Cheng Yaozhu, sixteen years of this period have already become an inseparable part of his career.
From a series of neatly organized meeting records to the Party branch, the Party General Branch， and the Party Committee； from a small team of over thirty people to a platform with nearly a thousand people across the country， he has always participated in and witnessed it as a "partner"， and has also grown within it.
His story is the trajectory of a lawyer's growth， and it is a real cross-section of Dehe's twenty-year development. Those seemingly ordinary attentiveness， perseverance， and responsibility eventually converge into the power that drives Dehe forward.
