I am a Chinese woman with a great passion for law, and this is the greatest asset that I hope to bring to your distinguished LLM Program at XXXX University. My love for the field of law sustained me through my studies even though I had to undergo stomach surgery shortly before my final exams to become an attorney in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). My English has dramatically improved over the years, mainly as a result of working with native speakers of English, in addition to spending an entire year studying law in English in Hong Kong. Thus, I feel confident that I would be able to excel in your program.

 I was raised in Jiangsu Province, which is close to Shanghai, where I was born. I spent over seven years in Beijing, four years of law school, and three working for a top law firm after completing my LLB Degree from the Beijing University of Technology and Business. I have also earned a Master of Common Law Degree (LLM) from the University of Hong Kong. I now want very much to study in America. I have been to California and focused early on XXXX University as my first choice for study in the US, due to its prestige, renown, and how very impressed I have been by lawyers that I have worked with who have graduated from your program.

 I am especially interested in corporate governance, especially securities law in the United States, concerning both private and public sectors. After graduation, I would like very much to gain further experience by working for the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC)  in the U.S. I look forward to returning to China and practicing as a US-trained lawyer, and continuing to develop a lifetime involvement with the cutting-edge of securities law. My long-term goal is to shoulder a great deal of responsibility working for the China Security Regulatory Commission, utilizing the knowledge I hope to gain from my education and experience in the U.S. I hope to contribute to the reform and ongoing modernization of securities regulation in China. I feel strongly that your program at Stanford will provide me with the optimal foundation for this life’s work.

During my Law School days in Beijing, I voluntarily helped minority public shareholders in the securities market who suffered losses due to misleading or fraudulent disclosures made by public companies, reviewing legal documents and preparing litigation documentation. Furthermore, I continued this volunteer work after graduation. I pushed myself very hard to constantly arrive at an increasingly sophisticated understanding of the shortcomings in China’s securities regulatory system, continually searching for ways to improve it.  This has proven to be an invaluable, foundational experience that has made me an increasingly pragmatic professional who stays focused on practical issues and given me a very high level of maturity for someone at this point in my career. I very much look forward to contributing to the diversity of your program as a PRC-qualified lawyer, and in this way, contribute to discussions of comparative legal systems, always with an eye toward the unique strengths, weaknesses, and challenges facing the PRC corporate governance system. It is my sincere hope that my time spent at Stanford will provide me with the optimal foundation for contributing to the improvement of this system. Towards this end, I also look forward to learning from other students from all over the world.

Since June of 2010, I have worked with XXXX LLP as a legal assistant. I advise foreign fund managers and assist associates with preparing legal documents, attending drafting sessions, preparing the initial draft of prospectuses as the issuer’s counsel, working on revisions, and responding to comments from the SEC and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

I am an easygoing person who is always willing to go the extra mile to help others. I feel very strongly that the most significant contribution that I might be able to make to society would be to serve as a member of the securities authority in China, reviewing listing application documents to eliminate trash and fight fraud in publicly listed companies in China. I want to devote my life to protecting public investors and helping to establish a more efficient securities market in the PRC. I am well-read and well-traveled, both for business and pleasure. I have visited several law schools in the U.S. to decide where to apply to an LLM Program.  XXXX is my first choice because of its strength in the area of multiple jurisdictions: mergers and acquisitions, initial public listings, and debt offering to private equity practice.

My mother suffered a tragic loss in the securities market in China by buying the toxic securities of a public company listed on our stock exchange, as a result of fraudulent financial statements.  As a second-year law student then, I was shocked that the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) did not recognize this fraud at the time of listing. I encouraged my mother, together with other victims, to seek monetary compensation through litigation. I actively participated in the litigation, helping lawyers to prepare the lawsuit.  This was my first experience with the Chinese judicature and the real-world law practice. Despite our efforts, the outcome was disappointing. The complaint was rejected due to a lack of supporting regulations, and these public shareholders were not even granted the right to sue. I was angered and deeply saddened by these regulatory deficiencies in corporate governance and securities regulations in China.

Nevertheless, this experience gave me a wealth of knowledge and the ability to look at these kinds of legal issues from a practical as well as a theoretical perspective. It was at this point that the laws and regulations that I had been studying in textbooks became much more than just words; they became vivid and alive in the courtroom with each word spoken by the judges, and the arguments presented by legal professionals.  Also, it made me more interested in finding out the reasons for that situation.  Furthermore, my legal efforts on behalf of these shareholders attracted the attention of the faculty of law. I was granted the honor of serving as a Professor's Assistant (PA) in Corporate and Securities Law, researching and giving classroom presentations.

Earning the LLM Degree at the University of Hong Kong, one of the most prestigious law schools in Asia, opened the door to the standard law system of the Western world for me; and I was most impressed by the efficiency of Western legal systems in protecting people's legitimate interests through the integration of case law and statutes.  I feel strongly that China has much to learn from the West; and I ask for admission to Stanford so that I might have the honor of devoting my life to helping my people prosper, fomenting honesty and highly operational standards and processes that will protect our hard working people who invest in the market. I want to thank you for considering my application to your distinguished program.