Education
Our Team
JunHe has a team of partners experienced in providing specialist legal services in the education sector, including several partners who have many years’ experience in each segment of the industry. JunHe’s education law team is an interdisciplinary cooperative group, and all members of the team are legal professionals. They have vast experience in various sectors such as compliance, corporate and M&A, listing and bond issuance, both at home and abroad. They have experience in real estate, private equity/venture investment, intellectual property rights, taxes, and labor and dispute resolution.
Core Areas of Practice
Providing Perennial legal advice for education business, including but not limited to: collecting and interpretating the cutting-edge educational legislation and regulations, drafting and revising routine legal documents in education sector, providing legal advice of routine operation and management, strategic planning, new business cooperation models for education sector.
Consulting on compliance with the classification management of private schools, including conducting legal risk assessment, preparing legal plans and assisting in the implementation thereof, assisting schools in the establishment of modern school systems, conducting alteration of organizers, deregistration and alteration of registration.
Providing legal services for sino-foreign cooperative education programmes, including applications for the establishment and the setting up of their structures, demonstrating and designing a model for Sino-foreign cooperative education and the international schools’ access to China’s education market, conducting policy analysis, and the drafting of material legal documents and foreign exchange control involved in the process.
Providing general intellectual property protection for educational products, including software copyright, authors’ rights, patents, trademarks, and trade secrets.
Providing legal service for merger and acquisitions of educational institutions, including the demonstration and design of transaction structures, due diligence, contractual negotiation, transfer of equity interests, tax planning and post-investment management.
Dispute settlement in relation to any person engaged in the education business, including disputes over administrative penalties, disputes over the right to organize, disputes over joint school management and labor disputes.
One-Stop service in the education industry
Due to JunHe’s in-depth understanding of the education industry and the specific needs of its customers, we can fully understand the intentions of our clients and make accurate legal judgments regarding their business plans. We are aware of the highly sensitive nature of the business needs of the different entities in the industry and can provide advice in many areas such as running a school at different age levels, current trends in the education industry, as well as all related legal issues.
There has been massive reform in the education sector recently, as well as the rapid development of the non-government funded education sector, and we are able to provide up to date investment and financing legal services. We have experience in areas such as establishing modern school systems, routine legal risk management assessment, M&A and restructuring, capital increase and share expansion, and share transfer and listing, both at home and abroad. We can provide legal services for non-profit public educational institutions, particularly in their restructuring to become profit-making private educational institutions and assist them in the handling of various disputes arising from the preparation and operation of private educational institutions. We can also participate in litigation and arbitration where necessary.
With reference to the administrative departments of education systems and public welfare, JunHe’s legal services include the prevention of economic and civil risks arising from industrial construction, and management in education and public welfare undertakings and dispute settlement. The company is also experienced in dealing with administrative departments, assessing the performance of administrative service functions, and other relevant administrative legal risk prevention and dispute resolution matters.
JunHe has assisted public schools in formulating internal management systems regarding relationships between schools and teachers, between teachers and students, as well as between schools and the administrative departments in charge of education. JunHe also provides legal feasibility studies on the relevant programs in respect to cooperation between schools and various entities, including jointly running a school with an enterprise, and interschool communications, as well as controlling the legal risks involved; it also assists schools in handling personal and property safety accidents.
Recent Representative Cases
As one of JunHe’s most important business teams, the education law team have been involved in several classic cases through active exploration and innovation.
Classification Management and Compliance
Advised numerous education institutions including Bright Scholar Education Holdings Limited, Fuzhou University of International Studies and Trade, Shanghai International Studies University, Xianda College of Economics and Humanities, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies South China Business College, Huashang College, Guangdong Vocational University of Science and Technology, Guangzhou City Institute of Technology, Lingnan Institute of Technology, Lingnan Modern Technician College, Xiamen Huatian International Vocation Institute, China Huaxia Education Group Limited, Hunan Jinhai Education Group, Shangao Education Group and Nord Anglia Education Group etc. on classification management issues
Investments and M&As
Assisted Hope Education Group with the acquisition of control over Dingling Corporation Ltd. (an A-share listed company)
Represented UMU in its Series B and B+ financings.
Advised Bright Scholar Education Group, Choya Education Group, KWG Group Holdings and Shengtai Group in connection with their mergers and acquisitions of various types of educational institutions.
Sino-Foreign Cooperative Education
Assisted the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology with the establishment of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou), Assisting the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in the establishment of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (Foshan),
Assisted Dublin Business School, Ireland, and Kaplan Singapore in their collaboration with various Chinese educational institutions to launch Sino-foreign cooperative education programs.
Represented Guangzhou Langu Education Investment Co., Ltd. in its collaboration with Ardingly College in opening multiple high-end private international schools in China.
Represented Higher Ground education in founding its South China Headquarters in Guangzhou and expanding its presence into South China, Hong Kong and Macau.
Assisted KWG Education Group to enter a strategic cooperation arrangement with Magdalen College School
Dispute Resolution for Educational Institutions
Represented education administrations in administrative hearings, administrative reconsiderations and administration actions,
Represented a client in a dispute over the property title of a kindergarten.
