Professional profile
About He
Executive Director / Senior Partner | Construction and real estate, litigation and arbitration, commercial disputes
He Fei is the executive director and a senior partner of DeHeng Law Offices' Xi'an office. His official profile states that he has more than twenty years of legal practice and specializes in construction and real estate as well as civil and commercial litigation and arbitration. He has served as ongoing counsel to large and medium-sized enterprises across manufacturing, real estate, financial services and education and has represented clients in significant construction and commercial disputes.
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His long construction practice is particularly relevant in 2026 because the Supreme People's Court has issued a new Judicial Interpretation II on construction contract disputes, effective June 30, 2026. The interpretation addresses several recurring questions in project litigation, including fixed-price adjustment, settlement timing, quality guarantee treatment, site handover, and the construction price priority right. For contractors and owners, these rules affect how claims should be documented and when rights need to be asserted.
Construction disputes are often won or lost through project records rather than legal theory alone. A contractor seeking unpaid amounts may need to establish the contractual price mechanism, completion status, quality, settlement submissions, change orders, payment dates and the scope of the project to which a priority claim attaches. An owner may raise quality, delay or setoff claims. Counsel must therefore reconstruct years of project activity from contracts, site correspondence, meeting minutes, invoices, acceptance records and technical evidence.
He has advised and represented developers, construction companies and project entities in a range of matters. This background makes him particularly relevant to disputes where the contractor competes with mortgagees, financial creditors or other claimants against the same project value. The Civil Code gives qualifying construction-price claims a statutory priority right, and the judicial interpretations clarify important conditions and limitations. The practical challenge is preserving that right before time, settlement arrangements or project restructuring weaken it.
The 2026 interpretation is especially important because it addresses the need for courts to identify the amount and corresponding project covered by the priority right and clarifies issues such as losses caused by suspension, negotiated payment dates and certain transfer or insurance proceeds. A contractor should therefore not plead a broad priority claim without mapping the specific construction price that qualifies.
His broader commercial litigation practice also matters because construction projects commonly involve guarantees, financing, subcontracting, real-estate mortgages and enforcement. A contractor may win a judgment but still face a heavily encumbered project. The legal strategy should identify mortgage registration, project ownership, pre-sale arrangements, other enforcement cases and debtor solvency before litigation advances too far.
His role as long-term counsel to enterprises also gives him a preventive perspective. A contractor can preserve priority rights more effectively if the contract states payment milestones clearly, settlement submissions are controlled, changes are documented and default notices are issued promptly. Owners likewise need accurate records to challenge unsupported claims and maintain financing arrangements.
The 2026 construction interpretation also makes settlement discipline more important. Parties often spend months negotiating final accounts, and a contractor may assume that ongoing negotiation automatically protects every priority right. Counsel should instead identify the legally relevant payment date, any later agreed change to that date and the time window for asserting priority.
His experience as counsel to construction and real-estate enterprises also supports preventive project work. A contractor should establish a contract-administration process that tracks payment milestones, settlement submissions, variations, acceptance and notices. Owners should maintain equally disciplined records of defects, incomplete work and disputed quantities. Those records can determine the scope of the final judgment.
Priority disputes also require property-level diligence. A contractor needs to know who legally owns the project, whether mortgages have been registered, whether the property has been sold or pre-sold, and whether enforcement proceedings are already pending. The statutory priority rule is powerful, but it still has to attach to an identifiable project and qualifying construction-price debt.
His commercial litigation background is useful where the dispute extends beyond the construction contract. Guarantees, shareholder support, financing arrangements or settlement agreements may create additional recovery routes. A strong strategy should preserve the construction priority while evaluating those parallel claims.
Construction clients also benefit from counsel who can move between project administration and formal dispute resolution. A claim for unpaid project price often begins long before litigation, when payment certificates, settlement submissions, variation records and quality documents are still being created. Preserving those materials and identifying the correct payment dates can determine the later strength of a priority claim. He Fei's long-running construction and real-estate practice is therefore relevant not only to courtroom disputes but also to project-closeout strategy and creditor protection before enforcement begins.
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