Professional profile
About Sun
Equity Partner | International trade, maritime, complex foreign-related disputes, cross-border investment, corporate advisory
Sun Fanglong is an equity partner in Zhuojian Law Firm's Qingdao office whose practice is centered on complex dispute resolution and foreign-related commercial matters. Public professional materials describe substantial experience in international trade, maritime law, cross-border investment and ongoing corporate advisory work, with particular emphasis on major, difficult and complex civil and commercial disputes involving international elements. This mix is especially relevant in Qingdao, where port activity, manufacturing, logistics, licensing and international supply chains can create disputes involving contracts, shipping documents, competition rules, IP rights, jurisdiction and enforcement at the same time.
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Sun's practice is distinguished by its contentious depth. Zhuojian identifies litigation and arbitration as a principal practice area and describes his focus on major foreign-related disputes. Publicly reported representative work includes significant commercial cases involving multinational and technology businesses, including disputes that combined licensing and competition questions. Such cases are strategically complex because the lawyer must decide how contract claims interact with statutory competition or IP rights, which forum offers useful remedies and what evidence must be preserved before positions harden.
Cross-border disputes create procedural issues that domestic disputes may not. A party may be located abroad, evidence may be stored in several jurisdictions, the contract may contain a foreign court clause, related agreements may select arbitration, and assets may be located in China. Counsel must think about jurisdiction, parallel proceedings, service, evidence collection, preservation, recognition of foreign judgments or awards and enforcement before the merits case is fully developed. Sun's foreign-related dispute focus makes those issues central to his profile rather than peripheral.
This expertise has become more important under China's amended Civil Procedure Law. The 2023 amendments, effective in 2024, expanded the framework for foreign-related jurisdiction and introduced express provisions concerning parallel litigation and forum non conveniens. Chinese courts can have jurisdiction over foreign-related disputes through specified connecting factors and, in certain cases, other appropriate connections. The law also addresses situations where the same dispute is litigated in China and abroad. For multinational companies, this means forum clauses and first-response strategy need to be designed with greater precision.
Sun's public biography also identifies international trade and maritime matters as major parts of his practice. Qingdao's port economy produces disputes involving bills of lading, charterparties, freight forwarding, logistics, cargo, insurance, warehousing and international sale contracts. Sun has publicly lectured on maritime dispute resolution and the special procedures applicable to maritime cases, discussing practical issues connected with bills of lading, charters, freight-forwarding contracts, port storage, warehouse receipts and insurance. That supports positioning him as a lawyer who understands specialized maritime procedure as well as general commercial litigation.
His cross-border investment and corporate advisory work gives his dispute practice an additional advantage. The best dispute strategy often begins when the contract is drafted. A lawyer experienced in enforcement can identify which representations, guarantees, recordkeeping duties, payment terms, termination rights and dispute clauses will create leverage if the relationship later fails. In a joint venture or international distribution arrangement, governance and evidence provisions can be as important as the headline commercial terms.
Public profiles also identify Sun with professional and public-service roles in Qingdao and with foreign-related legal talent programs. He has been associated with legal education, arbitration, trade-friction legal services and international commercial dispute expertise. These roles suggest continued engagement with the institutional development of foreign-related dispute resolution.
For a foreign company, Sun may be especially relevant when a China commercial relationship is already deteriorating. Examples include a technology-license dispute involving competition allegations; a supply contract dispute with evidence in China and overseas; a distribution dispute involving IP or exclusivity; a maritime or logistics claim involving several contractual parties; or a cross-border investment dispute where the counterparty's assets are in China. He is also relevant where a Chinese company needs to coordinate proceedings with overseas counsel.
His public competition and IP work adds strategic flexibility. Some disputes should not be framed only as breach-of-contract cases. An exclusivity arrangement may raise competition issues; misuse of confidential technology may support IP or unfair-competition claims; a licensing dispute may require analysis of both contractual payment obligations and competition law. Choosing the right legal theory can affect remedies, burden of proof and settlement leverage.
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