Yi Lyu

Practice Areas

Major complex commercial and intellectual property dispute resolution, administrative reconsideration and administrative litigation

Professional Memberships

- Equity Partner of Guantao Law Firm Shanghai Office

- Part-time legal advisor of Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization

- Member of the 14th and 15th Standing Committee of Shanghai Hongkou District Committee of People's Political Consultative Conference

- Visiting professor of Tongji University for MPA

- Tutor of Postgraduates in East China University of Political Science and Law

- Arbitrator of Shanghai International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission

Work Highlights

1. Represented Unistrong in pursuing criminal liability against company executives for trade secret infringement: In this case, Unistrong’s CTO, CFO, and Sales Director established a separate company, appropriating Unistrong’s technical data for production, and selling such products to Unistrong’s clients at half the price. Lawyer Yi LYU’s team swiftly secured case filing by market supervision authorities, detaining and preserving critical evidence (financial records, technical drawings, computers, etc.), which leads to a determination of potential criminal liability for trade secret infringement. The case was then transferred to public security, resulting in criminal convictions, compensation to Unistrong, and shutdown of the infringing company.

2. Represented two companies of Hong Kong Construction (Plaintiffs) v. a State-Owned Real Estate Company (Defendant) in a shareholder dispute (amount in dispute: approximately RMB 970 million): The Plaintiffs (Majority Shareholder, holding 60% of the shares in the joint venture) and Defendant (Minority Shareholder, holding 40% of the shares in the joint venture) co-established a joint venture (“JV”). When the JV sought bank loans, the parties jointly issued a shareholder commitment letter agreeing to cover funding shortfalls proportionally. However, the Defendant breached the commitment, resulting in the Plaintiffs’ covering the gap. After two lawsuits represented by another famous law firm using a "JV v. Minority Shareholder" strategy failed for the reason that no loan contracts were entered into by the JV and the Minority Shareholder, Lawyer Yi LYU’s team adopted a "Majority Shareholder v. Minority Shareholder" approach with the JV as the third party, securing victories in both first and second trials.

3. Represented a Netherland Company of ZF Group (Applicant) v. a State-owned Enterprise (Respondent), in a dispute over a contract for work (amount in dispute: approximately RMB 20 million): In this case, the Respondent refused to pay the outstanding payment on the grounds of quality issues after the Applicant completed the equipment manufacturing as agreed. The HKIAC fully supported the Applicant’s claims and did not recognize the respondent’s arguments of quality issues. The Applicant successfully recovered all outstanding payment while the respondent concealed its property from compulsory enforcement.

4. Represented a State-Owned Enterprise (Applicant) v. Huaxin Securities (Respondent) in an asset management contract dispute (amount in dispute: approximately RMB 278 million): The applicant purchased the bonds issued by Huaxin Securities, which defaulted on investments and redemptions. Lawyer Yi LYU’s team expedited the proceedings of arbitration and asset preservation, which makes the Applicant one of the few creditors to recover full repayment in Huaxin’s bankruptcy.

5. Represented a Fortune 500 Pharmaceutical Company (Plaintiff) v. a Taizhou Pharmaceutical Company (Defendant) in a corporate control dispute (amount in dispute: approximately RMB 130 million): After acquiring 60% of the shares in the Defendant (“JV”), the Plaintiff was blocked from management and documentation access by the minority shareholder (holding 40% of the shares in the JV) of the JV. The minority shareholder established a new company to purchase products from the JV while defaulting on payments of huge amounts. Lawyer Yi LYU’s team filed two lawsuits ("JV v. the Company of minority shareholder" claiming for payment for goods of approximately RMB 138 million, and "the Fortune 500 Pharmaceutical Company (Plaintiff) v. JV (Defendant)" claiming for shareholder loans), assisting the Plaintiff to recover approximately RMB 115 million (83% compensation rate) in JV’s bankruptcy.

6. Represented a State-Owned Enterprise Group’s Shanghai Branch (Defendant) in three cases over oil purchase contract (each involving approximately RMB 30-40 million): In the three cases, all plaintiffs claimed payment refunds for undelivered oil, stating that the oil was not delivered while the plaintiffs executed the contracts, made the payment, and issued the invoices. Lawyer Yi LYU’s team discovered that a third party forged plaintiffs’ seals to take the delivery of oil. By adding the third party and its actual controller as the “third party” of the cases and arguing that the third party were the apparent agents of the plaintiffs, resulted in the dismissals of plaintiffs’ claims in all three cases. The outcomes of the three cases also protect the client from other similar claims, which may amount to hundreds of cases.

Clients

Lawyer Yi LYU’s clients are mainly Fortune 500 companies, including Siemens Group, ZF Group, Bosch Group, Stanley Black & Decker, SK Group, Saint-Gobain, Accor Group, Sinar Mas Group, SUEZ Group, HELLA, DSM-Firmenich, Smiths Group, PetroChina, State Grid Corporation, Shanghai Pharmaceuticals Group, Shanghai Tobacco Group, China Baowu Group, Sinochem International, and etc.

Awards