This past spring, Dean Mayo Moran and Assistant Dean of Career Services Lianne Krakauer travelled to China and other Asian countries to touch base with alumni and make contact with Asian law schools and faculty.
Below are their daily updates about their travels. Click on the links to view photos (you can also view a complete gallery).
Dean Mayo Moran with Victor Ramraj '93, Vice-Dean Academic Affairs, National University of Singapore |
May 6, 2007 - Arrival in Singapore
We arrived safely and comfortably last night and actually found the energy to go for a quick stroll around the waterfront. What a gorgeous place, and very easy to adjust to. It was a good idea to start our trip here in Singapore - it's so well organized and service-oriented. This hotel is stunning and situated in a fantastic location with a really colonial flair; near museums, shops, the Supreme Court and several other really interesting buildings! We are feeling completely spoiled and enjoying every minute. We had a leisurely breakfast this a.m. - what a wonderful array of fruit - and we're about to go touring around. I think we're going to start with a river cruise. Feeling well rested, surprisingly.
May 7-8, 2007 - Singapore
We are staying at the Fullerton, which was an old colonial post office converted into a hotel several years ago. It's truly regal. It is situated on the waterfront, which is designed much more carefully than our own. This part of the city boasts a mix of tall modern towers sharing space with old colonial storefronts along the river and our hotel is situated amidst several very interesting architectural sites - including a Supreme Court building that could easily double as the Starship Enterprise.
Yesterday we took a short river boat ride to get our bearings and enjoy the heat -- it's intense! We are both feeling surprisingly well rested.
In the evening we had a short meeting with Pekka Sinervo, Dean Arts & Sciences who is here with his own delegation, which is also meeting with the National University of Singapore (NUS) and alum. It's been a great opportunity for Mayo and Pekka to share notes and ideas about student exchanges, among other things. Tonight we have a shared alum event to attend and are expecting about 60 UT alum from across departments and faculty as well as some of our former exchange students and new admits (LLM program).
Last night was our first meeting with NUS Dean Tan Cheng Han and three of his Faculty members: Victor Ramraj, Vice-Dean Academic Affairs, who is a UT grad ('93) and has been a visiting prof in recent years; Kumar Amirthalingam and Stanley Yeo. They were wonderful hosts and very responsive to the TTA concept. We had a follow up meeting and lunch today with a few other faculty and there were other possible collaborations discussed, including enhanced opportunities for Faculty collaboration.
May 9-13, 2007 - Beijing
Here's what we have been up to while in Beijing:
1. Visit to Lehman, Lee & Xu; a law firm that recruits lots of foreign lawyers to work as "consultants," including several Canadians. They recently advertised their summer internship at UT and are keen to hire a UT student. The firm is known for IP practice.
2. Met with Vice-Dean Li Ming at Peking University. He served us beautiful jasmine tea from a traditional tea set and talked with Mayo about the possibililty of working more closely together on student and faculty exchanges.
3. Held a small alumni dinner which included Gui Lin Huang (LLM '03) and Paul McKenzie ('89). Gui Lin Huang is a lawyer at Guo Lian law firm, and Paul is a partner at the global law firm Morrison Foerster. It was great to meet him and hear about how he found his way to China back in the 80s (and found his first job at Baker McKenzie with the support and advice of Bill Graham, who was one of his profs). He was keen to connect with students and explore recruitment possibilities at his firm. Gui Lin is a local IP lawyer.
4. Met with a delegation from the Chinese University of Political Science and Law; after the informality of Peking U, this meeting was much more formal - two photographers, a translator, assigned seating, speeches, you get the picture. The cultural norms of doing business in China are fascinating and we were fortunate to be well briefed in advance by Miranda Chang of the UT International Exchange Office. We typically follow the lead of our hosts with respect to formal introductions, seating, ordering of speaking, gift giving and taking photographs. Every step involves a delicate balance of exchanging pleasantries and respecting local traditions around how much and when to get down to discussing business. The delegates included Vice-President Zhu Yong, several senior staff from the International Cooperation and Exchange Center, and a professor of law.
5. Dinner with Betty Ho ('77) at a local restaurant. Betty has arranged for several of her students to show us around on Sunday and will be hosting a party for us at her home in the evening. She shared with us some of the recent successes of her students, gave us some excellent insights into the life and history of Beijing, and was a lovely host.
A few impressions of Beijing: It is a fascinating place but difficult to navigate - literally and figuratively. The cars seem to make a sport of speeding up just as pedestrians hit the road. The rebuilding and modernization of the city has the surreal quality of a place that is trying too hard to be something other than what it is. We continue to enjoy trying new food, although have been far from adventurous here. We managed to hunt down the Starbucks in the Forbidden City.
Beijing is a place that has undergone an incredible transformation in a short period of time. In the place of the bustling city streets and local markets that we expected to find, there are grand avenues lined with meticulously pruned trees and flowers, modern high rises competing for air space, and massive shopping malls filled with designer shops. The "ring road" design of the city streets makes travelling from place to place a challenge and terribly slow. We have spent far too much time sitting in traffic. It would drive a westerner mad, but the drivers here are patient and there is surpisingly little aggressive driving or even honking. It was fascinating to walk through Tianamen square, the Forbidden City and experience the Great Wall. The clash of east and west is palpable and we found ourselves puzzling over the true identity of this historic city.
We are extremely fortunate to have had a most gracious and generous host on the ground in Beijing. Betty Ho is an adored professor at Tsingua university and has taught an intensive course at at UT in Chinese law for several years. Everyhere we go in China people have heard of Professor Betty Ho! Betty welcomed us in her home along with over 20 of her students from Tsingua. Two of her students acted as tour guides for us on Sunday, helping us to bargain vigorously at the silk market - Betty has trained them well and they will be outstanding lawyers! We discussed ways to develop stronger ties between Betty's students and our own. Several of them are heading to the U.S. for graduate work and we encouraged them to consider attending UT in future years.
May 14-16, 2007 - Shanghai
Our visit to Shanghai was too short! We have left the carefully constructed pristine avenues of Beijing for the chaotic bustle and creative enterprise of Shanghai. We were immediately infatuated. This city is incredible - imagine NYC meets the wild west and Star Trek the Next Generation. Buildings are literally popping out of nowhere (like Beijing) except that here there seem to be no rules or any perceptible design strategy beyond who can build higher and with more imaginative flair. Our hotel looks out at the Oriental Pearl -- a radio tower with 3 spheres that are actually coloured pink -- only in Shanghaii would this be possible and actually work. The buildings have the most fantastic light displays at night. It's truly something to behold.
We had a great meeting with Dean Nansheng Sun at Fudan University. We discussed a few areas where UT and Fudan have shared interests, namely comparative constitutional law which is one of Dean Sun's major areas of interest and one in which our Faculty has much to offer.
Our alum dinner was intimate and entertaining. Dr Scott Guan (SJD '03)) who is managing partner at J&F PRC Lawyers, was a wonderful host, ensuring we had an opportunity to sample the local cuisine and swapping stories with other alum about practising law in the rapidly developing Shanghai economy. In addition to several other alum at the dinner, we were also delighted to be joined by Joey Tanenbaum (UT engineering grad and philanthropist ) who happened to be travelling with Richard Wernham ('76) in Shanghai. Off to Hong Kong bright and early tomorrow morning.
May 16-19, 2007 - Hong Kong
We have come full circle and arrived in Hong Kong, which is where our first flight landed en route to Singapore almost two weeks ago. It is positively tranquil here by way of comparison - the people we meet are suprised to hear us say that, but the ease with which we communicate, commute and breathe is noticeable. In the few hours we've had to look around, we made it up to Victoria Peak, rode one of the old trolley cars through the central district, and watched the lskyline light up at night from the Kowloon side.
Our alumni dinner in Hong Kong was a highlight of the trip. The dinner was hosted by Mr. Fred Kan ('67), the Founder and Partner of Fred Kan & Co., an established commercial law firm, and arranged with the help of the U of T Advancement Office in Hong Kong. Mr. Kan has had an exceptional legal career in Canada and Hong Kong and has a history of dedicated service both within the legal community and beyond, including his long-time support of U of T. It was fascinating to hear Mr. Kan's stories about (among other things) being one of the first Chinese lawyers in Toronto and running for political office. In addition to several more senior alum in attendance, we had the pleasure of sharing a meal with one of our first year students (Kenneth Lee) who is working here for the summer - a job he found on his own initiative; celebrating with Sarah McEachern ('07) who had just handed in her last paper at Hong Kong University where she has been on exchange, and toasting Jen Stone ('04) on the dual success of starting an NGO to assist refugee claimants while having recently given birth to twins! Our alum never cease to amaze us with their talents!
We had an excellent meeting with Dean Johannes Chan and several of his faculty and staff to discuss ways of strengthening our current ties with Hong Kong University. We have a history of sending students on exchange to HKU and talked about other opportunities to partner, such as faculty exchange and multi-jurisdictional symposia. We also met with Louise Barrington ('76), a UT grad with an interesting career in international commercial arbitration and who is currently active in establishing the new law school at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
On our last day we visited a couple of well-known international law firms with large offices in Hong Kong and elsewhere in Asia. There is a strong interest in attracting Canadian law students (and UT graduates, in particular with ties to the region) to these firms and we discussed ways to make opportunities available.
It is hard to believe the trip is over and we head home tomorrow. We have learned a lot about this region and developed ties with people and institutions that will be invaluable as we move forward on establishing our priorities for connecting with Asia.
