Blind lawyer seeks success at firm in Guangzhou

Pan Mingjing said he still has a long way to go before he becomes a "real practicing lawyer" and begins representing clients in court.

"I am prepared to fail, but I am brave enough to set out on my journey," he said.

Pan, 36, has officially become the first blind lawyer in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province. Previously, he worked as a masseur in an urban village in the southern metropolis for two decades.

He now works at the Guangzhou Kingpound Law Firm.

"As a lawyer, I will certainly use my knowledge to help protect the rights and interests of the mass laborers," he said.

After interning for a year, he passed the assessment of the Guangzhou Lawyers Association and was officially certified to be a practicing lawyer.

"I can pass legal examinations as long as I work hard on my own, but my work as a lawyer needs to be seen as satisfactory by the parties involved," Pan said.

The most difficult part for him is overcoming people's perceptions of a visually impaired lawyer.

He said someone once told him, "If I want to hire a lawyer, I definitely won't hire a blind person."

This hurts him, but he knows that it's a belief held by many. He hopes he can dispel this stereotype through his work.

"Now I am a full-time lawyer, but there is still a gap between me and a real practicing lawyer," said Pan, adding that he is a pathfinder. "I hope to be able to explore where visually impaired people can go and how far they can go on the path of employment."

Pan lost his sight after a critical illness when he was 4 years old. He learned massage in Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, and moved to Guangzhou in 2003.

Despite his disability, he refused to settle for being a masseur for the rest of his life.

He began to prepare for the legal exam at the end of 2017 and listened to his law courses on his mobile phone for three to four hours every day between giving massages.

Local bar associations and volunteers helped Pan gather learning materials and register online for the exam. The Sun Yat-sen Library helped with practice tests twice a week to improve his efficiency in mock trials, and the Guangzhou Bureau of Justice also made it as easy as possible for him to take the exam, arranging for him to do so in a separate location with more convenient transportation links and barrier-free access.

To improve his testing efficiency, invigilators who were good listeners, skilled in standard Chinese pronunciation and familiar with legal terminology were selected to oversee the exam.

Pan passed the national legal vocational exam and was granted a professional law qualification certificate in 2022.

After joining the Guangzhou Kingpound Law Firm, he was assigned to its labor law team, with the firm's senior partner Cai Fei personally serving as his mentor.

Although labor law was covered in the legal examination, the articles, cases, and explanations are complex, so Pan needed to conduct more thorough research in the area to perform his duties better.

Cai said he is confident Pan will be successful, as diligence and hard work are among the new lawyer's strengths.

"Pan now has some insights into labor law and can easily answer professional questions," he said, adding that Pan is just as knowledgeable as other lawyers in the field.

Cai conceded, though, that while Pan is licensed to serve as a court attorney, he is currently unable to appear in court independently.

"This would be irresponsible to the parties involved," he said, because, in court, attorneys often need to verify paper evidence, documents and signatures on the spot, things that Pan would struggle with because of his visual impairment.

While serving as an intern, Pan mainly participated in public welfare labor dispute mediation cases, which do not require reading paper documents, as well as mediation conducted via telephone and online mediation, Cai said.

Li Gang, another partner at the law firm, also expressed confidence in Pan. "We plan to train Pan to become a professional labor lawyer in three years," Li said.

Li said he arranged for Pan to join the labor law team after carefully considering his strengths.

Labor lawyers often deal with ordinary workers, which is more suitable for Pan than high-end commercial litigators, and there is also a high demand for labor lawyers in the market, Li said.

He said that Pan can independently conduct consultations, and the law firm is also considering establishing a hotline and consultation platform for him to consult clients.

Pan can also offer mediation services and participate in online court hearings, he said, and he can advise other lawyers in his field.

"Pan is very professional and knows every detail clearly, and sharing his knowledge can greatly improve the efficiency of other lawyers," Li said.

Although Pan cannot appear in court independently, he can cooperate with colleagues and gradually begin working on his own to gain clients, Li added.

Pan said that as a practicing labor lawyer, he hopes to help broaden employment paths for people with disabilities, especially those with visual impairments.

"I hope to promote disabled people so they can have more opportunities and participate equally in society through my own work," he said. "If disabled people have dreams, they should pursue them bravely and boldly."

According to statistics, there are more than 80 million disabled people in China, including 17 million who are visually impaired.