Chapter 23 Entrepreneur's Legal Risk and Its Prevention

In the history of the ancient Chinese legal system, punishment has always been heavy and light on the people. That is to say, ancient Chinese law has a relatively complete criminal code, but it lacks an equally complete civil legal system.At that time, civil activities were mainly restricted by people's moral concepts. Only businessmen who abide by integrity can make their business bigger and last longer.Because of this, in China's commercial history, there has been a lack of tradition of binding both parties to a transaction with strict and detailed contracts. Today, China has embarked on the road of ruling the country according to law, and China's laws have never been so numerous and relatively complete.At present, with the development of China's economy, contract transactions have become the main means of communication between enterprises.Chinese enterprises have entered into an era of competition with enterprises from developed countries in the world. Under this background, Chinese entrepreneurs are facing the test of both the market economy and the concept of the legal system.

In the past ten years, from Yu Zuomin, Yu Zhian, Mou Zhong, Chu Shijian, etc. in the 1990s to Yang Bin, Yuan Baojing, Tang Wanxin, Lao Derong, Zhao Xinxian, etc. in the new century, whether it is a large private enterprise The boss is also a successful entrepreneur of a large state-owned enterprise. There are many people who have been imprisoned because of breaking the law. The number and proportion of them are so high that they are rarely seen in other countries in the world.The root cause of this phenomenon is that Chinese entrepreneurs still lack legal concepts compatible with the market economy, and they are not used to using legal thinking and engaging in business management activities within the framework of the legal system.Chinese entrepreneurs with such thinking and awareness, if they want to break into the world's top 500 and stand on the world stage to compete with multinational companies, it is tantamount to dancing with rabbits and wolves, and it is even a bit like fighting with swords and spears when the Eight-Power Allied Forces invaded. Against the strong ships and guns of the West.

Chinese entrepreneurs should not only learn to dance with wolves in a market economy, but also learn the lesson of legal awareness.A market economy is a legal economy.The operation and management activities of enterprises are inseparable from the constraints of national laws.Entrepreneurs' decision-making behavior, business management behavior and even daily life behavior are also inseparable from the constraints of national laws.Enterprises and entrepreneurs under the general constraints of national laws naturally face many legal risks. Entrepreneurs should have the necessary awareness and preparation for prevention.Only by fully understanding and preventing legal risks can enterprises develop and grow steadily and healthily, and Chinese enterprises have the opportunity to truly break into the ranks of the world's top 500.

What are the main legal risks of enterprises?The author summarizes the collected nearly 100 cases with significant impact and considers that legal risks faced by enterprises can be divided into three main categories: criminal legal risks, civil legal risks, and business management legal risks. Criminal law risk refers to the risk that an enterprise or entrepreneur must face as a criminal defendant who violates the criminal law and is punished by law and suffers injury or loss as a victim of a criminal case.There are two situations: 1. The legal risk of the enterprise or entrepreneur violating the criminal law.

The legal risk of an enterprise violating the criminal law refers to the legal risk that the enterprise legal person brings to the enterprise because it is involved in a criminal offense, that is, the legal risk faced by the enterprise when it constitutes a unit to commit a crime.Unit crime is the content of the new regulations after the Fifth Session of the Eighth National People's Congress revised the Criminal Law on March 14, 1997. Therefore, many entrepreneurs are still quite unfamiliar with it, and they don't even realize that for the benefit of the unit may constitute a crime.The so-called unit crime refers to the violation of the criminal law committed by companies, enterprises, public institutions, agencies, and groups in the name of the unit after the collective decision of the unit or by the person in charge of the unit to seek illegal benefits for the unit.There are more than 120 accumulative charges of unit crimes stipulated in my country's criminal law, and most of these charges are closely related to the production and operation of enterprises.Among them, the most common crimes are the following: the crime of falsely reporting registered capital; the crime of smuggling ordinary goods and articles; the crime of illegally absorbing public deposits; the crime of fraudulent letters of credit; the crime of tax evasion; the crime of illegal mining;

The legal risk of an entrepreneur violating the criminal law, that is, the legal risk of an entrepreneur who is the owner or legal representative of the enterprise being involved in a criminal offense.Our country's state-owned economy and private economy coexist, and state-owned enterprises and private enterprises have become the two most important subjects of the market economy. Therefore, entrepreneurs in our country are also divided into two different groups: state-owned enterprise entrepreneurs and private entrepreneurs.Due to the difference in ownership, the behavioral characteristics of the two different groups of entrepreneurs are also significantly different.

Entrepreneurs of state-owned enterprises all have the status of state cadres and belong to the state staff.Most of the crimes committed by this group of criminal law are duty-related crimes. Common crimes in violation of the criminal law include the following crimes: crime of embezzlement; crime of accepting bribes; crime of embezzling public funds; crime of abusing power; Most crimes have the characteristics of taking advantage of their positions to seek personal gain, and many people are prone to commit multiple crimes and be punished for several crimes. Private entrepreneurs do not have the status of state employees, and their personal interests are almost completely consistent with those of enterprises. Therefore, most of the crimes committed by this group of criminal law are crimes that destroy the socialist market economy and violate citizens' personal rights.The following crimes are common in violation of the criminal law: crime of bribery; crime of contract fraud; crime of embezzlement of funds; crime of occupational embezzlement; crime of loan fraud; crime of tax evasion; .Once a private entrepreneur is suspected of committing a crime, if a crime is committed, they will often pull out the radish and bring out the mud, and many other crimes will be found out in one investigation.

In addition to the above-mentioned crimes, according to the provisions of Article 31 of my country's "Criminal Law", if a unit commits a crime, the unit shall be fined, and the directly responsible person in charge and other directly responsible personnel shall be sentenced to criminal punishment.According to this regulation, if the enterprise where the entrepreneur belongs is suspected of unit crime, the entrepreneur must also bear the corresponding criminal responsibility and be subject to criminal punishment. 2. The legal risks of crimes against enterprises or entrepreneurs.

The legal risk for corporate crime is mainly the risk of infringement of corporate property.The crimes involved are also very different between state-owned enterprises and private enterprises. Crimes aimed at state-owned enterprises infringing on corporate property or causing heavy losses to the company mainly include crimes of embezzlement, embezzlement of public funds, contract fraud, theft, fraud, major liability accidents, bankruptcy and losses caused by malpractice for personal gain, etc. There are mainly the following types of crimes against private enterprises infringing on corporate property or causing heavy losses to the company: theft, occupational embezzlement, embezzlement of funds, extortion, arson, explosion, commercial secret infringement, and contract fraud sin and so on.

No matter what kind of crime, it will cause certain economic losses to the enterprise to varying degrees. The crimes against entrepreneurs mainly focus on violating the personal safety and property safety of entrepreneurs.The common ones mainly include the following types: crime of intentional injury, crime of intentional homicide, crime of kidnapping, crime of robbery, crime of theft, crime of fraud, etc.There is also the crime of offering bribes to the heads of state-owned enterprises.For this kind of crime, the entrepreneur not only lost nothing at the time, but also seemed to have gained "benefits", but in fact what he got was a "sugar-coated cannonball". are likely to be "detonated".

Based on the above crimes, it is not difficult to see that there are many crimes against enterprises or entrepreneurs, regardless of the crimes that enterprises or entrepreneurs may violate the criminal law. Therefore, it also shows that enterprises and entrepreneurs face very high criminal legal risks. big.If entrepreneurs lack a full understanding of this, they will naturally lack the necessary preparations and preventive measures.Many entrepreneurs do not realize that what they have done constitutes a crime until they stand in the dock of the court.This shows how poor entrepreneurs are in their knowledge and understanding of criminal legal risks. Civil legal risk refers to the risk that entrepreneurs face in contract transactions, marriage and family, and civil litigation, which will cause economic losses to themselves or their enterprises. 1. Legal risks in the process of contract transactions. Entrepreneurs' entire business management activities, to some extent, we can understand as a continuous process of signing contracts, performing contracts and resolving contract disputes.my country's "Contract Law" has detailed legal provisions on the general principles of contracts, the conclusion of contracts, the validity of contracts, the performance of contracts, the modification and transfer of contracts, the termination of rights and obligations of contracts, and the liability for breach of contract.Any violation of these laws and regulations may cause corresponding legal disputes.It is impossible for any enterprise or entrepreneur not to deal with various contracts, therefore, the following legal risks inevitably exist: Legal risks in the process of signing the contract.When an enterprise signs a contract, it has a clear purpose of the contract.The signing of the contract plays a more than half role in whether the purpose of the contract can be realized.In the process of signing a contract, whether both parties are qualified to sign the contract, whether the form of the contract complies with the legal provisions, whether the terms of the contract are complete, whether the content of the contract is legal, how effective the contract is, and how the contract takes effect... These questions are for those who do not have much professional legal knowledge and experience. For entrepreneurs, it is often difficult to fully understand.Therefore, for those important and complicated economic contracts, without the help of professional legal personnel, entrepreneurs will inevitably lose first when signing the contract, and may even plant the seeds of economic disputes or economic losses. The legal risk of breach of contract by the counterparty.Only when the economic contract of the enterprise is fulfilled satisfactorily can the enterprise achieve the purpose of signing the contract.If the other party breaches the contract, it will inevitably disrupt the production and operation plan of the enterprise, disrupt the normal operation and management activities of the enterprise, and affect the normal production and operation and economic benefits of the enterprise.In the case of default by the other party, how should the enterprise respond?How to restrict the other party to abide by the contract and continue to perform the contract?How to protect your legitimate rights and interests in accordance with the law?What kind of legal responsibility should the other party bear?What are the obligations of the observant party?How to minimize the economic losses caused by the other party's breach of contract... For these issues, entrepreneurs must have considerable legal knowledge before they can make the right choice. Otherwise, wrong choices and wrong decisions will lead to It may further expand the economic loss of the enterprise. The legal risk of own breach of contract.In essence, an economic contract is an agreement on the future behavior of both parties to the contract.However, in reality, some unforeseen or unanticipated changes often occur.In this case, when it becomes impossible or uneconomical for you to continue to perform the contract, you cannot or do not want to continue to perform the contract, and you are facing a breach of contract.If you have breached the contract, how should you inform the other party?How to respond to the other party's performance requirements?What actions or measures should be taken?How big is your legal liability?How to renegotiate and negotiate with the other party?What rights does the other party have?What kind of measures the other party might take... These issues are not just simple business issues, but real legal issues.If entrepreneurs lack the corresponding legal knowledge and the help of legal professionals, it will be difficult to make correct judgments and choices, and enterprises will therefore face corresponding legal risks. According to relevant surveys, the performance rate of Chinese enterprises' economic contracts is very low at present, and we can clearly feel this from the ever-increasing number of economic dispute cases in courts at all levels.Therefore, there is no need to give examples for the legal risks in the above contract transaction process, and they all exist objectively.Entrepreneurs should have a clear understanding of this, so as to avoid getting involved in economic disputes as little as possible, so as to devote more energy to the operation and development of enterprises. 2. Legal risks in marriage and family. The ancient Chinese Confucianism talks about "regulating the family, governing the country, and pacifying the world", which can be understood as that if a person wants to achieve a great cause, he must first manage his family well. In reality, many entrepreneurs cannot do without the full support of their spouses and families during the initial hard work.However, after some entrepreneurs achieve a little success, along with money, various honors, and flowers, marriages break down and families suffer.Some people have divorced and married many times; some people have extramarital affairs and have children born out of wedlock; In a modern legal society, whether marriage or divorce, legitimate or illegitimate children, joint property of husband and wife or joint property of the family, testamentary inheritance or legal inheritance, all are the objects of national legal adjustment.If entrepreneurs fail to deal with their marriage, children, family, inheritance and other issues in accordance with the law, it will not only affect the happiness of marriage, the future of children, family harmony and family relationship, but also the future and destiny of the enterprise, affecting the the future and development of their own business.On the contrary, if the entrepreneur properly handles the above-mentioned relationship according to the law, no matter what kind of changes happen, the enterprise will not be greatly affected, and the entrepreneur will be able to build the enterprise he founded into a century-old enterprise. shop. According to media reports, Chao Zhongli, a former member of the CPPCC in Changde, Hunan, ventured into Shenzhen in the 1980s and earned tens of millions of dollars in the emerging stock market.After he got rich, he ostentatiously, known for his boldness and generosity, and also donated a lot of money.On the other hand, he was very romantic and paid a lot of money for it. In October 2000, Chao Zhongli and his wife divorced by agreement. The real estate, shops, all cash, deposits, stocks and other properties in Shenzhen belonged to his wife and children. He only brought 100,000 yuan to make a comeback, but the result was not as he imagined. so easy. At the beginning of 2004, the impoverished Chao Zhongli sadly returned to his hometown of Changde, Hunan, and opened a small supermarket to make ends meet, but he was not very satisfied. Just after the Spring Festival in 2005, Chao Zhongli announced that he was going to commit suicide on the eighth day of the first lunar month. As a result, someone met him on the street that day and asked, "Why didn't I see you die?"Chao Zhongli smiled.At noon on the ninth day of the first lunar month, people found that Chao Zhongli was fully dressed and hung upright on the stairs, dead for a long time.The results of the appraisal by the public security organ showed that Chao Zhongli committed suicide.At that time he was 71 years old. The above cases show that if an entrepreneur cannot properly handle marriage and family relations, let alone make the enterprise bigger and stronger, even his own livelihood will become a problem in the end. There is also the issue of inheritance.Most entrepreneurs in our country have no experience in inheriting inheritance from their parents, let alone the habit of making a will when they are alive and well. Therefore, if there is an accident or accident, facing a huge inheritance, not only will it leave a huge fortune for the relatives. The troubles will also affect the reputation of the enterprise and the entrepreneur himself.Such as the inheritance dispute after the unfortunate death of the famous painter Chen Yifei. 3. Legal risk of litigation. For an entrepreneur, his main task is to maintain the normal production and business activities of the enterprise and improve the economic benefits of the enterprise.For entrepreneurs, civil litigation is only a means of saving the legitimate rights and interests of the enterprise, and it is impossible to create economic benefits for the enterprise.Entrepreneurs should not devote their main energy to civil litigation activities, but should devote appropriate energy to prevent litigation in daily management activities. In the process of litigation, since the process and facts of the dispute between the two parties need evidence to restore, and finally have to be determined by the court, there are many legal risks in any litigation. When the parties go to the court to file a case, the court will give a "Civil Litigation Risk Reminder", which lists more than ten common civil litigation risks.Among them are the risks that the facts of the case cannot be ascertained, the risks caused by mistakes in litigation techniques, and the risks that the other party cannot predict.In the face of so many risks, it is not difficult for us to imagine how long and far away it is to protect our legal rights through litigation. In addition, there is another possible legal risk that the court will not list in the "Civil Litigation Risk Reminder", that is, the risk of judges not enforcing the law fairly.For example, in a civil case, the plaintiff clearly submitted as many as 8 pieces of evidence materials to the court within the time limit for producing evidence, and also presented the original documents in court, and both sides also cross-examined, but the final judgment did not mention this at all. , avoid talking about it, and apply the rules of evidence of the Supreme People's Court, believing that the plaintiff "has no evidence or the evidence is insufficient to prove the factual claims of the parties", thus ruling the plaintiff against the lawsuit.This is really "If you want to add a crime, there is no excuse!" Fortunately, the original judgment was revoked according to the law through the second-instance procedure, so that the legal rights of the plaintiff have been effectively protected. The above case passed the second instance procedure of the people's court, and the original wrong judgment was corrected, but sometimes not all wrong judgments can be corrected as they should be in the second instance.Once such a case occurs, the company will be dragged into endless litigation, and even if it wins the lawsuit in the end, it will already be seriously injured and exhausted. Based on the above analysis, the civil legal risks faced by entrepreneurs are very extensive.This legal risk exists not only in the production and operation of enterprises, but also in the marriage and family of individual entrepreneurs.Only when entrepreneurs have a full understanding and prevention of this, can the enterprise not be affected or be affected as little as possible, so as to maintain steady development. The legal risk of enterprise operation and management refers to the risk that the entrepreneur fails to implement the relevant national laws and regulations or violates the relevant state regulations in the operation and management activities, thus causing himself or the enterprise to be punished accordingly or to damage the interests of the enterprise.In practice, it is mainly manifested in the following aspects: 1. Legal risks of enterprise registration and industrial and commercial administration. my country's industrial and commercial administration has issued many administrative regulations on business registration and business management of enterprises.Entrepreneurs simply do not have the time and energy to fully understand, study and master these laws and regulations, but the development of enterprises is inseparable from dealing with administrative agencies for industry and commerce.In fact, the purpose and goal of the enterprise, the rights and interests of each shareholder, the structure and decision-making of the enterprise, the supervision mechanism, the liquidation and termination of the enterprise, etc., and many other important matters related to the future operation and development of the enterprise, etc. It should be settled in advance when the enterprise goes through the industrial and commercial registration, otherwise, the seeds of disputes may be planted, and even various unexpected consequences may be caused. At the same time, my country's industrial and commercial administrations at all levels have the responsibility for market supervision, and it is impossible for any enterprise to completely separate from the supervision and management of the administration for industry and commerce in its normal business activities.For enterprises that violate the regulations on industrial and commercial administration, the industrial and commercial administration has the right to punish them according to law.Therefore, entrepreneurs must also abide by the various management regulations of the state administration for industry and commerce in the course of business, otherwise they will have to pay the price for violations. 2. Tax law risk. As we all know, taxation is the main source of national fiscal revenue.To operate normally, enterprises must pay taxes according to the regulations.State taxation authorities are responsible for the collection and management of taxation, and have administrative law enforcement powers in taxation.If an enterprise fails to comply with tax laws and regulations, the tax authorities have the right to take corresponding administrative measures or even legal measures to impose necessary sanctions on the enterprise. 3. Labor and personnel legal risks. With the progress and development of society, the country will provide more and more legal protections for laborers and stricter. Enterprises should also undertake corresponding social responsibilities to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of laborers.If the enterprise fails to act in accordance with the labor law and relevant labor and personnel regulations, it may not only cause disputes between the enterprise and the workers, but also cause social unrest when the problem is serious.Enterprises that violate labor laws and regulations not only have to bear corresponding economic responsibilities to their employees, but also have to accept administrative penalties from the government's labor management department. 4. Financial and financing legal risks. To maintain normal production and operation, enterprises cannot do without the support of banks.In the process of dealing with banks, whether it is deposits or loans, enterprises must perform relevant procedures in strict accordance with relevant financial regulations.If an enterprise is not familiar with relevant financial regulations and some standardized operating procedures of banks, it is likely to fall into the trap of some criminals, and eventually either the bank or the enterprise will be damaged.For example, there have been frequent incidents of internal and external collusion among bank managers and off-book operations in recent years.Once a violation occurs, the company may not only suffer economic losses, but also freeze funds or accounts, and its impact on the company is self-evident. In the case of a shortage of funds, enterprises need financing to relieve financial pressure.When unable to obtain bank loans normally, enterprises have to seek financing from other channels.Under such circumstances, some entrepreneurs tend to "go to the doctor in a hurry".At this time, if entrepreneurs are not familiar with relevant financial laws and regulations and business, they are likely to be deceived and fall into the trap of various scammers. In the end, if the financing fails, they will also lose a fortune, making the company even worse.With the development of banking business, it is difficult for outsiders to fully understand the professional terminology, professional bills, and professional workflow of the banking industry. Therefore, some scammers will use this to try to cheat. Entrepreneurs have to be vigilant. 5. Health, production safety, fire protection, quality, and environmental protection legal risks. The state will have some different special requirements for enterprises in various industries, and will formulate or promulgate specific standards.Some have hygiene requirements, some have safety production requirements, some have fire safety requirements, some have quality standard requirements, some have environmental protection requirements and so on.If an enterprise engages in production and operation without meeting the standards, it will inevitably face corresponding administrative penalties.If the circumstances are serious, or if serious consequences are caused, the person in charge of the enterprise may even need to bear criminal responsibility and civil compensation liability.These specific requirements will be stipulated in the corresponding administrative regulations by various administrative agencies. If enterprises do not have sufficient understanding of these regulations and abide by them, they will definitely face corresponding legal risks. 6. Intellectual Property Legal Risks An enterprise's trademarks, patents, technologies, trade secrets, etc. all belong to the intellectual property rights of the enterprise and are intangible assets that can create economic benefits for the enterprise.The country has many laws and regulations on the protection of enterprise intellectual property rights.If an enterprise fails to take corresponding protection measures in accordance with the law, its intellectual property rights may be misappropriated or violated by others, and its intangible assets may shrink or even be lost.Even if companies have taken legal protection measures, there will still be people who illegally infringe intellectual property rights in order to obtain illegal benefits.For infringements that infringe on the legal intellectual property rights of enterprises, enterprises have to take legal measures to crack down on illegal infringements and protect the legitimate rights and interests of enterprises.Both the protection of intellectual property rights and the fight against intellectual property infringements involve relevant laws and regulations, and must be handled in strict accordance with the laws and regulations.If the enterprise does not understand the legal provisions on intellectual property rights and cannot take relevant legal measures, the enterprise's intellectual property rights will face corresponding legal risks. 7. Legal risks of corporate restructuring and mergers. Enterprise restructuring, mergers, etc. are new phenomena that have emerged in my country in recent years. There are still many gaps in the law on these issues, and many operational methods are still in the stage of exploration and experimentation.Under such circumstances, most of the restructuring and mergers of enterprises were carried out in accordance with the policies of the local government at that time, which was very risky for enterprises.If the government's relevant restructuring and merger policies comply with other national laws and do not conflict with other national laws, then the legal risk of such restructuring and mergers is low; on the contrary, if certain policies of the local government at that time did not comply with national laws and regulations, Then the legal risks of such restructuring and mergers are much greater.Under such circumstances, if entrepreneurs do not conduct an in-depth analysis of the legality of relevant policies and specific measures for restructuring and mergers, there will naturally be considerable legal risks. 8. The legal risk of listed companies. The purpose of an enterprise going public is to transform the enterprise management mechanism and implement a modern enterprise management system.In order to achieve this goal, not only the national securities regulatory agency has many management regulations, but also the stock exchange has many system constraints.Now that the company is listed, it must conscientiously abide by these management regulations and rules and regulations, and earnestly fulfill the corresponding obligations.Some companies fail to abide by the above rules and regulations. As a result, although they are listed on the market with a good reputation, they have to be delisted or merged by other companies.Over the past ten years, China’s listed companies have encountered countless problems. These experiences and lessons tell us that when entrepreneurs are pursuing the listing of companies, it is best to ask themselves in advance whether they are ready to abide by the relevant regulations of listed companies. laws and regulations.If you are not ready to abide by the law, it is better not to go public.Otherwise, the enterprise will not have any future, and the entrepreneurs will not have any good way out. 9. Legal risk of guarantee. The concept of guarantee is not unfamiliar to Chinese businessmen.In ancient my country, there was a saying of guarantee.But as a legal term, it is still relatively unfamiliar to many entrepreneurs.There is a difference between the two concepts to some extent.In the ancient Chinese business environment that emphasized morality and honesty, guarantee can be said to be a guarantee of personality.However, in the modern legal society, as a legal term, guarantee is a legal obligation and a real economic guarantee.Many entrepreneurs confuse the difference between the two, and even understand the guarantee as a formality of the bank or other units, but in the end they mess up their enterprises and even go bankrupt.Therefore, when enterprises and entrepreneurs perform guarantees, they must clearly understand the content and meaning of guarantees, and then make prudent decisions. 10. Legal risks of corporate emergencies. In the process of production and operation, enterprises will inevitably encounter some unpredictable emergencies.Some are major accidents that cause casualties; some are suddenly revealed that there are problems with raw materials that affect products; some are events that some sudden news adversely affects the company; Any unexpected event will have a very adverse impact on the enterprise.If the enterprise responds properly, it can successfully resolve the crisis and maintain the normal production and operation of the enterprise.If it is not dealt with properly, the enterprise will suffer significant reputation loss or economic loss, and may even suffer a devastating blow. In fact, in a modern legal society, no matter what happens, it is not difficult for us to find a legal basis for a solution.When an emergency occurs in an enterprise, it should first conduct a detailed legal demonstration.If you have legal responsibilities that cannot be shirked, you should face the facts bravely and take responsibility in a timely manner; if you have no legal responsibilities, you should explain the situation in accordance with the law and obtain understanding and support from all parties to resolve the predicament.If the response is slow and the decision is improper, then when the enterprise is damaged or lost, it will be irreparable. The above are the main legal risks that may occur in the process of business management.The legal risks listed above include not only the risk of administrative punishment, but also the corresponding criminal legal risk.Sometimes even if the administrative punishment is avoided, when the impact is significant and the circumstances are bad, it is entirely possible to rise to a criminal legal risk.No matter what kind of legal risk, it is closely related to the economic interests of the enterprise, and even closely related to the personal freedom of the entrepreneur.Entrepreneurs have to fully prevent the occurrence of the above-mentioned legal risks if they want to make the enterprise bigger and stronger and to make the enterprise obtain good economic benefits. In recent years, we have heard many entrepreneurs claiming that they want to enter the world's top 500, build a century-old store, and achieve such grand goals... However, the rhetoric is still in our ears. Let's see Entrepreneurs who used to be brilliant have entered prison one after another, and once brilliant companies have collapsed one after another... Summarizing the reasons why these entrepreneurs or companies failed in Maicheng, it is not difficult for us to find that ignorance or laissez-faire of legal risks, This is the root cause of their ultimate failure. How to prevent the legal risk of the enterprise?First of all, it is necessary to improve the legal awareness of entrepreneurs.Due to the lack of legal traditions in Chinese history, China's legal system has only gradually improved since the reform and opening up. Parents have inherited and learned the necessary legal knowledge and experience from their ancestors. Their legal awareness is generally low, and it is difficult for them to make judgments and decisions within the scope of the legal system and with legal thinking in business management. There is a general lack of awareness of the legal risks involved. Many Chinese entrepreneurs like to act arbitrarily and do things on their own, without considering legal issues before making decisions. This is often in sharp contrast to the bosses of Hong Kong, Taiwan and foreign companies.For entrepreneurs who grew up in a legal society environment, they often consult or seek the advice of a lawyer before making any major decisions, and even some domestic entrepreneurs think that they are not a problem at all, they will be very cautious. Ask if there are legal issues. Entrepreneurs have a strong sense of law, which is very important to the enterprise. It not only helps to maintain the normal production and operation of the enterprise, but also can effectively prevent economic losses to the enterprise.Many lawyers who have served as corporate legal counsel have experience in this area. Many domestic entrepreneurs often only pay attention to litigation, but ignore the work of preventing legal risks in daily decision-making, which is obviously putting the cart before the horse.Litigation not only takes a lot of time, energy, and economic costs, but also involves litigation risks such as whether the evidence is sufficient, whether the judge can make a fair judgment, and whether the judgment can be effectively enforced.The cost of preventing legal risks in advance is often less than tens or even a few hundredths of litigation. Entrepreneurs should try to improve their legal awareness, learn to prevent legal risks in advance, and prevent problems before they happen, then they will surely achieve twice the result with half the effort. Secondly, to prevent corporate legal risks, it is necessary to establish and improve corporate legal affairs working institutions, and give full play to the role of corporate legal staff.Since the history of legal system construction in our country is still very short, Chinese enterprises lack the tradition and experience of establishing corporate legal affairs working institutions.Many enterprises have not established corporate legal affairs institutions at all, and although some enterprises have established them, they have not given due attention.Many corporate legal affairs staff often do not have the opportunity to have an equal dialogue with the senior leaders of the enterprise, so their role is still very limited, and it also makes it difficult for corporate legal affairs institutions to attract and retain senior legal talents. Although corporate legal affairs work is not an essential part of an enterprise's daily production, operation, and management, it runs through the entire production, operation, and management activities of the enterprise.Strictly speaking, the legal affairs management of an enterprise should not be a department within the enterprise, but should be an auxiliary organization and think tank for the decision-making and leadership of the enterprise, and its status should be higher than that of the general departments of the enterprise.Only in this way can the corporate legal affairs work organization be able to attract enough outstanding legal talents and play its due role in helping companies prevent various legal risks that may occur. Although some enterprises have established corporate legal affairs agencies, they exclude corporate legal affairs agencies from corporate decision-making and leadership.No matter which department caused trouble, it was pushed to the legal department to solve it.In this way, not only does it not help prevent corporate legal risks, but it may also encourage other departments to be irresponsible, create troubles, and even violate laws and disciplines to some extent.In this way, the original purpose of establishing an enterprise legal affairs work organization cannot be achieved at all. At present, there are many Fortune 500 companies and other world-renowned companies investing in China, but why do we seldom see the managers of these companies go to jail for crimes or the companies collapse due to legal risks?It should be said that it is inseparable from the fact that these world-renowned enterprises have complete legal affairs institutions and play a full role.Among the multinational companies in China, we have only heard of entrepreneurs who died suddenly due to overwork, but rarely heard of entrepreneurs who were imprisoned for illegal and criminal acts, and it is rare to see multinational companies investing in China because of法律风险而垮台，而中国的企业家们却屡屡因为违法犯罪而身陷囹圄，中国的民营企业相继因为法律风险而垮台，甚至前赴后继，连绵不断，这很发人深省，值得深思。 企业不仅应该设立自己内部的法律事务工作机构，而且还有必要聘请职业律师作为企业的法律顾问。以职业律师的经验和见识，往往可以解决企业某些高端、重大的法律问题。那些没有设立企业内部法律事务工作结构的中小企业，则更应该聘请适合自己企业的职业律师随时提供必要的法律帮助。有的时候，律师不经意的一句话，甚至胜过企业家自己苦思幂想几个月；律师的一条法律意见，甚至胜过自己和所有员工辛苦工作几个月。在许多时候，律师的话“一字千金”，应该是完全值得的。 一些企业家在企业做大之后，往往会被身边一些拍马奉迎的人垄断“话语权”，只能听到一些歌功颂德的奉承话，甚至“小人谗言”，而听不到其他的真知灼见，听不到逆耳忠言，这是非常可怕的。企业家在某些重大决策问题上，应该尽力跳出自己身边这个圈子，听听来自律师的法律意见。如北京建昊集团董事长袁宝璟，自己本身虽然也是法律专业毕业，但毕竟没有从事法律工作。当他遭遇别人敲诈勒索的时候，不曾见他与律师协商对策，却听从自己哥哥袁宝琦的意见采取极端的犯罪手段，最终兄弟俩双双被判处死刑，实在让人惋惜。 许多企业家在遇到重大决策的时候，宁愿与自己的家人、司机、秘书甚至情人商量，听取他们的意见，却往往忽视征求律师的专业法律意见和建议。这也是非常不正常的。虽然俗话说“三个臭皮匠顶一个诸葛亮”，但在现代信息爆炸、知识密集、专业分工越来越细的时代，别说“三个臭皮匠”，就是三十个甚至三百个“臭皮匠”，也可能顶不了一个“诸葛亮”。这就与三十个小学生等同不了一个大学生、三百个战士顶不了一个将军是一样的道理。对于复杂的脑力劳动以及专业的分工来说，专家就是专家，外行就是外行。因此，企业家应给予律师必要的尊重和重视。 如何提高企业家以及其他企业管理人员的法律意识呢？ 首先，企业家们必须学习一些必要的法律知识。对于企业家们来说，他们没有必要非常细致地学习和掌握那些具体的法律概念和规定，他们只需要知道哪些问题、哪种情形下可能涉及到法律问题即可。作为中国第一代的企业家，这些意识他们不可能从上一代人那里继承和传授而来，只有靠自己的学习和感悟来获得。 企业家们至少应当懂得一些基本的法律概念，如共同犯罪，单位犯罪，主犯，从犯，刑事，民事，欺诈，显失公平，不可抗力，无因管理，不当得利，代位权，撤销权，定金，抵消权，履行抗辩权，提存，法人，抵押权，质押权，留置权，诉讼时效，证据……这些法律概念许多都是我国上世纪80年代以来相继颁布的法律中新出现的法律名词，企业家们不可能从前辈那里获得这些概念的相关知识，而这些概念往往又与企业经营和个人生活中的许多问题密切相关，因此都是一名合格的企业家不能忽视的概念。如果连一些基本的民事概念都不懂，企业家们又怎么能够在企业决策中把握好并运用自如呢？ ! 其次，企业家应当重视内部培训。据一家来自境外的律师事务所负责人介绍，在跨国公司中，这种法律培训非常重要和全面。企业家不仅要聘请法务部人员或者外聘法律专家给他们的高层管理人员提供法律培训，告诉他们什么问题该怎么做，而且还要对所有员工进行必要的法律培训。尤其是对境外上市企业，高层管理人员更必须受到全面的法律培训。 在我国，我们看到很多企业都非常重视对管理人员和员工的培训，但主要集中在营销、生产管理、人力资源管理、财务管理等等方面，却很少有进行法律培训的。尤其是对企业高级管理人员的法律培训更是非常缺乏。因此，企业不时地出现各类刑事犯罪或者其他法律风险，我们也就不感到奇怪了。企业家们应该认真总结那些不幸触犯刑法的企业家的经验和教训，时刻提醒自己，让警钟长鸣，让自己和企业始终走在法律的轨道上。 俗话说“近朱者赤，近墨者黑”。企业家成功的时候，许多人会不请自来围拢在企业家的周围。企业家如果不辩黑白，周围聚拢了太多的社会闲杂人员，而且轻信、重用他们，那么难免有一天，在不知不觉之间，他们就可能像刘涌、陈毅锋等人一样，成为“黑社会老大”，最终连同自己的企业一起土崩瓦解。因此，越是成功的企业家，越应当在自己的身边有意识地“安插”一些法律专业人士，随时倾听他们的专业意见，使自己不至于违法乱纪，保障企业始终在合法的轨道上运行。若能如此，企业做大做强，甚至闯入世界500强，才有真正的希望。 从本文不难看出，企业家的风险有很多，但法律风险不仅是最多的，而且往往也是最致命的。中国有句成语“亡羊补牢，犹未为晚”。对企业家们来说，如果仅仅涉及经济纠纷，那还可以用这一成语来汲取教训。但如果涉嫌刑事犯罪，那就绝不是“亡羊补牢”的事情了，而是亡了主人，再也无法补救了。 中国的企业家们如果能够充分认识到企业经营、管理和发展过程中的法律风险，并及早采取必要的防范措施，那么我们相信，类似牟其中、杨斌这样“首富”的悲剧将会越来越少，中国的企业才能不断发展壮大。 （本文有删节，全文请查看蓝狮子财经系列图书《总裁的陷阱——律师给中国企业家的18个提示》）