Landing Lawyers Larry Zhou and Avon Zhao Provide Specialized Training Services to an International Freight Forwarder

Recently, Larry Zhou and Avon Zhao, attorneys of Landing (Shenzhen) Law Office, provided business risk assessment, document upgrading, and specialized training services to an international freight forwarding company.

Following engagement, the team first issued a document request list and then interviewed the client's management and relevant business personnel. On that basis, the team conducted a comprehensive review of the client's business and operating model, identified the principal risks at the business level, and issued a memorandum of remediation recommendations.

The team also reviewed and revised, one by one, the business documents the client used daily, focusing on rewriting the provisions where freight forwarders tend to lose out—liability limitation, sub-authorization, freight and payment terms, and conditions for exercising liens—and upgraded them into a full set of templates matching the client's actual operations.

The training was delivered in multiple sessions at two levels: one for employees and one for management. The training for all employees followed the business process from first contact to expense settlement, covering due diligence methods, identification of key contract terms, execution and ledger management, and evidence retention in daily operations. A post-training assessment followed: the attorneys prepared several agreements with obvious embedded risks to test whether employees could identify major risks after the training.

The training for owners and senior management covered two threads. On the business side: distinguishing freight forwarder from carrier and the liability differences between the two, the risk points of door-to-door double-clearance services, LCL consolidation, and trucking, responses to destination port contingencies such as cargo abandonment and delivery without presentation of the original bill of lading, and insurance configuration. On the management side: shareholding structure and registered capital, employment, export under purchased customs declarations, selection of overseas agents, invoice compliance, and criminal risks such as embezzlement and misappropriation of funds. After the training, the attorneys also held a dedicated Q&A session with the client.

The upgraded documents have been delivered and put into use, and the training and Q&A sessions have all been completed. The team continues to provide day-to-day legal advice to the client.

Freight forwarding involves long business chains and heavy documentation, and most disputes arise from details in daily operations. Improving systems and documents in advance controls losses far better than litigating afterward. If your freight forwarding company has similar needs, please contact Larry Zhou's team.