Yueping Zhou

Ms. Zhou is a partner of Zhong Lun Law Firm. Ms. Zhou has more than twenty years of legal experience advising clients on projects in the field of construction and infrastructure, and she provides legal services such as construction project legal risk prevention and control, PPP project consulting and re-negotiation, construction and PPP project related mergers and acquisition, construction accident crisis handling, construction and PPP project dispute resolution. Ms. Zhou has extensive experience with the practice areas in infrastructure such as rail transit, road and bridge, airport, environment protection and water treatment, sewage and garbage disposal etc., real estate development and urban renewal.

Focusing on construction and infrastructure projects (domestic and international), project financing and investing (mainly on PPP projects), environment protection and energy projects, large real estate project investment and development, construction and PPP project dispute resolution (lawsuit and arbitration).

Ms. Zhou led the team and provided legal services to large state-owned enterprises, listed companies and other famous enterprises such as China Three Gorges Corporation, Sun Hung Kai Properties, China Resources Land Group, Hongkong Land Limited, Shanghai Shentong Metro Group, China Eastern Airlines, etc.. Ms. Zhou has been invited many times to give lectures on legal topics about construction and PPP in large forum and top universities such as Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce, Tsinghua University, Tianjin University and Tongji University.

• Represent a Shanghai real estate developer (as employer) in a lawsuit against the contractor regarding construction contract disputes. We provided litigation representation in this case and have formed a team of lawyers and engineering experts. In light of the complex problems such as project cost, time delay, cost for acceleration measures, etc., we made a comprehensive claim and defended from the different dimensions of engineering and law. The court finally fully adopted our opinion. The final settlement of the project was based on the cost calculated by the client. The subject matter of the case was nearly 130 million yuan. Due to the serious disputes on the project cost, the court organized the two parties to appraise the project cost in different ways. Both sides each raised nearly 40 objections to the report. The representation was extremely difficult.
• Represent China MCC20 Group Corp. Ltd. (as general contractor) in a lawsuit against Ruyi Group regarding construction contract disputes with disputed amount of more than 240 million before the Supreme People’s Court. Our client is the general contractor of Ruyi Four Seasons Flower City Project. After the inauguration ceremony in 2015, due to incomplete construction permits and lack of funds, the project was suspended for several times, resulting in huge losses. The project resumed construction in July 2018. During the Spring Festival of 2019, the project was suspended again because of the construction payment default. Thereafter both parties involved in the lawsuit. We represented our client as legal attorney in the first instance and second instance. Through carefully combing and analysing a large number of evidence, as well as close cooperation with the client, we have successfully recovered most of the disputed amount in the course of litigation.
• Represent a major contractor in China in the arbitration against a world-famous India manufacturer (as employer) before Shanghai International Arbitration Center (SHIAC). The employer has invested in the construction of the software park in Shanghai. Our client is its general contractor. After the completion of the project, the employer still owes a large amount of money due to its arrears of project payment after a long-term reminder. The client entrusted us to apply to arbitration and claim payment of project funds, interest and other expenses. We timely applied for property preservation, sealed up the property of the employer, and frozen its bank account, which prompted the employer to make a settlement with the client. We assisted the client to formulate a reasonable negotiation strategy, and finally completed the settlement negotiation in less than two months. We helped the client recover the outstanding project funds in one time and obtained satisfactory compensation to the client.
• Represent Jiangsu Tongli Construction Group Co., LTD. (as the General Contractor) in a lawsuit before Supreme People's Court and in charge of the first and second instance of this case, as well as the retrial process. During our service period, we studied the case files thoroughly and formulated detailed strategies, while drafting written opinions to the court and communicating with the court actively. In the end, the first-instance judgment rejected plaintiff's claim to pay 50 million dollars for the project and sentence the client to be jointly and severally liable for the plaintiff's loss of work stoppage and idling. The plaintiff appealed. We believe that the original judgment that the client should bear joint and several liability lacks legal basis, so we also appealed. After two sessions by Jiangsu Provincial Higher People's court, the second instance fully adopted our opinions, rejected the plaintiff's appeal request and supported ours. The plaintiff's claim is as high as 60 million yuan, and we help client to reduce the loss to only 50000 yuan. The plaintiff's application to the Supreme People's Court for retrial was also rejected. The result of the case was extraordinary and our client was very satisfied. Our efficient, professional, and dedicated services were highly praised by the client.
• Represent a Shanghai contractor in the arbitration against a logistic warehouse employer before China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC). We provided arbitration agency services for our client who was both the construction unit and the applicant in this dispute. Our client requested the employer unit to pay over 10 million yuan for the project. And the employer unit proposed a number of counter-claims with a total amount of more than 26 million. We organized a team of lawyers and engineering specialists. The complex issues of controversial construction costs, project delay and quality problems were comprehensively defended from the two dimensions of engineering and law. In the end, the arbitral tribunal supported most of our opinions. Only 3 million yuan project delay penalty in the counterclaims was upheld. All the other counterclaims were rejected.

• Civil litigation
• Commercial arbitration
• Litigation

• Construction and materials
• Energy
• Natural resources
• Real estate
• Social infrastructure

• Lawyer’s License of PRC

• Shanghai International Arbitration Center (SHIAC), Arbitrator (mainly on Construction and PPP)
• Beijing International Arbitration Commission (BIAC), Arbitrator
• China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC), Expert of Construction Engineering
• China Association of International Engineering Consultants, Member of Expert Commission
• Shentong Metro & Shanghai Rail Transit Lawyer Expert Database, Member Expert
• China Mergers & Acquisitions Association, Certified M&A Dealmaker
• Fudan University LLM’s Off-campus Mentor

• Master, Fudan university, 2007