Jeremy Sargent

When I arrived at Leeds University in 1985, perhaps the most common question I received was “why Chinese – are you planning to open a restaurant?” Fast forward twenty years and I still believe that my father’s suggestion that I abandon my plans to become an engineer and focus on Mandarin was one of those turning points in life. I graduated in 1990 with a degree in Modern Chinese Studies and then spent the next two years “working” in Hong Kong and Taiwan. My first “job” was in a Swiss company in Hong Kong direct selling skin firming creams to affluent and elderly Hong Kong ladies. A short trip to Taipei ended up with me staying in Taiwan for almost two years doing both the English-teaching thing, selling Filipino wooden jewelry at market stalls and working part-time as an editor in a law firm.

By age 25, I decided it was certainly time to think in terms of a real career and I returned (again to Leeds) to complete my law studies. Two years’ training with Stephenson Harwood & Lo, an international law firm in Hong Kong and London, was followed, upon qualification as a lawyer, with a six-month “secondment” to Guangzhou. Nine years later I am still based in Guangzhou (and to a lesser extent Shanghai). In January 2007, I established my own legal practice, JSA, which assists foreign investors with many of the legal aspects of establishing and operating business across China. Our second office, in Shanghai, opened in December 2007.