CAO, Frank

Mr Frank Cao’s main areas of practice are sea commerce and maritime affairs, financial leasing, insurance claims and international trade.Mr Cao has represented many shipowners' P&I associations, famous domestic and foreign shipping companies, insurance companies, financial leasing companies, shipyards, wharves and other various shipping organizations in many far-reaching cases, providing legal services including carriage of goods by sea, bill of lading, charter party, marine insurance, ship collision, fire, marine salvage, towing, removal and repair of wrecks at sea, common sea loss, ship construction and repair, Ship financing, ship sale and purchase, crew personal injury and death claims, ports, freight forwarding, international trade disputes and other legal services.

In the financial field, Mr Cao has provided legal services for many major corporation, mainly cooperating with the following companies: BOCOM Financial Leasing Company Limited, Jusin International Leasing Company Limited, Rheinland International Financial Leasing Company Limited, Ligen Financial Leasing (Shanghai) Company Limited, Shanghai Huarui Financial Leasing Company, and Coal Zhangze Financial Leasing (Shanghai) Company Limited.

Mr Cao is a senior partner of Jintiancheng Law Firm. Mr Cao's main practice areas are maritime, financial leasing, insurance claims and international trade. Mr Cao is the deputy director of Shanghai Lawyer Association's Maritime Business Research Committee, the tutor of Shanghai Maritime University's master's degree program, the tutor of East China University of Political Science and Law's master's degree program, the expert of Shanghai Municipal People's Procuratorate's civil administration, the arbitrator of Taizhou Arbitration Commission, the maritime mediator of China Maritime Arbitration Commission, the member of China Maritime Law Association, and the member of the Insurance Business Research Committee..

Education Background

• Sep. 1992 - Jul. 1996    Bachelor’s Degree in Maritime Law from Shanghai Maritime University
• Sep. 2004 - Jul. 2006    Master’s Degree of EMBA from Shanghai Maritime University

Working Experience

• Jul. 1996 - Feb. 2003    Serves in the Insurance & Claims Manager of legal department in P&O Nedlloyd (China) Ltd, in charge of all legal affairs in China.
• Mar. 2003 - Feb. 2009    Serves as full-time attorney and a partner in a Shanghai Hoying Law Firm.
• Mar. 2009 -Now    Serves as full-time attorney and a senior partner in Allbright Law Offices.

Social Positions

• Deputy Director of Maritime Business Research Committee of Shanghai Bar Association
• External Mentor of Master's Degree Program in Shanghai Maritime University
• External Mentor of Master's Degree Program in East China University of Political Science and Law
• Expert of Shanghai Municipal People's Procuratorate in Civil Administration
• Maritime Mediator of China Maritime Arbitration Commission
• Member of China Maritime Law Association
• Arbitrator of Taizhou Arbitration Commission

Honors

• ■Selected as a “Highly Recommended” maritime lawyer in eastern China in 2023 by the authoritative legal rating agency, Chambers
• ■Selected as a “Recommended” maritime lawyer in China in 2023 by The legal 500
• ■Selected as the “Litigation star” in Commercial disputes area in 2023 by the Benchmark Litigation China
• ■Selected as a “Highly Recommended” maritime lawyer in eastern China in 2022 by the authoritative legal rating agency, Chambers
• ■Selected as the “Litigation star” in Commercial disputes area in 2022 by the Benchmark Litigation China
• ■Selected as a “Highly Recommended” maritime lawyer in eastern China in 2021 by the authoritative legal rating agency, Chambers
• ■Selected as the “Litigation star” in Commercial disputes area in 2021 by the Benchmark Litigation China
• ■Selected as a “Highly Recommended” maritime lawyer in eastern China in 2020 by the authoritative legal rating agency, Chambers
• ■Selected as one of 2020 China “Top 15 Litigators” by the authoritative legal rating agency, Asian Legal Business
• ■Selected as the “Outstanding Deals” of the Year 2020 by the China Business Law Journal
• ■"Best Lawyers", Interfaces Gold 100 2020
• ■Selected as "Outstanding Professional Lawyer" in the well-known newspaper "China's Contemporary Outstanding Lawyers".
• ■Regarded as a foreign-related legal talent by the Chinese Ministry of Justice and a foreign-related legal talent by the government of Shanghai

Experience & Performance

• In Attorney Cao’s numerous and far-reaching cases, Attorney Cao and his team have represented many P&I clubs, famous shipping companies, freight forwarding companies, insurance companies, financial leasing companies, shipyards, dock sides and other shipping institutions with highly reputation domestically and overseas. He has provided legal service including but not limited to carriage of goods by sea, bill of lading, freight forwarding, international multimodal transport, charter party, marine insurance, collision of ships, fire, salvage at sea, towage, wreck removal and restitution at sea, general average, ship building and mending, ship financing, ship transaction, claims of crew personal injury and death, dispute resolution involving port, freight forwarding, international trade, etc. Among which, the most typical clients and cases are as follows:
• ■To act as general counselor-at-law in China for the leading shipping corporation in the world, A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S, handling all legal affairs in China. The case between Maersk and Zhejiang Longda Steel Co., LTD, which was retried by the Supreme People’s Court and successfully won, was selected by the Supreme People’s Court as the guiding case No. 108 on February 25, 2019 and became the trial basis and judgment standard of relevant disputes.
• ■To act as the general counsel of the world's leading shipping group Maersk Limited in China, he represented the company in nearly 100 cases involving container overtime royalties and maritime injunctions in Dalian and Xiamen, two of which were selected by the Supreme Court as one of the top ten typical cases of maritime adjudication in the country in 2021;
• ■To act as counselor-at-law in China for the leading shipping corporation in the world, MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company S.A., Geneva. The case between MSC and Wenzhou Baililand Rubber Tire Co., Ltd, was selected as one of the 2018 top 8 typical cases by Ningbo Maritime Court and Zhejiang High People’s Court.
• ■To represent a subsidiary of PetroChina Group in handling legal affairs relating to the subsequent insurance and claims of a vessel collision accident, with the subject matter of the project amounting to RMB 500 millions.
• ■To be Selected as one of the lawyers of China COSCO Shipping Group Company Limited, providing litigation and non-litigation legal services for its subsidiaries for a long period of time;
• ■To be Selected for the China Shipowners Mutual Insurance Association Lawyer Pool;
• ■To handle legal matters relating to claims and infringement of rights following the collision between the MV Sangji and the MV Changfeng Crystal representing the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) ;
• ■To provide legal service for the cooperation between Xi’an International Inland Port Investment & Development Group and Volvo.
• ■To act as counselor-at-law for the first domestic international logistics service e-commerce trading platform "YQN" and its affiliated companies, to provide legal services and non-litigation services.
• ■To represent domestic and foreign shipowners' mutual insurance associations in litigation and arbitration all year round, including China Ship Insurance, Britannia Club, Standard Club, UK Club, West England Club, North England, Japan Club, etc.
• ■To provide legal service for Japanese shipping company, “K” LINE.
• ■To provide legal services for China Shipbuilding Industrial Investment Fund, the first ship fund in China, on domestic and overseas ship investment and financing, ship management and shipping management.
• ■To act as counselor-at-law for the first sino-foreign joint venture in China, Chinese-Polish Joint Stock Shipping Company, as well as its subsidiary Chinese-Polish Crew Company.
• ■To provide legal services for Chinese-Polish Joint Stock Shipping Company with regard to shipbuilding at amount of RMB 2 billion yuan and to settle the following contract disputes with shipbuilder.
• ■To settle the disputes for Chinese-Polish Joint Stock Shipping Company over financial leasing project on heavy-lift ship (four ships named Changjiang, Huanghe, Taihu, Donghai) with AVIC International Leasing Co., Ltd.
• ■To represent Shanghai Sino-Poland Enterprise Management Development Co., Ltd. in its proposed acquisition of a 10% stake in Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank (valued at RMB 4.595 billion yuan) held by Australia & New Zealand Bank (ANZ).
• ■To provide ship finance leasing legal services for China Merchants Bank's financial leasing project;
• ■To provide legal services for the ABS project of Bank of Tyrone Aiken Trust Structured Finance Product;
• ■To provide specialized legal services for NOBEL Group's bank loans and credit projects in China;
• ■To provide full legal services for a Singaporean company in a bareboat chartering project in Hainan FTZ;
• ■To provide special legal services to Far East International Leasing Company Limited in relation to financial leasing services;
• ■To provide legal service for CIMC Capital Ltd. with regard to the project of container financial leasing valued RMB 1 billion yuan.
• ■To provide legal service for Yinhai Wanxiang Investment Group to purchase aircraft and cape size ultra-large vessels.
• ■To handle litigation and arbitration representing domestic and abroad P&I clubs for years, which includes China Shipowners Mutual Assurance Association (CPI), Britannia Club, Standard Club, UK Club, West England Club, North England, Japan Club, etc.

Professional Articles

• Surcharge compliance in international maritime shipping