After Mr Huang divorced, his daughter lived with her mother. On his death he left a flat in Baoshan District worth over RMB 3 million, which his brother occupied. The brother argued that the daughter had abandoned her father and forfeited her inheritance, and that he, having cared for the deceased and arranged the funeral, should inherit.

Issue

Whether a daughter who did not live with her father had “abandoned” him within Article 1125 of the Civil Code, so as to lose her right of inheritance.

Outcome

The firm acted for the daughter and established that she was the sole first-order heir, that non-cohabitation is not abandonment, and that the brother, as a sibling, ranks after first-order heirs. The court upheld her entitlement to the estate.

黄先生与妻子离婚后，女儿随母亲生活。黄先生过世后，留下一套宝山区价值300余万元房产，但是房子被黄先生的弟弟占有。

1、黄艳自幼与母亲生活，未尽到赡养照顾黄先生的义务，是否构成遗弃，丧失继承权？

2、黄先生的弟弟长期照顾生前多病的黄先生，并办理了黄先生的丧葬事宜，黄先生的遗产是否应由其继承？

女儿黄艳为维护自身合法权益，找到上海李小华律师事务所代理继承诉讼。李小华所由高级律师、法学教授、法学博士、法学硕士、人大代表组合的团队办案模式，律所接受黄艳委托，指派资深律师作为黄艳的代理律师。

1、黄艳是被继承人黄先生唯一第一顺序继承人，根据《民法典》第一千一百二十七条规定，被继承人所留遗产应由黄艳继承；

2、黄先生有生活来源，长期独居，有独立生活能力，黄艳并非遗弃黄先生，不应认定丧失继承权；黄先生的弟弟提出对黄先生照顾较多，并无提供任何证据，应承担举证不利的后果，不应分得被继承人任何遗产。

法院认为：黄艳作为黄先生唯一第一顺位法定继承人，应当有权继承黄先生的遗产。故即便黄艳在父母离婚后，与黄先生联系甚少，也不构成对于黄先生的遗弃，并不丧失继承权，可依法继承被继承人遗产。另外，因黄先生弟弟确实操办了黄先生的丧葬事宜，故法院酌情确定黄艳给予黄先生弟弟一定的补偿。

法院判决：支持原告黄艳300万元房产的诉讼请求。

上海李小华律师事务所凭借深厚的家事法律实务经验，通过精准举证、缜密论证，成功帮助当事人争取到应得的百万遗产权益。遗产继承纠纷往往涉及复杂的亲属关系、遗嘱效力及财产分配问题，专业律师的介入不仅能有效维护当事人的合法权益，更能减少家庭矛盾，促进纠纷的依法化解。

若您正面临遗产继承争议，建议尽早咨询专业律师，制定最优诉讼策略。李小华律师事务所专注婚姻家事、遗产继承等领域，以丰富的实战经验和严谨的法律服务，为您的合法权益保驾护航。

《最高人民法院关于适用<中华人民共和国民法典>继承编的解释（一）》第五条规定，在遗产继承中，继承人之间因是否丧失继承权发生纠纷，向人民法院提起诉讼的，由人民法院依据民法典第一千一百二十五条的规定，判决确认其是否丧失继承权。

Engagement

Shanghai Lixiaohua Law Firm, through Wang Lin and Luo Mengxuan, serves as legal adviser to the Trade Union Federation of the Ruijin Second Road Sub-district of Huangpu District, affiliated with the Shanghai Federation of Trade Unions.

Scope of Work

The engagement covers the legal review of collective contracts and internal rules, advice on labour disputes and the handling of employee complaints, training for union officers on the Labour Contract Law and the Trade Union Law, and legal support for the federation’s mediation work with member enterprises.

Significance

Sub-district union federations sit close to small and medium enterprises, where labour relations problems typically surface first. Regular legal advice at that level prevents individual grievances from becoming collective disputes.

Agreement

Shanghai Lixiaohua Law Firm signed international legal service cooperation agreements with law firms in Hungary and Japan, extending its referral and joint-representation network for matters involving Chinese enterprises in Central Europe and Japanese enterprises in China.

Purpose

Cross-border matters rarely stay within one jurisdiction. The agreements allow the firm to coordinate counsel, evidence and enforcement across jurisdictions under a single engagement, with consistent standards of confidentiality and reporting.

Context

International legal services are a component of China’s wider opening-up: Chinese citizens and companies abroad, and foreign nationals and companies in China, need counsel able to act in more than one system. The firm’s foreign-related practice has developed around that demand, including work recommended by the U.S. Consulate in Shanghai.

Event

Co-organised by Shanghai Lixiaohua Law Firm and People to People, the forum “Sino-U.S. Legal Practice under Global Financial Investment — Legal Professionals and Entrepreneurs Collaborating for Development” was held in Shanghai.

A People to People ambassador delegation of U.S. attorneys and business representatives joined Chinese practitioners and entrepreneurs for structured discussion on cross-border investment structures, regulatory approvals, dispute prevention and the handling of investigations affecting foreign-invested enterprises.

Takeaway

The recurring theme was timing: most cross-border difficulties are cheaper to prevent at the structuring stage than to litigate afterwards, and the role of counsel is to identify the points at which a jurisdiction will intervene.

Background

At the 15th CFS Financial Summit, Shanghai Lixiaohua Law Firm was named a 2026 Benchmark Law Firm for Comprehensive Strength, and media including International Finance News, Eastmoney and Toutiao reported the firm’s two awards. The firm has been included in the Shanghai International Legal Service Hub’s list of foreign-related institutions, and five of its lawyers — including senior partner Li Xiaohua and executive director Wang Lin — are listed in the foreign-related talent directory.

The Exchange

The firm hosted a frontier exchange with U.S. consular legal counsel on cross-border legal services. Discussion covered the practical sequence of a cross-border matter: how a foreign national’s case reaches consular attention, how evidence located abroad is obtained, how parallel proceedings are coordinated, and the standards applied when a Chinese court assesses a foreign judgment or award.

Why It Matters

For foreign clients, the value of local counsel lies less in general statements of law than in knowing how an authority actually proceeds — who decides, on what material, and in what order.

Award

At the award ceremony of the First Shanghai Lawyers’ Compliance Legal Service Product Competition, held on 11 February 2026 and organised jointly by the Shanghai Bar Association and the Shanghai Enterprise Confederation / Shanghai Entrepreneurs Association, Shanghai Lixiaohua Law Firm received two awards for its compliance products.

The competition assessed products on legal precision, practical operability, innovation and demonstrated client value. The firm’s submissions addressed corporate compliance risk assessment and cross-border regulatory compliance for enterprises operating in multiple jurisdictions.

Context

Compliance work for Chinese companies increasingly requires a productised approach: repeatable diagnostics, documented workflows and measurable remediation, rather than advice delivered case by case.

The Firm

Shanghai Lixiaohua Law Firm concentrates on criminal defence in commercial matters, corporate law and international legal services. It is recommended by the U.S. Consulate in Shanghai and its team includes senior practitioners, law professors, doctoral researchers, bilingual lawyers with overseas master’s degrees, and foreign-related legal specialists. Recognition includes Shanghai Civilised Unit and the Shanghai May 1st Labour Award.

Location and Structure

The firm sits in the Middle Huaihai Road commercial district, close to the headquarters of international companies and financial institutions — proximity that matters in investigations, where documents, witnesses and counterparties are often within a few blocks.

Technology

Alongside conventional practice, the firm has developed compliance products that apply data analytics and process automation to routine compliance work — for example, contract review, sanctions and counterparty screening, and the monitoring of regulatory change — so that legal judgement is spent on the questions that require it.

Context

As Chinese enterprises expand overseas, the legal environment they face has become materially more complex: cross-border compliance, data security and cross-border data transfer, antitrust exposure, and the risk of commercial crime allegations in host jurisdictions.

What the Firm Does

Drawing on its commercial criminal law practice and its Sino-US exchanges, the firm advises boards and senior management on pre-investment compliance diligence, the design of anti-bribery and export-control programmes, data governance across jurisdictions, and the response to investigations — whether by Chinese authorities or by regulators abroad.

Approach

Compliance is treated as a commercial function rather than a legal formality: the question is not only whether a structure is lawful, but whether it will withstand scrutiny when a transaction, a transfer or a payment is examined years later.

Event

The forum on “Preventing and Resolving Financial Risks and Ensuring High-Quality Judicial Protection” was held in Kunming, Yunnan, alongside the 2025 annual meeting of the Financial Legal Behaviour Research Committee of the China Behaviour Law Association. More than 150 scholars and practitioners in financial law attended.

Li Xiaohua, as deputy chair of the committee, led the firm’s delegation. Discussion centred on the boundary between financial innovation and criminal liability, the treatment of illegal fundraising and lending, and the standards courts apply when assessing intent in financial crime.