Hong Kong seeks to limit gov’t legal roles to locally qualified lawyers
Hong Kong Free Press
The Hong Kong government has announced plans to amend several legislations to restrict the appointment of its legal officers to only lawyers who were qualified locally.
There was no need for Hong Kong to recruit practitioners admitted in the UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and other jurisdictions to serve as the government’s legal officers, the Department of Justice (DoJ) told a legislative panel on Monday.
The proposal to revise the appointment qualification for legal officers would involve amending the Bankruptcy Ordinance, the Legal Officers Ordinance, the Legal Aid Ordinance and the Director of Intellectual Property (Establishment) Ordinance. The proposed amendment would also cover some other roles specified in the ordinances.
The positions included the secretary of justice, government counsels, solicitors for the Lands Department, Company Registry, Land Registry and those handling bankruptcy cases. Legal Aid counsels and lawyers for the Intellectual Property Department would also be affected.
But those who joined the government before the proposed amendments came into effect would not be affected.
In a document submitted to the Panel on Administration of Justice and Legal Services, the DoJ said the government started allowing non-locally admitted lawyers to serve as legal officers in 1989. At the time, there were fewer locally qualified lawyers in Hong Kong.
“[T]here is now an ample supply of Hong Kong-qualified legal practitioners who are supposedly more familiar with the legal system of Hong Kong compared with those who have been admitted in other jurisdictions only,” the English document read.
The department went on to say that a study it conducted last year showed that most legal officers currently serving in the government were individuals who had obtained their qualifications in Hong Kong.
Only seven out of the 514 officers of the government counsel grade in the DoJ were admitted outside of Hong Kong.
The legislative proposal would not have adverse implications, the DoJ said, adding the government would still hire lawyers qualified in other jurisdictions as temporary legal consultants. The city’s two legal professional bodies – the Hong Kong Bar Association and the Law Society of Hong Kong – had “no comment” on the proposal, according to the DoJ.
Speaking at Monday’s panel meeting, Roden Tong, president of the Law Society of Hong Kong, said the group did not oppose the direction of the legislative amendments.
Tong said Hong Kong had locally admitted legal talents, as well as around 1,500 lawyers who had qualified overseas. The number of solicitors in the city had risen from around 7,500 in 2012 to 11,000 this year, thanks to the expansion of the provision of law degrees and postgraduate certificates in law from one university to three universities, Tong said.
“I believe quite a lot of legal talent in Hong Kong has the intention of joining the government… The Law Society of Hong Kong hopes that the government will leverage its unique advantage of being the country’s only jurisdiction familiar with common law and actively build up the legal talent pool,” he said in Cantonese.
The legislative proposal, titled Government Officers (Legal) (Appointment Qualification) Legislation (Amendment) Bill 2024, is expected to be brought to the Legislative Council in the last quarter of the year.
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