ABOUT

ABOUT US

We are a platform for litigation lawyers in Hong Kong including solicitors and barristers to blog and express their views.  We welcome posts from professional communications on the laws, cases and personal professional experiences.

OUR MISSION

Our mission is to encourage litigation professionals to exchange their valuable thoughts, to provide a forum for litigation lawyers to pass their professional knowledge and thoughts to other members of the litigation professionals.

Hong Kong Litigation Lawyers

The legal profession in Hong Kong is divided into two distinct branches – barristers and solicitors.

Hong Kong Solicitors

Solicitors have limited rights of audience before the courts. They are not allowed to represent their clients to cross-examine witnesses in the High Court or to give oral submissions in the Court of Final Appeal; they will soon be allowed to conduct trials in the High Court after the Law Society has finalized the ground rules.

For litigation, solicitors can either (i) represent clients in court hearings or (ii) take instructions from clients and then instruct barristers to represent clients in court (this is an essential procedure if the cases are heard at the High Court or the Court of Final Appeal). Other than litigation, solicitors can also handle documentation files such as the drafting of contracts, preparing the property sale & purchase agreements or wills, etc. They can also act as legal advisors for their clients.

Hong Kong Barristers

Barristers have unlimited rights of audience in all courts (including the High Court and the Court of Final Appeal). They specialize in litigation and giving oral submission in court hearings on behalf of their clients. Similar to solicitors, barristers can also draft legal documents or give legal advice to their clients.

Lawyers practising as barristers are not, at the same time, allowed to practise as solicitors (and vice versa).

Although the majority of solicitors and barristers are engaged in private practice, some of them work in the legal departments of some Government bodies or commercial corporations, or engaged in teaching and research at one of the Hong Kong’s tertiary institutions.