Fresh bid for local Crown counsel
THE Legal Department has launched a new effort to recruit Hong Kong Chinese as Crown counsel.
The exercise is intended to bring the number of local people in the department to 60 per cent, which will require 51 more lawyers.
The department hopes that by the end of next year, 60 per cent of its counsel will be locals, while at the directorate level, the target is 50 per cent.
''It has been the aim of this department to have sufficient local officers to fill most of the senior posts by 1995/96,'' a spokesman said.
''The department's existing localisation measures are serving their purposes, with the aim of grooming local Crown counsel with potential to become senior Crown counsel and for future promotion to fill directorate posts.'' A similar recruitment exercise was launched last September, when 99 local applications were received and more than 30 candidates were found suitable.
Crown counsel receive between $30,150 and $50,230 a month, depending on experience, and undertake criminal advocacy, civil litigation, legal advisory work, bilingual legislation drafting, commercial law and legal policy work.
The latest recruitment exercise will close on April 23.
The spokesman said the job offered ''tremendous challenges, job satisfaction and good promotion prospects''.
''Young Crown counsel will be able to develop their interest and expertise in a particular area as they will be posted to work in various divisions of the department,'' he said.
