A disciplinary hearing in which former solicitor general Daniel Fung Wah-kin (pictured) was fined HK$300,000 for professional misconduct took three years to get off the ground because a senior counsel could not be found to sit on it - and only started after rare intervention by the chief justice.
Ronny Tong Ka-wah, convenor of the Barristers Disciplinary Tribunal Panel, which conducts disciplinary proceedings, said he had spent three years trying to secure three members for the tribunal, which comprises a senior counsel, a barrister and a lay person.
'The biggest problem was to locate a senior counsel to join the tribunal. I have approached all the dozen senior barristers on the panel list but all refused for various reasons,' Tong said.
'Some said there could be conflict for their involvement in the hearing because they know Daniel personally,' he said, adding it was the first time he had had such a problem since he took the post in 2000.
Fung, a senior counsel, was found guilty of professional misconduct on February 1 by the tribunal, chaired by Peter Ng Kar-fai SC. On June 2, he was censured and ordered to pay a penalty of HK$300,000.
He was found guilty of failing to inform the Court of Appeal in 2005 about clauses of a legislative provision that were unfavourable to his client, Hong Kong Island Development, in a tenancy lawsuit. The firm is a unit of New World Development Group. According to a note on the tribunal's judgment, Fung's failure to draw the court's attention to the point was contrary to the Bar's Code of Conduct. The full judgment has not been made public and the Bar Association says it is not its practice to do so.