First woman High Court judge a quiet achiever
HONG KONG'S first woman High Court judge is a low profile counsel who has specialised in the drier side of the law.
Many leading barristers contacted yesterday said they had never come across the woman who has just made a name for herself in the history books.
The territory's specialist legal magazines Hong Kong Lawyer and New Gazette also knew little about the territory's first woman judge.
Doreen Le Pichon, nee Kwok, was born in China, but grew up in Hong Kong and was educated at Oxford.
She has specialised in what one lawyer described as 'the dull and dusty' end of the legal spectrum.
In Britain she spent several years at the Chancery Bar, which deals with property, probate, trusts and tax planning.
Mrs Le Pichon, who takes up her appointment on October 3, is currently deputy chief counsel at the Securities and Futures Commission.
She has so far declined to talk to the press about her appointment.
Yesterday, she complained to the Judiciary that a South China Morning Post photographer had taken pictures of her in Central.
Colleagues who worked alongside her said she would make an excellent judge.
Executive Councillor Denis Chang Khen-lee QC, who has known Mrs Le Pichon since the 1960s when they were both studying in Britain, said: 'I'm very pleased. She has all the qualities that would make a good judge. She's an excellent lawyer to begin with. She is fair, impartial and objective. She has very good judgment and is a good listener.' Patrick Fung QC, who works in the same chambers at New Henry House, Ice House Street, added: 'It's a very good choice, a very good appointment.' A barrister, Corinne D'A Remedios, said she did not know Mrs Le Pichon, but was delighted a woman judge had finally been appointed to the High Court.
'It is very nice to see a woman there. I hope it will lead the way for others,' she said.
Mrs Le Pichon has previously sat as a deputy judge at the District and High Courts.
