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SCMP Reporter

The first woman, the first Chinese - and the first time an attorney-general has received law qualifications by correspondence course.

  Unlike the other frontrunners for the first local attorney-general - to be named secretary of justice after June 30 - Elsie Leung Oi-sie, 57, did not have the benefit of studying at Oxford, Cambridge or London.

  She attended Sacred Heart Canossian College, an all-girls Catholic institution in Mid-Levels, and became an articled clerk, taking her qualifications from the College of Law as a correspondence course.

  'Hong Kong did not have its own legal education,' she explained. Exam papers were flown out from the College of Law in London, sat in Hong Kong, then flown back to London for marking.

  She is senior partner with Iu, Lau and Li, solicitors and notaries. Single, Ms Leung has become known for fighting to improve the law relating to divorce, custody and other family issues.

  'She's well regarded in the profession,' said Sharon Ser, who chairs the Family Law Association.

   But the lawyers who deal with divorce and family issues are very different from the criminal lawyers who make up much of the Legal Department. One senior criminal lawyer said he thought he had never heard of her.

  In 1992 she was among the 56 people, many of whom came from China-backed companies, who formed the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong.

  She reportedly left two other political groups, the Liberal Democratic Foundation and the New Hong Kong Alliance, on joining the new party.

  She was an early member of its central committee, but subsequently resigned, remaining an ordinary member.



First local A-G studied by post