Elsie Leung, 59, started her three-year term as legal chief on July 1 last year, replacing colonial-era attorney-general Jeremy Mathews.
A third-generation Hong Kong resident with roots in Guangdong, she attended Sacred Heart Canossian School and later studied law by correspondence.
Before joining the civil service, she spent her entire working life with the same law firm, and was a senior partner with Iu, Lai and Li Solicitors & Notaries.
A campaigner on family law issues and legal adviser to several welfare groups, she was once offered the job of equal opportunities commissioner but turned it down.
Miss Leung was a founding member of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong and is well-connected on the mainland.
She was a delegate to the eighth National People's Congress, which ended last year, and a member of the selection committee which chose Tung Chee-hwa as the first Chief Executive.