Ground-breaking new measures that will provide Hong Kong barristers with greater opportunities to work on the mainland were announced yesterday as a Bar Association delegation returned from Beijing.
Barristers are to be allowed to sit mainland law exams, if they wish to practise mainland law. They may also register as 'Hong Kong law lawyers' working on the mainland. The Bar Association will be permitted to establish a centralised chambers on the mainland, and barristers will be able to provide advice on Hong Kong law and litigation procedure. They will also be allowed to become notaries on the mainland and to become members of the All China Lawyers' Association.
Alan Hoo SC, chairman of the Bar Association's committee on the liberalisation of legal services on the mainland, said the new policies had been declared by the Ministry of Justice. 'It shows they are now doing more than just paying lip-service to Hong Kong lawyers not being treated as foreign lawyers,' Mr Hoo said.
Mr Hoo said it was hoped the new policy would be implemented before China joined the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
The new measures follow a relaxation of rules relating to Hong Kong solicitors working on the mainland, announced last week. The 'one firm, one office' rule was abolished, leaving foreign firms the latitude to open as many offices as they wished in the cities of their choice, according to an announcement by Duan Zhengkun, a vice-minister in the Ministry of Justice. Previously, foreign firms could have only one office.
When the mainland joins the World Trade Organisation it is likely to create a huge number of business deals and lawyers in the SAR are keen to chase this work.
