IT IS A JOB Bob Allcock thought he would never get. As the handover loomed and localisation raged within the civil service, it seemed unlikely the key legal post of Solicitor-General would, in the year 2000, be handed to an expatriate.
But this week, after an unsuccessful two-year search for a suitable ethic Chinese candidate, the British solicitor and long-time government lawyer was finally elevated to the job.
'If you had asked me back in 1996, I certainly had no expectation or hope of being given this position. I was quite content to be operating at deputy level,' says Mr Allcock.
But problems in finding a suitable ethnic Chinese candidate have proved insurmountable - and not for the first time. Far from being in the minority among top advisers to the Secretary for Justice, Elsie Leung Oi-sie, Mr Allcock becomes the fourth expatriate Law Officer out of five.
He forms part of a holy (some say unholy) trinity with Law Officer (Civil Law) Ian Wingfield and Director of Public Prosecutions, Grenville Cross SC, whose contract has just been renewed for another three years. The trio have been at the frontline, staunchly defending some of the Government's most controversial policies such as those on the Public Order Ordinance and right of abode.
If Law Officer (International Law) David Little is added along with special consultant Jonathan Daw, Miss Leung team takes on a distinctly British look.