GOVERNMENT lawyers are up in arms because Solicitor General-designate Daniel Fung is demanding an office far larger than those of his predecessors.
Two senior crown counsel and a more junior colleague have been evicted to make way for Mr Fung. His new office overlooks Hong Kong Park and the site of the future British consulate-general - one of the best views in the Legal Department.
Angry law officers claim the move has cast a shadow over the October 12 arrival of Mr Fung. Widely seen as the frontrunner to become Hong Kong's first local attorney-general, his task is to speed up the localisation of the Legal Department.
'He's starting off on the wrong foot, upsetting people even before he arrives,' one displaced crown counsel said.
But Mr Fung said yesterday no one had told him of the trouble his new office was causing.
'This all seems a bit of a storm in a teacup. I wish these people would come to me rather than complaining to the press,' he said.
The department has spent $68,000 of public money renovating room 401 of the Queensway Government Offices in Admiralty. It is being joined to two other rooms to form an office measuring more than 30 square metres.