Jonathan Midgley
Since arriving in Hong Kong as a young solicitor in 1978, Jonathan Midgley has represented defendants in some of the city’s most high-profile and notorious legal cases. His clients have included the late Chinachem billionairess Nina Wang, and her alleged lover, feng shui master Tony Chan. He talks to Sarah Fung about his problems with publicity and why he disagrees with the term “criminal.”
When I came out here I was lucky. I joined Warwick Haldane [founder of Haldanes Solicitors and Notaries]—he was doing exclusively criminal work—and within two weeks I was involved in a case. The allegation was that a Mrs. Wong was running a prostitution racket, and the defense was that no, far from it, they were film starlets.
So the first job that Warwick Haldane offered me was: Would I mind very much spending the next two, three weeks interviewing these girls that were in their early twenties and looking particularly delectable? So my starting point was a fairly easy one.
I had a picture on the front page of [now-defunct Hong Kong tabloid] “The Star” walking into court. Warwick Haldane was carrying the bags 100 yards behind. I don’t think he ever forgave me!
The next big break was 1981, or thereabouts. It was the first big commercial crime case in Hong Kong, and it involved a man called Amos Dawe. It was huge—followed by the media around the world. I ran that case, and he was acquitted, and that really started my career in earnest.
It gave me a profile that I previously didn’t have, for which I was very grateful.
There’s an old saying that all publicity is good publicity. I don’t mind, and I accept, as part of the job, a certain degree of publicity.