Lawyer must pay up for role in Motorola lawsuit
Solicitor may also face professional sanctions over 'no win, no fee' deal with four clients
A lawyer has been hit with a HK$1.7 million bill for her role in a multibillion-dollar lawsuit between US mobile giant Motorola and a Turkish family - and may also face a complaint to her professional regulator.
In a written judgment, High Court Deputy Judge David Lok Kai-hong ruled that Phyllis Kwong Ka-yin's firm made a so-called contingent fee arrangement with four of the 12 respondents in a case brought by Motorola against companies linked to the Uzan family. That meant the firms would only pay should they win or the case be dropped.
The arrangement put her in breach of the Law Society's code of professional conduct, Lok said.
"According to the retainer letters signed by the [clients], they each had to pay a further sum … 'upon dismissal of the case, or upon the action being won by [the clients]'," Lok wrote. "I consider it my duty to report the matter to the Law Society."
He ordered Kwong to pay HK$1.69 million in legal fees run up by another law firm, Angela Ho & Associates, which took over the case at her request in April.
But he said he would give Kwong the opportunity to explain why he should not refer the matter to the Law Society for investigation, given that her professional integrity was at stake.
The case centres on a dispute between Motorola and five members of the wealthy Uzan family, which used to own Turkish telecommunications company Telsim Mobil Telekomunikasyon Hizmetleri AS. The US giant claimed the family embezzled money it had loaned them and obtained judgments in Britain and the United States totalling US$5.26 billion.