Rallying call to remove Law Society president

A Law Society veteran has issued a rallying call to members to oust the institution's president for endorsing Beijing's white paper on "one country two systems".

Joyce Wong, the society's director of practitioners affairs for two decades until retirement last year, rounded on Ambrose Lam San-keung ahead of a vote of no confidence in the president, who was only re-elected in May.

In a public statement issued yesterday, Wong said Lam had drawn into question the neutrality of the Law Society by going on a one-man band "frolic".

The vote will be held at an extraordinary general meeting on August 14. Wong urged fellow members to cast a vote through a proxy if they could not attend, "in order to prevent politicisation" of the society, which represents more than 7,400 solicitors.

More than 240 solicitors have signed a petition condemning Lam following his assertion that the white paper was a "positive" document. The document, released in June, categorised judges as administrators and said they had a "political requirement" to love the country. Some 1,800 lawyers took to the streets in protest.

Wong said: "I cannot accept that whatever Ambrose Lam says should be regarded as 'the official views of the Law Society'.

"The president cannot substitute his own political views as those of the Law Society."

Wong, who helped draft the society's papers on government consultations, legislative bills and judgments from the Court of Final Appeal, added it used to be the society's practice to "review and reach consensus on all submissions", which would be prepared by its specialist committees. "I am unaware of any change to this practice," she said.

She also noted Lam had publicly endorsed the government's controversial decision to refuse Hong Kong Television Network a free-to-air licence; had refused to answer a reporter's question given in English; and had condemned civil disobedience.

"Lam is 100 per cent entitled to his personal political views. However, as president he should refrain from expressing such views as representing those of the Law Society and of its individual members," Wong said.