Legal heavyweights in Hong Kong pay tribute to city’s first ethnically Chinese prosecutor Patrick Yu

Hong Kong’s top judges and lawyers paid their final respects on Saturday to a trailblazing doyen of the local legal sector, Patrick Yu Shuk-siu.

Among about 300 people at the funeral mass at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception were former chief justices Ti-liang Yang and Andrew Li Kwok-nang, as well as the incumbent Geoffrey Ma Tao-li.

“Mr Yu is one of the finest men I’ve ever known,” Li said. “His impact [on the profession] is huge; he’s a legend.”

Yu died last month at age of 96. The celebrated criminal barrister was Hong Kong’s first ethnically Chinese prosecutor under British rule. He resigned as crown prosecutor after less than two years, because of discrimination from within the colonial government against local lawyers.

In the 1970s, he received offers to join the Supreme Court bench from three consecutive chief justices, but turned them down for the same reason.

Although he was of one of the city’s most experienced criminal barristers, Yu famously never applied for the title of Queen’s Counsel, saying the peer-review system which bestowed the rank lacked objective criteria. He went on to mentor generations of lawyers, including Patrick Chan Siu-oi and Robert Tang Kwok-ching, now non-permanent judges on the Court of Final Appeal.

Ma, with tears in his eyes after the service, recalled one exchange when he asked Yu’s advice about applying to be a QC.

“When I asked him for advice, he encouraged me, saying ‘It is a good institution but it wasn’t for me’,” Ma said. “He guided me a lot [in private practice].”

Ma said Yu’s refusal of judicial posts was a loss to the bench. “He would have been welcome in the judiciary,” he added.

Other legal heavyweights in attendance included non-permanent judge Kemal Bokhary, Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng Yeuk-wah and her predecessor Elsie Leung Oi-sie, and former Bar Association chairs Martin Lee Chu-ming, Dennis Chang Khen-lee, Gladys Li, Audrey Eu Yuet-mee, and Alan Leong Kah-kit.

Yu was survived by two sons, Denis and Dominic, and daughters Estella and Dominica. In accordance with his will, there was no eulogy, but the four shared lighthearted stories about their father when he was away from court.

Many mourners still had vivid memory of Yu’s eloquence in court. Former chairman of the Securities and Futures Commission Anthony Neoh praised Yu as a lawyer “of all seasons”, who excelled in both civil and criminal cases.

“He never took notes in courtrooms,” Neoh recalled. “And there’s a reason: you have to remember the most important point. Taking down everything, you would only confuse yourself. I followed suit, and let my junior lawyer do the note-taking.”

Yu helped set up, and supported, the city’s first law school, at the University of Hong Kong.

He also helped set up residential home Priscilla’s Home with NGO the Fu Hong Society for mentally challenged people, in honour of his daughter, Priscilla, who died at the age of 10. He donated the copyright of his much cited books to Fu Hong.

Six residents from the home also attended Saturday’s service, along with their carers.