The ceremonial opening has a long history dating back to the early years of the 20th century. It is a symbolic annual event at which all Judges and Judicial Officers, Law Officers, legal practitioners and distinguished guests come together to reflect on the development in the past year, to anticipate the exciting challenges that lie ahead and to set the direction of the legal profession in the coming year as well as in future years.
Growth of the legal profession
Hong Kong solicitors
Let me begin by providing you with some statistics relating to the growth of the solicitors’ branch of the profession. Compared to data as at the end of December 2010, the number of practising solicitors has increased by 4.7% from 6,782 to 7,101 and Hong Kong solicitors’ firms by 2.4% from 764 to 782. The rate of increase is slightly higher than the annual increase on average for the ten-year period from 2001 to 2010 which was 3.3% and 2.2% for practising solicitors and solicitors’ firms respectively.
The growth of the local solicitors’ profession has been steady.
Foreign lawyers and their localisation
With respect to foreign lawyers, the numbers are very much governed by the market demand. Currently, there are a total of 1,317 registered foreign lawyers and the number is increasing at an average growth rate of about 6% for the period from 2001 to 2010.
On the other hand, we note that there is a substantial number of overseas lawyers seeking admission as a Hong Kong solicitor via the Overseas Lawyers Qualification Examination. The number of candidates jumped from as low as 69 in 2006 to a record high of 257 in 2011. This phenomenon demonstrates the strong attraction of Hong Kong to legal talent and that we do have a user friendly regime to enable overseas lawyers who are ready to commit to Hong Kong and become Hong Kong solicitors. I am sure our profession will benefit greatly from talent around the world enriching our expertise and widening the scope of services that can be offered to multinational clients.
Reflecting on the development of the solicitors’ branch in the past year
2011 has been an eventful year with exciting legal reforms coming into effect as well as controversial issues under discussion among practitioners.
Some developments, on the other hand, have regrettably let us down. The profession started with high hopes that permission to allow solicitors to operate as Limited Liability Partnerships for which we have fought since 2006 and that permission to allow solicitors to have Higher Rights of Audience for which we have lobbied since 2002, would be effected within 2011.
However, both are yet to materialize. I sincerely wish that whoever stands here to give a speech next year will not need to refer to these issues as still outstanding.
Looking ahead
Shaping a sustainable future for the legal profession
With the steady growth of our profession, we are welcoming over 450 fresh elites every year. In three years’ time, the number of locally qualified solicitors is expected to hit the 10,000 mark. It falls heavily on us as more experienced members to ensure a sustainable future for our profession.
To maintain Hong Kong as a leading international financial centre, there must be top quality professional services that can meet the sophisticated demand of multinational clients. Hong Kong has ample legal talent to maintain the legal services industry at its highest standard. However, legal talent needs a modernized legal framework for it to flourish. We look forward to the materialization, within the next six months, of a sensible, practical and modernized mode of operation for solicitors in the form of limited liability partnerships to enable the legal service industry to compete with its overseas counterparts.
Not only do we need a sound and competitive framework within which to operate, we also need to explore opportunities in different practice areas for the diversified talent of our profession. The much awaited extension of solicitors’ rights of audience before the High Court and the Court of Final Appeal not only widens the choice of advocates for the public, but it also provides excellent opportunities for practitioners with the right qualities to enrich the scope of their legal services and we look forward to its implementation soon.
In addition to expanding the scope of services, extending our legal services market is another important factor in maintaining sustainable development for our profession. Supplement VIII to CEPA has opened the gate to closer partnering between Hong Kong and Mainland lawyers. No doubt, solicitors will be actively exploring and capitalizing on the opportunities arising from the new liberalisation measure as well as the development of innovative models of practice in Qianhai in the coming years.
Solicitors’ pro bono work is not to be treated as replacement of proper funding to promote access to justice
In recent years, the term "pro bono" has suddenly become very topical. Nevertheless, solicitors have in fact been silently doing this for ages - serving, giving and contributing selflessly to the community. Apart from serving clients, many of our members have applied their expertise in meaningful pro bono community services work. The recent Television Series of our Law Week (which is an annual programme that the Law Society has organized for 20 years) is one of the good examples of the tireless effort our members have volunteered in promoting legal knowledge and raising public awareness of legal rights.
In the Law Society’s recent 2011 Pro Bono and Community Service Award Programme, I was pleased to note that there were over 70 awardees, some of whom having completed over 100 hours of pro bono and community services!
Serving the community and engaging in pro bono work is becoming part of our professional life. It is not uncommon for law firms to form long-standing partnerships with NGOs and adopt a policy of giving staff time off for their pro bono participation.
There is absolutely no doubt that solicitors are in full support of contributing in whatever way they can to community. We will continue with our pro bono work and community service in numerous different ways as we have been doing in the past for years. However, solicitors’ pro bono work cannot and should not be exploited to absolve and replace the responsibility of the Government from allocating proper funding for legal service support to facilitate equal access to justice. It is only fair that solicitors, like everyone else, be recruited to public legal assistance schemes to provide professional services at a reasonable remuneration.
Allocation of proper resources to manpower and facilities support for the administration of justice
The allocation of more resources to enable a relaxation of the financial eligibility limits for Legal Aid applicants in May and the proposed revision to the criminal legal aid fee structure is a step in the right direction, albeit that the progress and the rate are still unsatisfactory.
The Judiciary has asked for a modest provision of$1.1 billion for the financial year 2011/12. According to the Judiciary’s published statistics, there was a total caseload of about 400,000 cases in the Courts of all levels excluding the Tribunals and the Coroner’s Court. The average length of trial hearings for both criminal and civil cases has increased by about 8% in 2010. The average waiting time in 2010 for Civil Fixture in Court of First Instance from application to fix date to hearing was 215 days and for Criminal Fixture from filing of indictment to hearing was 166 days.
There are around 176 judges and magistrates serving on the Bench. To address the undesirable long delays in securing a hearing opportunity, we can certainly do with more. Solicitors with a wide range of experience in different practice areas form a good source of candidates for the Bench. Should proper resources be allowed for expansion in manpower and supporting facilities, there should not be any concern about attracting suitable candidates to join the permanent Judiciary team or to act as deputy judges on a temporary basis to deal with the increasing number of cases and to prevent undesirable long waiting time.
In response to the Judiciary’s promotion of alternative dispute resolution, in particular mediation, solicitors have equipped themselves with the necessary skills to meet the changing demands in their practice. There are currently over 240 accredited mediators on the Law Society Panels of Accredited Mediators. However, the difficulty in securing a suitable venue for mediation at affordable charges proves to be an obstacle in making mediation a user friendly avenue of dispute resolution. In the long term, more resources should be allocated to ensure that there is an adequate supply of good quality and affordable venues that are suitable for mediation and are conveniently located for the public. As a humble suggestion, if more resources are allocated, suitable mediation facilities including interview rooms should be added within court buildings, District Council offices and government offices which are normally located at convenient areas easily accessible to the public.
Concluding remarks
I am delighted and honoured to have had this opportunity to share with leaders of the legal profession from around the world our achievements, our concerns and our vision of a sustainably thriving legal service sector in a complex global market. I look forward to many more insightful exchanges with our counterparts in future. May I take this opportunity to wish you all a wonderful and prosperous 2012!