Ambrose Lam, president of the Hong Kong Law Society since May last year, was forced to resign on 19 August after a vote of no confidence was issued in response to his recent support of a Beijing white paper that raised issues over Hong Kong’s judicial independence. Hong Kong lawyers turned out in force on 14 August to an extraordinary general meeting (EGM), where 2,392 lawyers cast a vote of no confidence in the president. Just 1,478 lawyers voted against the motion, despite law firms reporting pressure from clients on the mainland not to pass the motion.
Stephen Hung, who has been a member of the Law Society’s council since 2003 and is a partner at Pang, Wan & Choi, has been elected with immediate effect. He will lead a team of 95 staff who oversee more than 5,800 solicitors in private practice across over 800 Hong Kong law firms, as well as more than 900 foreign lawyers.
The Law Society was also forced to state that ‘the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary are the core values of Hong Kong and nothing set out in the white paper recently issued by the People’s Republic of China shall detract from or undermine such values’. A motion was also passed demanding that Lam withdraw his statements on the white paper, which called for local judges to be more patriotic.
Lam was widely criticised by Hong Kong lawyers fearful of policies in mainland China that could hinder the region’s judicial autonomy. The Law Society issued a statement that ‘it is apolitical and will continue to focus on defending the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary’.
A Hong Kong-qualified solicitor at a Magic Circle firm told Legal Business: ‘Lam had no mandate to make those comments. What is terrible is that lawyers have been phoned by clients on the mainland warning that if they stand in the way of this [and vote against Lam] then they won’t get any work. This did not affect the vote.
To say the judiciary is an organ of the state is something I don’t agree with. The general meeting has been handled in a very professional manner.’
tom.moore@legalease.co.uk