The Professional Conduct of Lawyers in Hong Kong (Desk Edition 2014)

Five years have passed since the publication of the second edition of The Professional Conduct of Lawyers in Hong Kong - Student Edition in June 2008. This new edition is entitled a Desk Edition as we recognise that the range of material and of discussion since the introduction of the first Student Edition in 1996, has necessarily expanded and deepened far beyond a 'beginners' text, and that our past 'students' carry the book with them into practice.

In considering its usefulness for practitioners, the book ought to and is intended to provide in one volume, up-to-date information, discussion and analysis of practice and principle, for solicitors, barristers, the judiciary, government lawyers, prosecutors, in-house counsel, foreign and overseas lawyers and students. The loose-leaf edition with its several large volumes, is appropriate for a law firm or barrister?s chambers but is not portable. The web-sites of the Law Society of Hong Kong and the Bar Association, are well-ordered and provide access to the relevant legislation and circulars as well as their own publications and links to many sources of local and international information about legal practice; but there is no overall interrogation structure.

Given the scattering of sources, it is clearly desirable to have a cohesive and portable text that provides both overview and detail as well as connections and comment which are useful to the practitioner and the student.

Professional responsibility issues have multiplied and become more finely tuned with the expansion of legislation and regulation of legal practice here and overseas. Legal practice itself has become entwined with a great variety of governmental, social and corporate regulation, locally and internationally. Consequently, practitioners have had to become particularly sensitive to the interplay of regulation with professional responsibility considerations when taking up the task of advising and representing clients.

As before, this book incorporates relevant decisions and comment from other jurisdictions. We hope that this book will assist the practitioner in being alert to current and impending responsibility issues when asked for advice and assistance. We hope that it will assist practitioners in understanding and maintaining the high standards of conduct that the Hong Kong legal profession expects of its members.