Bay Area offers the 'best of both worlds'

Hong Kong people still hold the trump card when it comes to living, working or doing business in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, which embraces three separate legal jurisdictions that offer young lawyers great opportunities to broaden their perspectives and make them more competitive.

And the need for a legal practitioner to be qualified in more than one jurisdiction is a global trend, Hong Kong's Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng Yeuk-wah says in an exclusive interview.

"If you just know the law of just one area, you'll probably run into very stiff competition," she says.

One of the benefits, Cheng points out, is a three-year pilot plan that allows Hong Kong and Macao legal practitioners to obtain the relevant qualifications in the nine Guangdong cities within the Bay Area and set up shop there.

Under the plan, unveiled in October, solicitors and barristers from the two special administrative regions with five years of post-qualification experience can sit for an examination that would pave the way for them to engage in legal work on the Chinese mainland within a certain scope.

Hong Kong's Department of Justice has been working with the Ministry of Justice in organizing training for examinees. The first examination will be held on Jan 31.

"It's very important for any lawyer to know more than just one particular jurisdiction under which you're practicing because the world is getting smaller. Globalization and multilateralism are the way forward," says Cheng.

Such an opportunity will augment a lawyer's practice in a broader region, as well as his or her perspectives, which are especially important for young practitioners.

She cites the higher number of transactions being handled by mainland lawyers compared with that of their Hong Kong counterparts, as more business is coming out of the mainland and enterprises need lawyers who're well versed in the laws of the People's Republic of China.

The Internet Court in Guangzhou, capital city of Guangdong province, also points to the trend, and Hong Kong lawyers should know how advanced some of the mainland's legal and judicial operations are, Cheng says. "It's not just about trying to get more business. It's about seeing more things and letting yourself know more about the world."

"Can you imagine how far your professional career could have gone if you do know and understand the laws of both places? So I would strongly urge every qualified young lawyer in Hong Kong to go and grasp the opportunities on offer, learn more about the nation's laws and get set to practice in the Bay Area," urges Cheng.

She believes the Bay Area will breed a pool of lawyers who're capable of practicing both Hong Kong and mainland laws. "That will allow them to offer more helpful advice to clients with businesses in the Bay Area."

The HKSAR and the mainland made another breakthrough in the legal field with the signing of a supplemental arrangement on Nov 27 concerning the mutual enforcement of arbitral awards.

The agreement will refine the 20-year-old Arrangement Concerning Mutual Enforcement of Arbitral Awards between both sides, providing a simple and effective mechanism for reciprocal enforcement of arbitral awards. "It'll actually grant businesses greater protection and predictability in handling cross-boundary disputes in the Bay Area," says Cheng.

She reckons that young lawyers in Hong Kong still lack sound knowledge and understanding of the Bay Area. "I would say take them to the other cities in the Bay Area to see the opportunities there themselves and understand how the mainland's legal system and judiciary work."

Cheng believes there'll be more exchange opportunities with the mainland after Hong Kong brings COVID-19 under control, with the city having concluded a framework arrangement on exchange and mutual learning in legal aspects with the High People's Court of Guangdong province in September last year.