This Dec 10, 2019 photo shows the east square of the new Hengqin port in Zhuhai, south China's Guangdong province. (PHOTO / XINHUA)
HONG KONG – Guangdong province legal authorities will launch a platform to match mainland law firms with lawyers from Hong Kong and Macao, an official of the Guangzhou Bureau of Justice said on Tuesday.
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News of the program came after the first batch of four lawyers from the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions were granted licenses earlier this month to practice law in the nine Guangdong cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, after taking a legal professional qualification test. They are also required to be employed by a mainland law firm.
Hong Kong and Macao lawyers still face many different rules and systems to which they have to adjust when practicing on the mainland, and these obstacles will be gradually dealt with, siad Liang Zhen, deputy director of the Bureau of Justice in Guangdong
Junius Ho Kwan-yiu, a Hong Kong lawyer in the first batch, is employed at ETR Law Firm in Guangzhou. Three lawyers from Macao work at a law firm in Guangzhou’s Nansha district.
Liang Zhen, deputy director of the Bureau of Justice in Guangdong, told a local radio program on Tuesday that the authority will establish a platform to help more Hong Kong and Macao lawyers find mainland employers, and facilitate cooperation and communication.
Hong Kong and Macao lawyers still face many different rules and systems to which they have to adjust when practicing on the mainland, and these obstacles will be gradually dealt with, he added.
For instance, legal charges of Hong Kong and Macao lawyers are on an hourly basis, while legal charges for civil and commercial proceedings in Guangdong are billed on a case basis.
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Hong Kong and Macao lawyers who have obtained a GBA certificate can handle civil and commercial litigation cases and civil and commercial nonlitigation legal affairs applicable to mainland laws in the GBA. However, Hong Kong and Macao legal consultants can provide service only for cases applicable to international law or the two SARs’ respective laws.
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