Sebastian Hughes says city’s specialist advocates are often the first port of call to represent clients navigating disputes both regionally and globally

In his 2025 Policy Address, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu announced several welcome initiatives to help strengthen and promote Hong Kong’s legal services, and to support Chinese mainland enterprises to use Hong Kong in expanding their business overseas.

Hong Kong’s legal profession has long played an important role in supporting mainland and international businesses. The city has a unique role to play as the only bilingual jurisdiction in the common law world, strengthened also by its proud history of welcoming practitioners from other common law jurisdictions — those initially trained and qualified to practice in England, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia and elsewhere. Hong Kong is also unique in maintaining a split legal profession, with solicitors customarily representing lay clients directly in both contentious and noncontentious matters, and barristers being retained by solicitors to provide specialist advocacy services and independent advice.

The conventional livery of barristers may be said to be a peculiar historical anomaly — the use of horsehair wigs and black gowns dates from the death of the English monarch, Charles II, in 1685. Yet, at a time when other common law jurisdictions continue to question the relevance of wigs, barristers’ regalia remains enduringly celebrated in popular culture and social media in this part of the world. Wigs of course are not just a novel uniform. Together with bar jackets, white bands and black gowns, they perform an invaluable function in adding solemnity and gravitas to court proceedings, and anonymizing barristers so as to separate the person from their role as a professional advocate and an officer of the court.

As specialist advocates, Hong Kong barristers have an important and unique role to play in supporting local, mainland, and international enterprises in navigating disputes both regionally and globally. In addition to providing independent legal advice and representing lay clients in court hearings in Hong Kong, barristers are often the first port of call to represent local, mainland, and international clients in international arbitration. They are also frequently appointed as arbitrators.

READ MORE: Lam promotes HK’s legal services in Xinjiang to boost ties

Hong Kong is ranked as the third most preferred arbitration seat in the world; and the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (HKIAC) is ranked as the third most preferred arbitral institution in the world. Parties from 53 jurisdictions participated in the 352 arbitrations administered by the HKIAC in 2024. Of these, the top two jurisdictions were Hong Kong and the mainland. This highlights the crucial importance of Hong Kong as a leading center for international and regional arbitration and dispute resolution.

Hong Kong barristers are increasingly sought after to represent parties not only in the city, but also in arbitration matters seated in the mainland or other civil law jurisdictions. Barristers’ skills in cross-examination, honed through experience in the adversarial common law system, are increasingly sought after in international arbitration, including matters governed by mainland law. Their experience in handling multilingual proceedings also stands Hong Kong barristers in good stead where, for example, the language of the arbitration proceedings might be English, but the evidence and witness testimony is in Chinese.

The speed and efficiency with which parties can obtain urgent injunctive or interim relief from the courts in Hong Kong and from HKIAC-appointed tribunals has long been appreciated by mainland lawyers and their clients. This has been strengthened and complemented in recent years by a number of groundbreaking initiatives. This includes the Mainland Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters (Reciprocal Enforcement) Ordinance (implemented in January 2024), which enables simplified, cost-effective and expeditious reciprocal enforcement of civil judgments between Hong Kong and the mainland; and the Arrangement Concerning Mutual Assistance in Court-Ordered Interim Measures in Aid of Arbitral Proceedings (implemented in October 2019), providing for reciprocal court-ordered interim measures in Hong Kong and the mainland in aid of arbitration proceedings seated in both jurisdictions.

Increasing numbers of Hong Kong barristers and solicitors are also qualifying as lawyers in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area under the GBA Legal Professional Examination (implemented in July 2021); and providing invaluable legal advice as consultants to mainland law firms.

The degree of cross-pollination between the common law and civil law systems engendered by all of the above measures is historically unprecedented. This places Hong Kong at the forefront of the development of comity in international disputes.

There are presently more than 1,700 practicing barristers in Hong Kong. Whereas traditionally most barristers in Hong Kong have been graduates of the top law schools in Hong Kong, England, Australia and elsewhere in the common law world, in recent years, the ranks of the bar have been enriched by growing numbers of graduates from the best law schools on the mainland. This demonstrates increasing recognition among the brightest young graduates of the crucial and complementary role that Hong Kong has to play, under the “one country, two systems” framework, in assisting local, international and mainland enterprises expand their business in the region and globally.

The author is a council member of the Hong Kong Bar Association. He practices as a barrister and arbitrator.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.