Copied from Hong Kong Lawyer "Cover Story"  (Click Here）

It has been a few months since Ambrose Lam was elected a member of The Legislative Council (LegCo) of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and he already has a few things high up on his list of priorities. Some might be calling the LegCo election of this ex-president of The Law Society of Hong Kong a “comeback,” after he resigned from the latter role in 2014, but Lam himself sees the two positions as separate. “The Law Society is to regulate its member to serve the public in a professional manner while the major responsibility of the LegCo is to monitor the government’s service and policy for the interest of the public,” notes Lam.

That said, he still admits some similarities exist, one of which is that he serves the same group of people - legal professionals – armed with his knowledge and experience gained through his many years in the legal industry.

Differences and similarities aside, Lam has always, in his own words, been involved in “serving the legal community.” Even when he resigned from The Law Society role, Lam never felt his passion had diminished. After all, practising law has been a dream for him from a very young age. In the seven years that passed, Lam resumed his practice as a solicitor, established his own firm, Ambrose Lam & Co, and grew it into a multi-practice law firm with a couple of notable mergers along the way.

And now, as a member of LegCo, his plans include helping Hong Kong lawyers expand their practice, seizing opportunities in Mainland China, and endorsing smarter and more efficient ways of conducting court hearings. Each item holds significant meaning to him and, as he believes, they will prove just as useful for legal practitioners in Hong Kong.

“My goal is to make local practitioners and law firms more competitive worldwide, help train up their legal skills to meet the new business environment in Hong Kong, help to ride on the fast train of the country’s growing economy and expand the scope of practice areas of local practitioners,” Lam says.

Embracing Emerging Areas

Green economy, marine, and aviation are the three practice areas that Lam believes will help expand the practice scope for Hong Kong lawyers and “put the profession on the fast train of our country’s long-term development.” He points out that these areas were referred to in the Central Government’s policies for Hong Kong, and are expected to not just benefit legal professionals, but also support the social and economic well-being of the city in the long term.

He takes the green economy as an example. It is a part of business that is growing globally, and Lam sees the urgent need for local solicitors to get trained and learn from foreign lawyers who already possess extensive experience in this field.

Lam says that back in 2013, the green bonds market was listed largely in Luxemburg and at that time he had arranged with an ex-president of the Luxemburg Law Society for a few young lawyers from Hong Kong to be trained in this emerging field for six months at recommended foreign law firms.

“For acquiring deep learning, one or two weeks is just useless. We need to know in detail the whole system of the bond market. Why is it listed in Luxemburg? Why is there no other market like this? If our local practitioners can have the time to learn in this proper atmosphere and figure these questions out, then they can bring the skills back home and teach other lawyers,” Lam says.

In addition to training, Lam also mentions that the government should help lawyers by sharing information. “Actually, the government has a lot of information and has been doing a lot of things about green economy,” Lam adds.

Learning from foreign lawyers is also one of the strategies that Lam has for helping Hong Kong lawyers expand their practices in aviation. In this case, the country to learn from is South Africa. “Many aviation experts reside there because of the significant number of aircraft registered there,” says Lam.

“We can send lawyers there as I have a good connection with the Lex Africa Association and some renowned law firms in South Africa. We can make that kind of arrangement,” he adds.

Marine is another area that Lam believes lawyers in Hong Kong should further expand their practice in. While London remains to be the centre of marine litigation and arbitration cases, Lam believes that Hong Kong lawyers should explore opportunities in this field, as the market for container shipping in Mainland China is flourishing and, more importantly, is so close to Hong Kong. What’s more, it is an area that is gaining increasing policy support from both the Hong Kong and Central governments.

Opportunities in Mainland China

Before Lam opened Ambrose Lam & Co, which operates in association with Grandall Law Firm, one of the largest nationwide law firms, he needed to spend three days per week working in Mainland China, giving him a close look at this market with great potential.

“Many international commercial contracts between China and the world use Hong Kong jurisdiction and arbitration. This is a big business opportunity for Hong Kong lawyers,” Lam says.

To seize the opportunity, Lam hopes to help local practitioners grow their networks in the Mainland in order to develop the market and make use of the Central Government’s policies such as “Belt and Road Initiative”, the 14th Five Year Plan, the Qianhai policy as well as opportunites in the Greater Bay Area.

“The Greater Bay Area is a market of eighty million people, a population that is ten times of Hong Kong. Guangdong Province’s economic size in terms of GDP is bigger than Canada, Australia, or Russia. As part of the GBA, Hong Kong cannot let this big market opportunity slip away,” he says.

The market is flourishing, but it will not come to lawyers itself – it needs to be earned as Lam stresses on the lawyers’ own initiative and willingness to open up to the market and proactively grab opportunities.

“Unlike twenty or thirty years ago, we lawyers today are like commercial people now. You need to know how to promote yourself, be proactive and dare to reach out,” shares Lam. He views lawyers from Mainland China as experts in this aspect. According to Lam, they know how to make themselves be known.

“They spend time learning Hong Kong laws, and they understand the system very well, but I don’t find it the other way around,” Lam points out and suggests Hong Kong lawyers increase their knowledge of PRC laws and learn more new skills.

“We are common law lawyers, and since the capital market largely follows the common law, it’s actually easier for us to understand new stuff,” Lam says.

Going Electronic

Another thing that Lam regards as a major difference between Hong Kong and Mainland China is the digitalisation of courts. In fact, the contrast is not just a result of comparing with Mainland China, as Lam shares that when working in other countries, he always feels how much Hong Kong is lagging when it comes to implementing technology to government processes.

“Back in 2000, I have seen how the e-filing worked in courts in Singapore; then in 2012 I went to Dubai Financial Centre and was shown how a party in a case can have access to all the papers via an online system; seven years ago, I went to Mainland China and saw their system, using which all the words would come out on the screen automatically when a lawyer or a party submitted evidence,” shares Lam. And much to his disappointment, the progress is working slowly in Hong Kong. In July last year, a pilot scheme on e-filing was carried out, but it seems to have stopped there.

“I will monitor the automation of the Judiciary, which is high on my list amongst many other things,” Lam says.

Livelihood matters such as housing are also among Lam’s areas of focus. He plans to work towards making the law easier for developers to acquire land to develop residential property, working with other LegCo members to make the government consolidate various bureaus to make development plan decisions more efficient, supporting all good policy and legal bills for housing development, and also expressing views from the perspective of a legal professional.

“The main purpose for this is not only to benefit the legal setup but also for the public good,” explains Lam.

Together For a Shared Future

Although Lam’s resignation from the role of President of The Law Society was seven years ago, the environment in Hong Kong continues to remain tense. As a result, Lam’s return to the public spotlight is raising some eyebrows, but the man himself does not appear to be particularly fazed by the attention, and instead is looking to serve society.

“The legislature in the past was overly focused on politics and power struggles but failed to listen to the genuine concerns of the general public and different sectors of the society about how Hong Kong can be improved. Let me remind you that the self-sustenance of Hong Kong is encouraged by the Central Government as stated in the Basic Law. Thus, we should demonstrate our ability to fix our own problems effectively and efficiently,” Lam says.

Lam has been gathering views and opinions from various legal associations while also sharing with them the legal and social issues that the LegCo is currently addressing. In fact, during his election, he had been communicating with lawyers of different kinds through telephone calls and letters, and attending forums organised by various associations. Whenever he encountered an issue that he believed concerned lawyers, such as payment arrangements for property transactions, he would get in touch with the relevant stakeholders and ask for their opinions. In his eyes, this is how he can cooperate with the legal sector.

“I encourage more communication and welcome any lawyers to get in touch with me to discuss my works. I shall do my best to serve with sincerity and have my listening ears to reduce differences and misunderstandings in order to earn their support,” Lam says. “Solidarity is the only option left for the legal profession in Hong Kong to stay together for a shared prosperous future.” 

(Kriten Liu, Hong Kong Lawyer "Cover Story", March 2022)