We continued to sharpen our practice on Election Law. On 9 October 2012, on behalf of one of our clients, we successfully applied to the High Court to obtain an order to correct his Election Return in pursuance of the Order of The Honourable Madam Justice Au-Yeung (HCMP1112/2012). The firm’s Election Law team comprises Mr Tommy Tam, Mr Roy Leung (both partners), Mr Alan Wong and Ms Josephine Tang.
We acted for the first respondent in HCAL85/2012 in resisting the petitioner, an incumbent legislator, in his application for extension of time in respect of his lodging an election petition against our client. Lam JA delivered judgment on 5 October 2012 ruling that since here is only one statement pleaded by the petitioner which was not struck out nor conceded, the petitioner’s case has no real prospect of success, the petitioner has no meritorious case to support an application for extension of time and in the interest of justice, the petition was dismissed.
http://cablev.i-cable.com/video/?id=133283&lang
In the judgment on costs published on 28 September 2012, Hon Lam J awarded costs in favour of the firm’s client, the putative respondent in HCAL83&84/2012, against two incumbent legislators, the applicants in the above two High Court Actions. The guiding principle governing the award of costs in Hong Kong in respect of leave application in which a putative respondent appears and successfully resists leave (as in the present case) is well-settled: costs will be awarded only in the unusual circumstances.
Our partner Jeffrey Hung of our Intellectual Property Department has successfully passed the Patent Advanced Paper for the Preparation of Specifications for United Kingdom and Overseas Patents, under the examinations for the registration of Patent Attorneys in the United Kingdom.
Mr. Hung holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering from the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, University of London and a Master of Laws from the University of Birmingham, as well as a patent drafting examination certificate issued by Fédération Internationale des Conseils en Propriété Industrielle.
In HCAL 83 and HCAL 84 of 2012, we successfully acted for the Putative Respondent in opposing the applications by way of judicial review of two former legislators as Applicants in applying for leave of the High Court to challenge the Putative Respondent’s election as the Chief Executive of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. The hearing took two days (12 and 13 July 2012). On 30 July 2012, the Hon Lam J delivered his Judgment refusing to grant leave to the Applicants for their challenge. The case was handled by our partners Tommy Tam and Roy Leung, supported by our trainee solicitor Alan Wong and supervised by our senior partner Peter Sit.
Both our partners Simon Siu and Roy Leung have successfully passed the assessment by the Ministry of Justice in the People’s Republic of China and will be appointed as China Appointed Attesting Officers with effect from August 2012. They will attend the admission ceremony in Shenzhen on 4 August 2012.
Our partner Alex Chan represented the Hong Kong Law Society to give a speech in July 2012 on the topic of “Patients’ Rights and Protection Under the Law” organized by The Society of Rehabilitation & Crime Prevention.
Our partner Roy Leung was invited to attend the 3-days' enhancement course on state affairs for Hong Kong legal professionals at China National School of Administration in Beijing in mid-July 2012. Distinguished speakers included three judges from the Supreme People's Court of the People's Republic of China. The delegation also met with representatives from the Department of Law of the State Council’s Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office and the NPS’s Hong Kong Basic Law Committee.
On June 18 and 19, our Mr. Sit paid visits to 6 Queen’s Counsel in London viz Mr. William Boyce, QC, Mr. Nicholas Purnell, QC, Mr. John Kelsey-Fry, QC, Mr. Jonathan Caplan, QC, Mr. Alexander Cameron, QC and Mr. Patrick Gibbs, QC and understood from them their current practices in UK . Mr. Sit was very impressed with their high standards and professionalism.
Our partner Roy Leung represented the Hong Kong Law Society to give a speech in May 2012 on the topic of “Law on guardianship of minors and matrimonial issues for Mentally Incapacitated Persons” in a professional training workshop organized by Richmond Fellowship of HK which was attended by over 60 social workers and representatives from NGOs.
Sit Fung Kwong & Shum, Xi’an Representative Office has been relocated to 14th Floor, Tower CD, Tang Yan International Center Mansion, No.3 Tangyan Road, Xi'an. Our telephone, facsimile numbers and e-mail address remain unchanged.
Peter Sit and Alex Chan accompanied a total of five witnesses to attend and give evidence at the Select Committee of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, set up to study Mr LEUNG Chun-ying’s Involvement as a Member of the Jury in the West Kowloon Reclamation Concept Plan Competition and Related Issues. Several hearings were conducted by the Select Committee in the months from February to April this year and the report of the Select Committee is expected to be published before 1 July 2012.
