Our Senior Partner Mr. Peter Sit & our Partners Mr. Joseph Wong and Ms. Jenny Wong become the second batch of Hong Kong lawyers qualified to practise in the Greater Bay Area (“GBA”). After passing the written qualifying examination in June 2022, all of them proceeded to attend the training courses organised by the School of Lawyer of the South China Normal University in all weekends for almost 4 months, and passed the various assessments by Guangdong Lawyers Association in August 2023. Following this accreditation, they are qualified to obtain a practising certificate and will be able to provide legal services on specified civil and commercial matters concerning PRC laws as a qualified GBA lawyer.
SFKS’s China Practice Group has a long history of providing legal supports to clients on a wide spectrum of civil and commercial matters in Mainland China. Their GBA qualification (together with our Partner Mr. Roy Leung, who has already obtained the practicing certificate in GBA) will further enhance our capability in providing quality services to clients in an efficient manner. We are committed to strengthening our communication with the legal professionals in Mainland China, and contributing to the modernisation and development of the legal profession in GBA.
We are pleased to announce that our Associate Ricky Cheung passed the third Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) Legal Professional Examination (“GBA Exam”) held on 27 May 2023. He will have to complete the training and pass the interview assessment before he will be allowed to obtain the relevant lawyer’s practice certificate and provide Mainland legal services in the nine Mainland municipalities in GBA on specified civil and commercial matters (including contentious and non-contentious matters) to which Mainland laws apply.
Since 2021, 5 lawyers in our firm have passed the GBA Exam for three consecutive years.
We were appointed as the panel firm of solicitors for the Protection of Wages on Insolvency Fund Board in November 2022 and have assisted in numerous cases regarding petitioning for winding-up or bankruptcy against employers which were insolvent or in creditors’ voluntary liquidation, for expediting the disbursement of ex-gratia payments to affected employees under statutory regime through the filing of winding-up or bankruptcy petitions, and/or facilitating early repayment on outstanding payments.
We shall continue to contribute in public service with our expertise in insolvency and employment legal practice.
We hosted a celebration party for the retirement of our former Partner Mr. Alex Chan, who has become our Consultant, and the promotion of our Ms. Jenny Wong as our new Partner. Again, we congratulate Alex and Jenny for their success, and express our sincere gratitude to our honourable guests from the legal profession for their attendances and ongoing support to Alex, Jenny and us.
The Partners of Sit, Fung, Kwong & Shum announce that :-
Further to the favourable ruling on liability by the arbitral tribunal in September 2021, we have recently won the second battle of the war by obtaining a favourable ruling on relief and award on various issues regarding modes of relief and quantification of damages against various BVI and PRC respondents for the same Mainland client in an arbitration at the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre.
The arbitral tribunal previously ruled in our client’s favour that the principal debtor failed to redeem the subject shares in the sum of around US$10,000,000 and a guarantor is jointly liable for such default. The arbitral tribunal was then invited to rule on whether specific performance is an appropriate relief for this matter. Parties argued extensively on whether there is sufficient market demand and marketability for the subject shares, whether damages are sufficient to compensate our client, practicability on carrying out the order for specific performance and the validity of a clause relating to damages for delay in performance. The arbitral tribunal eventually ruled in favour of almost all of our arguments and decided that specific performance is an appropriate relief, and adopted the practical mechanism of specific performance proposed by our firm. The arbitral tribunal also made our desired award that the respondents shall pay the requisite redemption fee and damages for delay in performance, with costs payable to our client.
The case was handled by our litigation partner Mr. Roy Leung with the assistance of our litigation associate Mr. Alan So. The arbitration was conducted in Chinese and Putonghua, and virtual hearing facilities were used for some witnesses in the PRC in giving evidence. As in many other cross-border arbitrations and litigations, we worked seamlessly with our Mainland client team and the PRC lawyer.
Our Mr. Mathew Liu was invited to give a seminar talk with licensed professionals of YF Life Insurance International Limited on The Preparation of our Last Journeys: The Planning of Wills and Enduring Powers of Attorney (“EPOAs”).
EPOAs seek to make assets accessible in a protected manner to endure hardships of mental incapacitation, such as severe dementia and geriatric syndromes. Meanwhile, wills reflect testators’ design and priorities on inheritance of estates. Both instruments are essential from private wealth management perspectives.
Our firm provides a wide range of services on private wealth management. Besides wills and EPOAs, our Trust Team handles non-contentious probate applications as well as trust–related and tax-related matters. Assistance on real property successions is joined by our Conveyancing Department. Our Dispute Resolution Department has substantial experience in contentious probate applications, disputes on executors’ misconducts and actions for safeguarding the rights of the beneficiaries. In passing, our firm has also acted for and advised leading insurance companies and family office. Above all, we are dedicated to long-term relationship with corporate and individual clients and provide support across different stages of life.
We congratulate our Consultant Ms. Sylvia Siu JP for her appointment as a specially-invited mediator in the Intermediate People’s Court of Dongguan City of Guangdong Province (“Dongguan Intermediate Court”).
Dongguan Intermediate Court appointed 14 mediators for providing professional services on disputes involving the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao. In a seminar held by Dongguan Intermediate Court on 16 May 2023, Ms. Siu shared her experience that in cross-region disputes, compared with litigation which involves complicated process in light of the different applicable laws and procedures among the regions, mediation would be more effective for restoring parties’ relationships.
Among the 14 specially-invited mediators, all with a variety of expertise in law, commercial arbitration, commercial mediation and business operations, Ms. Siu expressed the importance of the collaborated mission to encourage mediation in cities in the Mainland through their professional expertise and experience.
Our Consultant Ms. Sylvia Siu JP was one of the speakers at the first Summit of Asia Pacific Centre for Arbitration and Mediation (APCAM) held in New Delhi, India on 6th and 7th May 2023.
The Summit discussed positioning Asia-Pacific in the global ADR environment, integrating for growth through professional cooperation, as well as empowering cultural and social diversity. In a forum session chaired by a Judge in the Supreme Court of India Ms. Siu together with panelists from India, South Korea, Malaysia and Hong Kong, shared on “Achieving Gender Equality in ADR”. See the list of speakers with photos here.
Ms. Siu was elected as a co-Vice Chairperson of APCAM, comprising 9 ADR institutes from various Asian regions. Amongst common law lawyers, Ms. Siu is devoted to promoting Hong Kong’s important role as the international access to Chinese opportunities through the Belt and Road Initiatives and the Greater Bay Region, under the One Country Two Systems regime.
We are representing three of the defendants in the case HCCC 51 of 2022. The defendants are subsidiaries of a Hong Kong listed company which has been wound up by the court. They are being charged with (i) conspiracy to print, publish, sell, offer for sale, distribute, display and/or reproduce seditious publications, and (ii) conspiracy to commit collusion with a foreign country or with external elements to endanger national security.
The case has been listed for trial before a panel of three judges of the Court of First Instance.
Our team is led by our partner Mr Tommy Tam and assisted by associates Mr Ricky Cheung and Mr Alan So, and trainee solicitors.
Hong Kong Council of Social Services has accepted us as their legal service provider for social housing program for the period of one year. The team serving on the program will include our Mr. Sit, Mr. Sidney Ho(Partner), Mr. Andrew Li(Associate) and several trainee solicitors.
Our firm represented the 2nd Defendant (the Appellant) in a civil appeal (Shanghai Commercial Bank Ltd v. Lee Yau Tak and Another,CACV576/2021).
In the District Court, the Bank claimed by way of mortgagee action for possession of the former matrimonial home of the Appellant and her ex-husband, which was acquired in the ex-husband’s sole name and mortgaged in favour of the Bank. Judgment was granted in the District Court in favour of the Bank and the Appellant’s claim for declaration of beneficial ownership in the property was rejected.
The appeal to the Court of Appeal was allowed on the following grounds:-
(1) the Judge should not have summarily determined against our client on the issue of whether she had a beneficial interest in the property, but should have held that she had produced sufficient evidence for this issue to be tried; and
(2) the Judge erred in holding that even if our client had a beneficial interest in the property and thus had a right to redeem the mortgage, the outcome of the case would inevitably be the same given that our client did not have any right to require the ex-husband’s trustees-in-bankruptcy to transfer the right of redemption to her, and had failed to show that she had sufficient financial means to redeem the mortgage.
Our team for this case was led by our partner, Mr. Tommy Tam, and assisted by our Senior Associate Ms. Jenny Wong and our trainee solicitor Miss Crystal Yip.
