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He did not believe entrants to the legal profession would be dissuaded from joining the Bar if they could acquire extended rights of audience as solicitors.
"The Bar offers the opportunity to undertake consultancy work on a referral basis and the freedom to run your own practice as you wish, whereas a person who joins a solicitor's firm would only be able to do the work assigned to him by the firm's partners.
"A barrister acquires unlimited rights of audience after completing a year's training known as pupillage, whereas a solicitor would need to have at least five years' experience, including traineeship, before he or she becomes eligible even to apply for such rights," he said.
As to the doubts cast by the Bar Association on the cost-effectiveness of solicitors' advocacy services, Mr Fung said the answer had to be that in certain cases, they would be; in other cases, no.
"This is what competition and a free market is all about," he said.
On abolition of the system of scale fees for conveyancing work, Mr Fung pointed out that there were a number of advantages but also significant disadvantages in the system.
"In particular, the absence of price competition means that solicitors have no incentive to be cost-efficient. Moreover, the fees charged in particular cases may not properly reflect the work done or the time taken to do it," he said.
The Law Society had argued that abolition of scale fees would lead to an unseemly and debilitating price-war, resulting in a reduction in the quality of conveyancing work, and pointed to the experience in England where claims of negligent conveyancing work have increased in recent years.
Mr Fung responded: "The quality of conveyancing work is a matter of professional standards.
"Lawyers in Hong Kong are given a monopoly over conveyancing work on the basis that they have the necessary professional competence and standards, and a professional body to discipline those who fail to meet those standards.
"How can those lawyers than say that consumers must pay artificially fixed fees in order to be assured of quality work?"
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