ATTORNEY GENERAL'S CHAMBERS
HONG KONG
13th February, 1970.
Sir James McPetrie, K.C.M.G., O.B.E., Legal Adviser to the Secretary of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office,
Downing Street,
LONDON, S.W.1.
Dear Hamish,
RECEIVED IN
REGISTRY NO.51 18 FEB 1970
HKK14/19
Application for admission by ex
District Judge.
J.T. Williams, who is at present serving as a District Judge, is due to retire from the Bench towards the end of this month.
However, he has informed me that he intends to apply to
the Court for admission to practise at the Bar in Hong Kong.
I am also given to understand that the Committee of the Hong Kong Bar Association will strenuously oppose this application if it is made.
Williams has asked me, unofficially, what my attitude would be towards his application and has indicated that, if I were also disposed to oppose it, he would be unlikely to press the matter.
I have had a brief discussion with Sir Ivo Rigby, who has agreed that it would be useful if I could seek your views. The problem will not be unfamiliar to you, since I believe that you were involved in discussions which took place in the Lord Chancellor's Office some years ago when Mr. Justice Reece, a retiring Puisne Judge in Hong Kong, applied to the Court for a right of limited practice here.
At the time of that application the Full Court suggested, though it was not necessary to decide the point, that it would be opposed to granting to a Supreme Court Judge a full right of practice.
At the other end of the scale, a number of magistrates have left the Bench and entered private practice without any particular opposition being aroused or any special problems arising.
My own feeling is that it would be undesirable to permit District Judges to practise at the Bar here after retirement. If permission were to be given in this case, I think that in the future, as more and more District Judgeships are occupied by local men, it will become a normal practice for a retiring District Judge to expect
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