foreign lawyers which were allowed to practise in Hong Kong under administrative arrangements dating back to 1972. "Foreign" lawyers are defined as lawyers who are not qualified for admission to practise either in Hong Kong or in the UK. but have been permitted after vetting by the Law Society and after signing an undertaking to establish offices in Hong Kong and to advise on the law of the jurisdictions in which they are qualified. About 30 such firms (many very prominent names in their field specialising in international commercial matters) now operate in Hong Kong and have the USA, Bermuda, Canada, Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, or the Philippines as their home base. About one in three lawyers working in the Government Legal Department incidentally are also qualified abroad and principally come from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Zimbabwe, or are Hong Kong Chinese who qualified in Australia only.
The vehernence of the Law Society's attacks on the government's proposals (which include the idea to regulate the admission of foreign law firms in future through a statutory scheme under the control of the Chief Justice) to allow local lawyers to work in such firms, has surprised many and been described as "the politics of greed" to protect an existing monopoly of legal services. 7 have no brief to go into battle for the interests of foreign lawyers to do business in Hong Kong, but I must say that as someone involved in international business, and convinced of the need for Hong Kong to foster its reputation as an international market place and service centre for its economic and political survival as ar autonomous entity, I find the Law Society's position not only unconvincing but outright dangerous. Particularly so, since the Law Society appears to have persuaded a number of other professional bodies to support it in its campaign to discredit government's motives and forectall what one can only describe as sensible and reasonable suggestions to match the demand for integrated multinational services with a suitable supply under controlled conditions. Why accountants, engineers or doctors should get on the bandwagon of protectionism in light of what is happening in their own fields in other parts of the world, and why accountants in particular, who increasingly also deal with multinational clients on a global basis and shift employees and partners around their various national offices, should become part of an effort to restrict the mobility of professionals and to make the provision of their services more cumbersome (and thus likely more time-consuming and costly) escapes me. Even the Japanese, not normally renowned for their willingness to open markets to foreigners, have seen fit to loosen restrictions on foreign law firms since 1987 under the Foreign Attorney Law, and Tokyo now also has about 30 foreign firms
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