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Ⅴ. Development Prospects and Strategic Analysis of Hong Kong Legal Practitioners in the GBA

Increasing the participation of Hong Kong/GBA lawyers as people’s assessors or arbitrators is an effective

measure to safeguard people’s rights, having more Hong Kong/GBA lawyers involved in Mainland litigation and
arbitration processes is also conducive to these lawyers gaining a genuine understanding and familiarity with the

Mainland litigation and arbitration procedures.” Some interviewees also suggest increasing the participation of
Hong Kong or GBA lawyers as special mediators and law ascertainment experts.

Even if law firms are hesitant to set up representative offices or engage in partnership associations with
Mainland law firms due to risk and cost considerations, Hong Kong legal practitioners can still enhance their

understanding of the Mainland’s judicial system, legal culture, and business situations by actively participating in
the above-mentioned activities.

Current policies related to legal cooperation in the GBA include the “Outline Development Plan for the
Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao GBA” the “Plan for Comprehensive Deepening Reform and Opening Up of the

Qianhai Shenzhen Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone” (“Qianhai Plan”), “Master Plan for
the Development of the Guangdong-Macao Intensive Cooperation Zone in Hengqin” (“Hengqin Plan”), CEPA,

as well as the Pilot Measures issued by the Guangdong Justice Department and the “Implementation Measures
for Supporting the Gathering of High-end Legal Services in Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong International Legal

District (the Trial)” issued by the Qianhai Administrative Bureau of Shenzhen. From the survey results, Hong
Kong legal practitioners generally consider these regulations reasonable, but there are different opinions on

specific issues. More than half of the surveyed Hong Kong legal practitioners believe that requirements of the
capital investment contribution and its proportion for partnership associations of law firms are reasonable.

However, nearly 43.4% of the respondents consider these requirements too high, potentially making it difficult
for smaller firms to conduct business in the GBA through partnership associations. The vast majority of the

respondents believe that restrictions on handling criminal litigation legal matters, conditions for hiring lawyers
for the partnership associations, enrolment requirements for the GBA Legal Professional Examination, and

difficulty level of the examination are reasonable. However, for the business scope, 18.9% of respondents feel
that the restriction of handling only civil and commercial cases in the nine municipalities in the Mainland is too

narrow.
Restrictions on the capital investment contribution and its proportion, as well as the pilot measures of

opening-up of civil and commercial cases, may be attributed to public policy considerations about maintaining
market order and adopting the principle of gradual opening up. Currently, Hong Kong legal practitioners can first

utilise existing policies to explore the Mainland market and establish good business relationships in the GBA.
If the pilot results show positive outcomes, it may push for further relaxation of restrictions. Hong Kong legal

practitioners should also regularly monitor and seek to understand updates and changes in relevant GBA policies.
This helps them to adjust business strategies promptly to adapt to the Mainland legal environment. When relevant

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