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

policies are introduced or modified, Hong Kong legal practitioners can actively participate in public consultation

to express their opinions and suggestions. This is an effective way to shape future policy directions that better
meet practitioners’ needs.

Another consideration may be to provide targeted new legal service training for GBA lawyers, especially in
areas such as financial technology, intellectual property (including artworks trading), and maritime law. These

are highly specialised fields. For instance, as a rapidly developing area, financial technology involves not only
the integration of traditional financial services and information technology, but also the application of emerging

technologies such as blockchain, artificial intelligence, and big data. The application of these technologies has
brought revolutionary changes to the financial industry and posed new requirements for legal services. With the

globalisation of the art market and the development of E-commerce, the legal issues involved in the trading of
artworks have become increasingly complicated, including copyright, ownership, authentication, and import

and export issues. The professional knowledge and capability of lawyers in this field are directly related to the
security and efficiency of artwork trading. Maritime law, as an important traditional field, has seen a continuous

increase in demand with the development of global trade and the growth of international maritime transport.
Providing these targeted new legal service trainings for GBA lawyers can not only enhance their professional

skills and service levels, but also promote the overall development and international competitiveness of the legal
service industry in both regions. This will help to build a more open, professional, and efficient legal service

market, thereby providing higher quality legal services to clients in the GBA and globally.

5.2.5 Creating new cooperation modes

When asked about the main difficulties in collaborating with Mainland law firms, the obstacles and

concerns expressed by the interviewed Hong Kong practitioners are the hesitation caused by comprehensive
consideration of the market environments in both regions, such as having a law firm of too small a scale

(33.9%), lack of understanding of Mainland legal operations (39.7%), and the belief that setting up offices or
partnership associations has little significance while other forms of cooperation can achieve the same results

(35.9%). However, some difficulties stem from the restrictions brought about by current collaboration policies,
including high operational costs of opening offices or partnership associations (30.2%), insufficient openness of

the Mainland legal service industry (26.4%), and the inability to balance practices in both regions (as a Hong
Kong lawyer who obtains qualifications in the GBA needs to resign from the representative office or partnership

association before joining a Mainland law firm) (24.5%). Entrance thresholds are also perceived as being too
high (18.9%).

In response to this phenomenon, relevant authorities can also modify regulations and appropriately relax

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