The silk road: duties and responsibilities of Hong Kong’s senior counsel

To many, senior counsel appear to be an oddity of an antiquated system, reinforced visually by men and women dressed in funny wigs and medieval garb marching in an official procession together with all the judges at the Opening of the Legal Year in January each year. There are only 104 of them in Hong Kong – out of a total population of more than 1,700 barristers. What makes senior counsel special, and are they worth that special status? First, some basic facts about senior counsel. It is a...