On 30 April 2016, the partners and colleagues of AllBright, our associated law firm, attended the forum on the asset protection and succession of offshore assets held by Stevenson Wong & Co. Apart from Shanghai, all branches of AllBright participated via the internet. The forum began with the speech given by Mr. Zhu Lin Hai, the senior partner of AllBright.

Our partner Mr. Eric Lui, the Hong Kong senior partner, explained the common risk in asset protection, tools and strategies used in planning, basic concept of offshore trust and its practice. He also deeply illustrated the legal issues of offshore trust and share right trust. Also we invited joint venture partner of AllBright and lawyer from different cities in China to attend our forum on asset protection at Shanghai Tower. Ms. Connie Yeung the Business Development Supervisor and Zita Huang, the Business Development Manager explained how to protected assets through the establishment of family trust and benefits of such arrangements and illustrated the related legal issues.

Participants found the sharing useful and had discussions about the differences between PRC and foreign trust law. The forum was well received and attenders found the sharing both interesting and practical.

Please contact our Eric Lui for any enquiries or further information about this event.

From 21 April 2016 to 24 April 2016, our partner Mr. Eric Lui visited Taiwan in his capacity as a member of the Greater China Legal Affairs Committee of the Law Society of Hong Kong. During the stay, he visited the Hong Kong Economic Trade and Cultural Office and the Mainland Affairs Council in Taiwan. Mr. Lui had the opportunity to network and engage in activities organized by the Taiwan Bar Association. In addition, The Law Society of Hong Kong held a seminar on the Limited Liability Partnership under the Legal Practitioners Ordinance for Hong Kong Law Firms.

Please contact our Mr. Eric Lui for any enquiries or further information about this event.

On 21 April 2016, our partner Ms. Heidi Chui attended 5th Annual Global Competition Law Summit held by Wolters Kluwer. Practitioners and experts working in the field of competition law, including Ms. Rose Webb, the Chief Executive Officer of the Competition Commission, joined as speakers in the Summit.

As competition law is a new piece of law in Hong Kong, its enforcement and practical experience in other jurisdictions are invaluable to legal practitioners here in Hong Kong. In the Summit, therefore, the implementation of competition law in other jurisdictions, such as mainland China, the European Union and Japan, was explored. Given the increasing development of cross-border transactions between Hong Kong and mainland China, weight has been put on China’s competition law in the Summit such that topics like “Cartels and other antitrust investigation in China” were particularly covered. Other competition law concepts such as resale price maintenance (“RPM”) were elaborated. Some new cases in competition law around the globe were also discussed, so that the participants of the Summit can get the up-to-dated information on the recent development of this area of law.

Please contact our Ms. Heidi Chui for any enquiries or further information about this event.

On 21 April 2016, our partner Mr. Stephen Wong gave a presentation in a seminar on a topic of “How to handle SFC’s investigation” organized by Hong Kong Securities & Futures Employee Union. The seminar was well attended by members in securities and futures industry.

Please contact our Mr. Stephen Wong for any enquiries or further information about this event.

Stevenson, Wong & Co. assisted A.Plus Group Holdings Limited (8251.hk) in its initial public offering on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited

SW acted as the legal advisers to A.Plus Group Holdings Limited (Stock Code: 8251), a company principally engaged in providing financial printing services in Hong Kong including typesetting, design, translation, printing and delivery services, in its initial public offering by way of placing on the Growth Enterprise Market of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (the “Stock Exchange”).

100 million shares of A.Plus Group Holdings Limited were placed and the final placing price was HK$0.30 per placing share. The shares were listed on the Stock Exchange on 19 April 2016.

Please contact our Mr. Hank Lo or Ms. Cornelia Chu for any enquiries or further information about this transaction.

In Super Worth International Ltd v Commissioner of ICAC CACV 168/2015, the Plaintiffs tried to argue that some documents seized by the ICAC were subject to legal professional privilege.

At trial, the Court of First Instance rejected this argument on the ground that those documents fell within the crime/fraud exception. It was held that those documents were aimed to facilitating the commission of a crime. However, the trial court refused to determine two outstanding issues:-

(i) whether the court should apply the lex fori (laws of the forum) or the lex causae (cause for the law) in determining legal privilege claims; and

(ii) whether legal privilege could extend to legal advice given by non-lawyers.

On appeal, the two outstanding issues were raised.

The Applicable Law

The documents concerned were from accountants in New Zealand. Therefore, it was argued that whether the law of Hong Kong, where the proceedings took place, or the law of New Zealand, where the documents originated, should be applied.

While the Court of Appeal acknowledged that the legal professional privilege is a substantive right, “it is a right originating in the public interest and its limits are informed by the domestic considerations pertaining to such public interest”. The Court further observed that “the rationale for [legal professional privilege] is not the expectation of the client. It is a facet of the rule of law and in Hong Kong the relevant legal policy for determining the limits of [legal professional privilege] when documents are seized or discovery is sought for proceedings in Hong Kong is Hong Kong law”.

Legal Privilege covering non-lawyers’ advice?

The Plaintiffs also contended that advice on tax laws given by accountants should be covered by legal professional privilege.

The Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the Supreme Court in the United Kingdom in R (Prudential plc) v Special Commissioner of Income Tax [2013] UKSC 1 rejected this argument because:-

(i) The current ambit of legal professional privilege is “a clear, readily understood and easily applied guideline”. Extending the law of legal professional privilege to cover legal advice given by non-lawyers will “remove that clarity, and leave the law in a state of real uncertainty”;
(ii) The question of whether to expand the scope of legal professional privilege should be left to the legislature instead of the judiciary.

Crime/Fraud Exception

The Court of Appeal dismissed the Court of First Instance’s finding, holding that the contents of the documents in question did not have anything to do with any criminal offence. The Court of Appeal particularly emphasized that the crime/fraud exception should not be applied too widely.

Conclusion

The legal professional privilege only applies to confidential communication between a qualified lawyer and a client. Such privilege does not extend to communication between a non-lawyer (in this case, an accountant) and a client despite the fact that the communication involves legal advice.