Pursuant to the Legal Practitioners Ordinance (Cap. 159) (“LPO”), only a fit and proper person to be a barrister or a solicitor should be admitted as a barrister or a solicitor by the Court. The Secretary for Justice (“SJ”), being a party to the admission proceedings, plays an important role in assisting the Court to assess applications for admission as barristers and solicitors, namely, whether an applicant for admission is “a fit and proper person” to be a barrister or solicitor under the LPO.

To ensure that SJ continues to properly discharge the responsibilities entrusted upon him, the arrangement outlined below will be implemented with effect from 1 March 2026:-

All applicants for admission as barristers under section 27(1) of the LPO and solicitors under section 4(1) of the LPO are required to make a statutory declaration, in the prescribed form, in accordance with the Oaths and Declaration Ordinance (Cap. 11) and serve the same on SJ along with their admissions papers. After considering all the admission papers, the statutory declaration and supplemental information (if any), SJ will indicate his position to the admission application prior to the admission hearing.

The scope of information required to be provided in the statutory declaration generally corresponds with that currently made available to the Hong Kong Law Society for admission as solicitors and/or the Hong Kong Bar Association for admission as barristers. It covers information under the following categories:

1. criminal offence(s), inclusive of criminal conviction(s) and charge(s) with the offence(s);
2. disciplinary offence(s), inclusive of being guilty of and/or charged with the same;
3. records of finding of dishonesty by institute at which the applicants completed their academic and professional stages of legal education;
4. pending and/or concluded investigations by any statutory tribunal;
5. bankruptcy order and/or pending bankruptcy proceedings;
6. director disqualification order and/or pending director disqualification proceedings; and
7. voluntary arrangement with creditors.

The form of the statutory declaration can be downloaded here or at https://www.doj.gov.hk/en/our_legal_system/other_useful_info.html under the Tab of “Legal Profession”. The completed form together with all papers for admission should then be served on the SJ, addressing to the Civil Division, Department of Justice, 6/F, Main and East Wing, Justice Place, 18 Lower Albert Road, Central, Hong Kong.

The arrangement applies to all applications for admission as barristers or solicitors with their Notices of Motion filed with the Court on or after 1 March 2026.

attachment – Proforma Statutory Declaration