Mr Kumar Ramanathan, SC, Chairman, Hong Kong Bar Association

Mr Kumar Ramanathan, SC,
Chairman, Hong Kong Bar Association

Born in Penang, Malaysia and educated around South East Asia, including Kuala Lumpur, Kota Kinabalu and Singapore until arrival in Hong Kong in 1968. Been in Hong Kong ever since.

Educated in St Joseph’s College until 1973, when enrolled to study law at University of Hong Kong. Graduated in 1976 with Honours and completed PCLL in 1977.

Admitted to the Bar in 1978 and has been engaged in a mixed practice undertaking both criminal and civil work. However over the last 20 years the focus of his practice has principally been in the field of Insurance Law, Personal Injuries and Medical Negligence. He is recognised as a pre-eminent specialist in those areas. He also undertakes a variety of Commercial Law work.

Sat as Deputy District Judge in 1996 and was a member of the Barristers’ Disciplinary Tribunal for 10 years between 1995 and 2005. He has been a member of the Inland Revenue Board of Review since 2004, and is a current Chairman of the Appeal Tribunal Panel (Buildings Ordinance). He is also a Chairman of the Disciplinary Tribunal of the Hong Kong Institute of Chartered Public Accountants. He was a Chairman of the Bar’s Special Committee on Personal Injuries between 2010 and 2012.

He is the representative of the Hong Kong Bar Association in the Chief Justice’s Monitoring Committee on the Civil Justice Reforms.

He was appointed Senior Counsel in 2009. He has been the Chairman of the Hong Kong Bar Association since 2011. He is a CEDR accredited Mediator since 2009 and has been asked to be a Mediator in a number of cases, including recently successfully mediating a difficult commercial/insurance related matter. He also undertakes arbitration work and recently successfully concluded a cross-border arbitration dispute.

He has appeared at all levels of the Courts in Hong Kong.

He is married with 4 adult children.