Eligible lawyers from the Hong Kong and Macao administrative regions will be able to practice in the nine Chinese mainland cities of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area from Tuesday after the country’s top legislature revised the relevant law.

The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress passed amendments on Friday to the Lawyers Law of the People’s Republic of China, with effect from Sept 1.

The HKSAR’s Department of Justice welcomed the move, saying it has made a clear provision for the 11-city-cluster Greater Bay Area’s lawyers’ program by providing the legal basis to conduct relevant work in respect of the regularization of the practice regime.

Article 62 of the amended law states that Hong and Macao SAR legal practitioners who’ve passed the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Legal Professional Examination administered by the State Council’s judicial administration department and who've obtained a mainland practice qualification, can practice in stipulated areas of law in the Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Foshan, Huizhou, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Jiangmen and Zhaoqing municipalities of Guangdong province.

The State Council’s judicial administration department also laid out enrolment requirements for the examination, application procedures for lawyers to practice, and the scope of practice allowed.

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Paul Lam Ting-kwok, secretary for justice of the HKSAR, expressed his sincere gratitude to mainland departments, such as the Ministry of Justice, for their strong support for the development of the bay area's lawyers' scheme.

“After the NPCSC authorized the State Council to conduct a pilot program for GBA lawyers, the professional team of GBA lawyers has been growing continuously, contributing efforts to the country's building of the rule of law,” he said.

Pointing out that the nation’s 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30) outline calls for deepening the construction of the Greater Bay Area and accelerating the development of an international first-class bay area, he said lawyers in the region with dual practice qualifications can now facilitate the interfaces of mechanisms and regulatory frameworks and proactively integrate into and contribute to the overall national development.

The NPC Standing Committee decided in August 2020 to authorize the State Council to conduct a pilot program for a period of three years that would have expired in October 2023. However, the program was extended to Oct 4 this year.

By June this year, more than 650 Hong Kong and Macao lawyers had obtained the lawyer’s license (GBA), enabling them  to provide legal services in the bay area’s  nine mainland municipalities on specified civil and commercial matters in which mainland laws apply. GBA lawyers currently appear in court as litigation representatives in the nine mainland GBA municipalities and take up GBA arbitration cases.

In a statement, Hong Kong’s Department of Justice said on Saturday it will continue to maintain close contact with mainland authorities, such as the Ministry of Justice and Guangdong’s Department of Justice, in order to support and complement work to regularize the GBA lawyers’ program.