The Chief Justice of Hong Kong, Andrew Cheung, has announced that Brick Court silk, Charles Hollander KC, will be appointed as a Senior Counsel – the Hong Kong equivalent of King’s Counsel – in May as part of a six-barrister appointment round.
Hollander practises from Temple Chambers in Hong Kong in addition to his principal practice in London. He was called to the Hong Kong Bar as a full member of that chambers after undertaking pupillage in 2015, acting in a range of commercial, chancery, conflicts of laws and civil fraud cases, as well as arbitrations before Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre.
His recent cases in Hong Kong include closely watched High Court proceedings lasting six weeks in 2024 in which he acted as a junior, instructed by HFW, for family members who successfully set aside tycoon Lim Por Yen’s will.
Last September, he appeared in a Court of Final Appeal (CFA) case, in a professional negligence case involving PwC that related to audit papers located in China, where Chinese regulations prevented them from being transferred to Hong Kong – a common situation in cross-border Mainland proceedings.
Hollander was led by Abraham Chan SC, as instructed by name partner, Jason Karas of Karas So, and appeared against Benjamin Yu SC and Astina Au, instructed by RPC. The judgment was hailed as an important landmark in cross-border discovery.
Hollander has also appeared in an array of offshore jurisdictions with appellate connections to London’s Privy Council, including Cayman, Bermuda, the Bahamas, the BVI, Gibraltar and Brunei, often in relation to disputes involving Asian investors.
He sits as a Deputy High Court Judge in the Commercial Court and the Chancery Division, having served on the Bar Standards Board from 2006 to 2011, during which time he chaired its Standards Committee.
Brick Court has good links to Hong Kong, with Des Voeux Chambers’ Johnny Mok SC and Geoffrey Ma, former chief justice of the CFA, both currently serving as door tenants. Ma also acts as an arbitrator and mediator at the set, and is a former head of Temple Chambers.
Hollander joins fellow Temple Chambers member, Charlie Manzoni KC SC, of 39 Essex Chambers, as one of the very few dual-qualified barristers to take silk in both jurisdictions, which is an increasingly rare occurrence since the handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997.
Blackstone Chambers’ Tim Parker SC, who is a junior barrister in England and Wales, was the last dual-qualified barrister actively practising in both jurisdictions to take silk in Hong Kong. He is also a member of Temple Chambers, as is Duxton Hill Chambers’ Jern-Fei Ng KC, as an arbitrator member.
Also announced for elevation to the inner Bar was Bonnie Cheng, who joined Temple Chambers in 2011, alongside construction barrister Calvin Cheuk of Des Voeux Chambers, civil litigation and clinical negligence specialist Martin Wong of Parkside Chambers, family barrister Eugene Yim of Bernacchi Chambers, and serious crime barrister Charles Chan, the co-founder of Courtyard Chambers.
Hollander, along with the five other nominees, will be sworn in as a silk at a ceremony at the CFA in May; four Brick Court tenants took silk in London this March at the equivalent ceremony: Sarah Love KC, Laura Newton KC, Malcolm Birdling KC and David Bailey KC.
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