'Troubled Law Firm's Account Still Being Sorted Out'

The Law Society says an agent it appointed to intervene into a law firm found to have misappropriated client funds is still trying to find out the total sum of money involved in the case.

The society used its statutory powers to shut down Wong, Fung and co. on December 24.

At a Legco panel on Wednesday, several pro-establishment lawmakers questioned whether the clients could get back their money being held by the law firm.

The society’s chairwoman, Melissa Pang, said the troubled firm’s accounting records are messy, and the intervening agent, together with five other assisting law firms the society had appointed, are now working hard to handle the intervention work.

She said the agent will announce details about how clients could claim their money back as soon as possible.

Pang said the amount of funds to be returned to a claimant depends on the total number of claimants, and the total amount of client money in the law firm's bank accounts.

She stressed that the Law Society will do its best to help the affected clients. But she also urged the government to offer further help to the clients, saying the society's powers could be limited in certain areas.

The chairman of Legco’s Panel on Administration of Justice and Legal Affairs, Horace Cheung, urged the Department of Justice to reform the Law Society’s current intervention mechanism, saying a prolonged intervention process could become an ordeal for the affected clients of a troubled law firm.

"We see that when the Law Society exercises this power, they carry out an investigation. I would say the time is delayed too much. It may last for two or three years, and the clients cannot get back the money in time. So they cannot complete their transaction, and they will come into bankruptcy as a result of the intervention of the Law Society," he said.

"So I would say that the exercise of the power of the Law Society actually contravenes the objective of the intervention."