Consultant
Wong Choi Yau / Cecilia
Biography
Cecilia was admitted as a solicitor in Hong Kong in August 1998. She graduated from the University of Hong Kong in 1995 in Bachelor Degree in Laws and passed the Postgraduate Certificate in 1996. She obtained the Master Degree in Laws at the University of Hong Kong in 1998. She was later admitted as a solicitor in England and Wales in April 1999.
Briefly, the areas of law in which she practised include civil and criminal litigation, family and matrimonial (divorce), personal injuries and employee’s compensation, commercial law, and bankruptcy, etc. During these ten more years, Cecilia was specialized in Human Rights and Immigration matters such as judicial review against the decisions of the Director of Immigration and Secretary for Security, application for a writ of habeas corpus, judicial review against the “no consent” regime under the JFIU, Petition and/or Appeal to the Chief Executive and/or Security Bureau. Immigration applications such as applications for dependant visa, employment visa and extension of stay etc. Human rights issues such as raising non-refoulement claims, CIDTP, torture claims, refugee claims and all applicable grounds under the Hong Kong Bill of Rights Ordinance and Basic Laws.
She is on the list of solicitors of the Legal Aid Panel and the Duty Lawyer List. She is also on list of the Legal Aid Services Counsel for the advice of the Director of Legal Aid’s refusal to grant legal aid in respect of the Applicant’s appeal to the Court of Final Appeal.
During these years, she had been handling a few of Court of Final Appeal and Court of Appeal cases which created the precedent and rendering the HKSAR government to amend the laws, such as illegal working, the counting of 7 years ordinary residency, claiming damages for unlawful detention, etc.
Experience
Cecilia’s career has been shaped by matters concerning personal liberty, immigration and residency status — work that has taken her from the District Court to Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal. Representative matters from her practice include:
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Acted for a torture claimant detained by the immigration authorities, taking his damages claim from the District Court to the Court of Final Appeal — where the court set new limits on how long the government may detain a person pending removal, and awarded damages for the days the detention went beyond them.
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Acted for a detainee repeatedly handcuffed and strip-searched during immigration detention; the Court held the treatment degrading and awarded damages under separate heads for the unlawful detention, the handcuffing and the searches.
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Acted for a group of torture claimants prosecuted for remaining in Hong Kong without the Director of Immigration’s authority; the Court of Appeal’s ruling clarified whether the papers issued to such claimants amount in law to permission to remain.
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Acted for an applicant whose right to permanent residency turned on whether time held in custody awaiting trial counted towards his seven years’ ordinary residence; the Court of Final Appeal held that the remand period did not break his ordinary residence and dismissed the Director’s appeal.
•
Acted for a detainee repeatedly handcuffed and strip-searched during immigration detention; the Court held the treatment degrading and awarded damages under separate heads for the unlawful detention, the handcuffing and the searches.
title
Consultant
languages
English
Cantonese
Mandarin
education
LL.B., The University of Hong Kong
P.C.LL., The University of Hong Kong
LL.M., The University of Hong Kong
jurisdiction
Hong Kong
England and Wales
professional qualifications
Solicitor of the High Court of Hong Kong – 1998
Solicitor of England and Wales -1999
Member, The Law Society of Hong Kong