Experiential Learning

Having got my LLB (HK) 1984 and PCLL (HK) 1985, I was called to the Hong Kong Bar on August 31, 1985. I became an Assistant Crown Counsel in the Attorney General's Chambers on the same date and was placed in the Civil Litigation Unit. I shared an office with a Crown Counsel who was just admitted as a Hong Kong Solicitor.

Voluminous files with tasks minuted were marked to us and we were supposed to have the skill and judgment to follow them through. While my Solicitor colleague had undergone 18-month practical training as an articled clerk, I was fresh from Law School and did not have a pupil master. The culture then was just to learn by doing them no matter what.

I quickly realized that practising law with concrete issues in real contexts was very different from learning it in Law School, as errors of judgment would have time, costs and other serious consequences. In order to do better, I had great desire to absorb the knowhow. Learning through reflection on doing did provide good effects, in my experience.

For the civil cases I dealt with in the mid 1980s, I can still recall my hands-on experience. From 1989-2014, I directed myself in designing, building and maintaining Hong Kong's intellectual property system, while Civil Justice Reform happened in the interim. Through experiential learning, I am equipping myself to help achieve the Reform's underlying objectives!

#ExperientialLearning