張健利

English

Denis Chang SC is a Hong Kong Senior Counsel, called to the Bar in Hong Kong in 1970 and appointed Senior Counsel in 1981; the Bar List also records his 1968 call in England, and gives his chambers as Denis Chang’s Chambers. The Hong Kong Bar Association’s table of past chairmen and officers records him as Chairman for three consecutive years, 1985, 1986 and 1987. The Bar List’s admission years and the Association’s office years are two separate official records: one concerns professional standing, the other the Association’s offices. Each set of years means something different and none can be inferred from another: “England (1968)” is the year of call in England and Wales or Northern Ireland (as the Bar List footnote explains), “Hong Kong (1970)” is the year of call in Hong Kong, and 1981 is the year of appointment as Senior Counsel. The same footnote warns that the year of call is not the year practice began. In institutional terms, Senior Counsel are appointed by the Chief Justice under section 31A of the Legal Practitioners Ordinance, as the equivalent appointment releases put it, rather than promoted from within a court. His appointment as Senior Counsel predates the online press-release archive, which begins in 1997, so there is no official appointment biography to cite; the Bar List carries no education or practice areas either, and those points are left blank rather than inferred.