霍兆剛

English

The Honourable Mr Justice Joseph Paul Fok, born in Hong Kong on 24 September 1962, is a Permanent Judge of the Court of Final Appeal of Hong Kong. Educated in the United Kingdom, he graduated with an LLB from University College London in 1984 and was called to the Bar at the Middle Temple in 1985, where he undertook commercial pupillage. Returning to Hong Kong in 1986, he was admitted to the Hong Kong Bar and began private practice, working mainly in commercial and public law. He became a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators in 1997 and was appointed Senior Counsel in 1999, remaining in private practice until he joined the judiciary full-time in 2010. He was also admitted as an Advocate and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Singapore in 1991 and practised part-time in Singapore between 2002 and 2006. On the bench, he served as a Recorder of the Court of First Instance from 2003 to 2009, was appointed a Judge of the Court of First Instance in 2010 and promoted to Justice of Appeal of the Court of Appeal on 1 February 2011. On 21 October 2013 he was appointed a Permanent Judge of the Court of Final Appeal, filling the vacancy left by the retirement of Mr Justice Patrick Chan; the appointment followed a recommendation of the Judicial Officers Recommendation Commission accepted by the Chief Executive under Article 88 of the Basic Law, with the endorsement of the Legislative Council. He has sat on the Court of Final Appeal Rules Committee and the Judiciary's information technology committee, was appointed a Justice of the Peace in 2006, elected a Bencher of the Middle Temple in 2015 and made an Honorary Fellow of University College London in 2022. Rising from barrister to the territory's top court, he brings commercial and public law experience to the judicial leadership.