Administrative Appeals: Law and Strategy – 21 October 2021, 1pm to 2.30pm

Are you familiar with the essentials of administrative appeals? Join Rachel Wong (Chairman of the Appeal Tribunal Panel (Buildings); Adjudicator of the Registration of Persons Tribunal; Member of the Administrative Appeals Board; former Adjudicator of the Immigration Tribunal), Isabel Tam and Samantha Lau at our upcoming webinar to learn about the relevant law, procedure and strategic considerations in administrative appeals.

Compared to judicial reviews, administrative appeals rarely attract the media spotlight and remain unfamiliar to many legal practitioners.

In fact, a wide and diverse range of public authority decisions are amenable to administrative appeals – from the refusal of massage establishment licences, variations of a dog’s detention period, to the amount of allowance granted to fishermen affected by the trawl ban, and more.

Given the breadth and variety of matters covered by administrative appeals, it is essential for practitioners to acquire a good understanding of how this avenue of appeal operates.

Date:	21 October 2021 (Monday)
Time:	1.00pm – 2.30pm
CPD Points:	1.5 Law Society CPD points being applied for
Cost:	Free of charge

Click here to Save Your Spot

For enquiries, please email [email protected]. We look forward to exploring administrative appeals with you at the webinar. 

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PROGRAMME

Introduction to Administrative Appeals:

• Nature of administrative appeals
• Types of administrative appeals:

– Decisions under Administrative Appeals Board Ordinance, Cap 442
– Other/ad-hoc boards & tribunals

Prior to the Decision Being Made:

• Planning the application
• Responding to preliminary decision

After the Decision:

• Advising on whether to pursue an administrative appeal

The Administrative Appeal Hearing:

• Nature: de novo?
• The decision-makers (the board)
• Powers/terms of reference
• Rules of procedure and evidence
• Substantive arguments
• Costs?

After the Administrative Appeal:

• Judicial review: nature, basic procedure, advice on costs
• Common grounds of judicial reviews against decisions in administrative appeals:
• Procedural grounds: common examples: oral hearing; written & adequate reasons;
• Substantive grounds of illegality: irrelevant considerations; error of law; error of fact; blanket policy/fettered discretion
• Substantive grounds of irrationality: laws in reasoning; error of fact; balancing of considerations

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PRESENTERS

Rachel Wong

Rachel read law at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and was called to the Bar in 2011. She maintains a broad practice in civil litigation involving administrative, immigration, commercial, company, land, matrimonial, regulatory and disciplinary matters. She also has a growing criminal practice, having undertaken defence work before all courts up to and including the Court of First Instance. Rachel has experience as adjudicator or member in various statutory tribunals and appeal boards. She is currently Chairman of the Appeal Tribunal Panel (Buildings) and Adjudicator of the Registration of Persons Tribunal, and she has also served as Adjudicator of the Immigration Tribunal. Her other public appointments include: • Member of the Administrative Appeals Board; • Member of the Appeal Board Panel (District Cooling Services); and • Member of the Buildings Energy Efficiency Disciplinary Board Panel.  Visit Rachel’s profile for more details on her experience, which also includes a wide range of work related to the Immigration Ordinance (Cap. 15) and Registration of Persons Ordinance (Cap.177), advising on the licensing and compliance of regulated activities under the Securities and Futures Ordinance, Cap 571 (SFO) and applications relating to the Payment Systems and Stored Value Facilities Ordinance, Cap 584, and investigations or inquiries by the Securities and Futures Commission, Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (HKex) and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority.

Isabel Tam

Isabel graduated with a first class LLB and with distinction in her LLM. She was awarded the Bar Scholarship in 2012 and called to the Bar in 2013. Her practice has an emphasis on public law, family law, commercial law, regulatory matters, and building management. Her experience in public law includes: judicial reviews and hearings relating to the Small House Policy, the “Co-location Arrangement”, the 3rd airport runway, immigration decisions, disciplinary decisions, and administrative tribunals. Visit Isabel’s profile for further information on her experience in SFC disciplinary proceedings, family law, competition law, building management and more.

Samantha Lau

Samantha graduated from the University of Hong Kong with double first-class degrees in law and government, before attending Harvard Law School for postgraduate studies, where she graduated with a top prize for her essay on equality law. She later served as a judicial assistant of the Court of Final Appeal of Hong Kong, before being awarded the Hong Kong Bar Scholarship. Samantha served pupillage with Mr Derek Chan SC, Mr Robin D’Souza, Mr Tim Parker and Mr Richard Yip before joining Denis Chang’s Chambers. Samantha accepts instructions in all areas of Chambers’ practice, and she is quickly developing a predominantly civil practice with an emphasis on commercial and public law litigation, and also securities law. Visit Samantha’s profile for her articles and latest news.

Disclaimer: Seminars, webinars, training presentations or workshops (“Events”) and related materials produced by Members of Denis Chang’s Chambers  (“DCC“) provide general information regarding particular subjects and are not intended to constitute legal advice. Registering for an event only constitutes an agreement to attend it, not instructions to Counsel. Except as otherwise noted, the views expressed at Events are the views of the speakers only and do not represent the opinions of all other Members of DCC.

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