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The Department of Justice (DoJ) is launching a recruitment exercise inviting qualified lawyers, including those who expect to finish their training in summer 2007, to join the Department as Government Counsel.
¡°A career as Government Counsel (GC) in DoJ offers a valuable chance to demonstrate and develop your professional ability in a varied and challenging job which is of real value to the Hong Kong community,¡± a spokesman for the Department said.
The varied duties include undertaking criminal advocacy, civil litigation, legal advisory work (criminal, civil and public international law), bilingual legislative drafting, commercial law, mutual legal assistance and legal policy work.
¡°There will be at least 20 GC vacancies to be filled in this exercise,¡± the spokesman said.
Details of the recruitment exercise including applicants¡¯ qualifications and application procedure have been published in the South China Morning Post and Ming Pao on Wednesday (October 18). The advertisements will be re-published on October 21.
The deadline for application is November 8, 2006.
To be eligible, candidates must be solicitors admitted in a recognised jurisdiction as stipulated under Section 2A and Schedule 2 of the Legal Officers Ordinance; or barristers with one year¡¯s professional experience since attaining the right to full practice in a recognised jurisdiction as stipulated under Section 2A and Schedule 2 of the Legal Officers Ordinance.
Candidates who will complete their training as a trainee solicitor or pupillage on or before September 30, 2007 may also apply. Their appointment, however, will be subject to their admission as a solicitor or admission as a barrister with satisfactory completion of pupillage.
Barristers with right to full practice but who do not possess one year¡¯s professional experience since attaining the right to full practice may also apply. If selected, they will enter at an appropriate point below the minimum of the GC pay scale.
Candidates with additional experience are also invited to apply and may be granted increments for previous relevant experience in excess of the stipulated minimum.
Apart from professional qualification, interested candidates are advised to take note of the language proficiency requirements.
This year, candidates with Grade C or above in Use of English and Grade D or above in Chinese Language and Culture in the Hong Kong Advanced Level Examination, or equivalent, will be accepted as meeting the language proficiency requirements for GC.
Those who do not possess such results will have to possess a valid pass in the two language papers of the Government¡¯s Common Recruitment Examination (CRE) as at October 18, 2006. Otherwise they will have to take the Use of English and/or Use of Chinese papers in the CRE.
If they are interested in the GC job, they should apply for the CRE on or before October 27, 2006. Details of the coming CRE which are advertised on October 18, 2006 are available on Civil Service Bureau's homepage at http://www.csb.gov.hk.
To coincide with the recruitment exercise, two seminars will be organised for members of the Law Society of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Bar Association.
They will take place in Room 2322, 23/F, Queensway Government Office, 66 Queensway, Hong Kong on Monday (October 23) and at the Library, Bar Association, LG2, High Court, 38 Queensway, Hong Kong on Wednesday (October 25). Both seminars start at 5.30pm.
Enquirers may contact the Appointments Unit of the Department of Justice on telephone 2529 9420 for further details.
Ends/Thursday, October 19, 2006
Issued at HKT 16:56
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