Introduction

Towards the end of 2020, while businesses were reeling from the challenges of grappling with a global pandemic, the end of the Brexit transition period and LIBOR transition, the Law Commission published a paper analysing the current law underlying intermediated securities - Intermediated securities: who owns your shares? A Scoping Paper.

On Wednesday, the Court of Final Appeal ("CFA") reversed the lower courts' decision in the Yung Kee case¹ , holding that the Hong Kong court has jurisdiction to order the winding up of Yung Kee Holdings Limited (the "Company"), a holding company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands and not registered in Hong Kong.

In 2014, the law of privilege was considered from various angles, with the year closing on a Court  of Final Appeal decision emphasising the primacy of legal professional privilege ("LPP") as an  absolute right guaranteed by the Basic Law of Hong Kong.

While the cases outlined below generally provide comfort that the law of privilege in Hong Kong  holds strong, we offer a few practical points to help safeguard the privilege of legal advice:

The Court of Appeal has declined jurisdiction to wind up Yung Kee Holdings Limited (the "Company"), a company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands ("BVI"), upholding the decision of Harris J at first instance that the Company did not have "sufficient connection" with Hong Kong.