The Sinophone lawyer: China's cross-border impact on the legal profession

Abstract

This article studies China's cross-border impact on the legal profession, and develops the concept of the Sinophone lawyer to capture the inter-jurisdictional transformation. Using Hong Kong as a case study, the article identifies a process of ‘Sinophonication’ brought about by Chinese capital; that is, lawyers and law firms have critically changed the language in which they practise. The fact that the Chinese language is multilingual and polyphonic further assigns different values to different aspects of linguistic proficiency and different levels of the legal profession. For law firm partners, the ability to speak Mandarin and Mandarin cultural literacy are now indispensable. For associates, the ability to read and write simplified Chinese is essential. A lower level of paralegals has been created, attracting native speakers from Mandarin-speaking jurisdictions to serve as associates at a lower salary and with less career security. The article draws on qualitative interviews with solicitors, barristers, and foreign lawyers in Hong Kong, and quantitative data from Hong Kong Lawyer (1996–2016) and the annual reports of the Law Society of Hong Kong (1994–2016).