2. Subject to paragraph 3(b) below, a Senior Counsel may appear in any court of law or tribunal (including disciplinary hearings and arbitration proceedings) without a junior.
3. A Senior Counsel:-
(a) is not obliged to accept a brief to appear alone or instructions to settle alone any document of a kind generally settled only by or in conjunction with a junior; and,
(b) should not act without a junior if he considers that the interests of the lay client require that a junior should also be instructed.
4. Where he has agreed to appear or accept instructions without a junior, a Senior Counsel may draft pleadings or other documents in connection with such instructions.
5. Where both a Senior Counsel and junior Counsel are instructed, the Senior Counsel should not normally advise except in consultation with the junior. Where both a Senior Counsel and junior Counsel have been instructed but no papers have yet been delivered to junior Counsel, a Senior Counsel may advise in conference or give a written opinion without the assistance of a junior. A Senior Counsel should not normally draft or settle a petition or a case in proceedings before the Court of Final Appeal without the assistance of a junior.
6. A Senior Counsel who finds, on receiving a brief or instructions to appear without a junior, that acceptance of the papers would amount to his replacing a junior barrister who has previously been instructed in the same matter should inform that junior barrister that the papers have been delivered to him, save where the brief or instructions have been returned by that junior barrister or the person instructing the Senior Counsel in the matter has already informed that junior barrister of the termination of his service or there has been no reasonable opportunity to inform that junior barrister before the hearing.
7. It is contrary to professional etiquette for a Senior Counsel, if in practice at the Bar, to accept a permanent appointment as Counsel to a Government Department which necessarily involves his doing a junior's work.
8. (a) A Senior Counsel should normally be willing at any time before the first anniversary of his appointment as a Senior Counsel:
(i) to settle, amend, re-settle or otherwise complete as a junior, any document relating to non-contentious matter which he was originally instructed to settle before his appointment;
(ii) to settle pleadings and other documents, appear at the trial or at any hearing preceding the trial and do any other ordinary work of a junior in any proceeding (whether civil or criminal) in regard to which he was instructed before his appointment.
(b) A Senior Counsel may at his discretion continue to act as a junior (including settling pleadings, notices of appeal and other documents, appearing at any hearing [whether original or appellate] and doing any other ordinary work of a junior) without limit of time:-
(i) in a criminal case, if he was instructed in the case (whether for the Prosecution or the Defence) before his appointment as a Senior Counsel;
(ii) in a civil suit, if he was instructed therein before his appointment as a Senior Counsel and before the first anniversary of his appointment appeared as a junior at the trial or in an appeal therein.
(c) If a junior Counsel takes silk and continues in a case as a junior, he must take a junior's fee.
9. Where a Senior Counsel desires to recognise the services
of a junior Counsel who has appeared with him, the traditional
gift of the red bag should be adhered to.
10. Applicants for Silk are encouraged to give notice to those juniors who are senior to them of their intention to apply.
11. The "two-thirds rule" has been abolished in Hong Kong. Where two or more Counsel are instructed in the same case, the junior Counsel should be paid an appropriate fee.
12. A Senior Counsel from another common law jurisdiction who seeks admission for the purpose of a particular case or cases under s.27(2) of the Legal Practitioners Ordinance (Cap.159) should, if admitted for such purpose, be instructed with a junior.
