Charles Sussex, SC > Des Voeux Chambers > Hong Kong, Hong Kong > Lawyer Profile

Des Voeux Chambers
38/F Gloucester Tower
The Landmark
Central, Hong Kong
Hong Kong

Career

A former solicitor, Charles transferred to the Bar in England in 1982 and in Hong Kong in 1983. Whilst still appearing in the Hong Kong Courts, he practised in England from 1989 to 1999 at 2 Essex Court (the London chambers now known as Quadrant Chambers).

Charles has a broad commercial and corporate practice, which includes “complex insurance and finance-related disputes” (Chambers Asia 2011), as well as shipping, banking, securities and company litigation and arbitration.

Year of call

  • 1982 (England and Wales)
  • 1983 (Hong Kong)
  • 1989 (New South Wales)
  • 2000 (Hong Kong Inner Bar)

Education

LL.B. (Hons) King’s College London

Lawyer Rankings

Hong Kong Bar > Shipping and aviation

(Leading Silks)

Charles Sussex SCDes Voeux Chambers

Hong Kong Bar > Commercial disputes

(Leading Silks)

Charles Sussex SCDes Voeux Chambers

With ‘plenty of very high-quality barristers’, Des Voeux Chambers ‘is regarded as one of the leading sets in commercial disputes’. At the senior end, insolvency experts José-Antonio Maurellet SC and Rachel Lam SC led on the landmark case of Citicorp International Limited v Tsinghua Unigroup Co., Ltd, which concerned the nature and extent of the obligations that keepwell providers have to bondholders, as well as novel issues of Greater China insolvency. Charles Sussex SC led Tom Ng in PT Asuransi Tugu v Citibank NA, which assessed bankers’ Quincecare duty, which dictates that a bank should not, in certain circumstances, take a payment from a customer’s account which is fraudulent. Catrina Lam‘s practice encompasses a wide range of contentious commercial matters, and she is also highly adept at handling domestic and international arbitrations, representing clients from the banking and finance, technology, real estate, media and entertainment, education, aviation, and gambling sectors. Benny Lo has also been increasingly active in international commercial arbitration proceedings, while a significant proportion of Frances Lok‘s practice involves acting for listed companies, their shareholders, and directors across a range of mandates, including winding up proceedings and unfair prejudice petition matters. Christopher Chain SC made Silk in the 2023 round.