Catrina Lam > Des Voeux Chambers > Hong Kong, Hong Kong > Lawyer Profile
Des Voeux Chambers Offices
38/F Gloucester Tower
The Landmark
Central, Hong Kong
Hong Kong
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Catrina Lam
Career
Catrina is recognized as a leading senior junior barrister whose practice spans all aspects of contentious commercial disputes (including domestic and international arbitrations), administrative and constitutional law, competition (antitrust), securities and regulatory litigation. She is ranked as a Band 1 junior for Commercial Dispute Resolution in Chambers & Partners, as well as a Tier 1 junior for Competition, Administrative and Public Law and Commercial Disputes in The Legal 500. She is also recognised as a Global Law Expert in the practice area of competition law in Hong Kong.
She has represented domestic and multinational clients operating in a wide range of industry sectors, including banking and financial services, technology, telecommunications, real estate and construction, energy, media and entertainment, manufacturing, education, aviation and gambling. She is experienced in handling highly complex commercial disputes, many involving novel legal issues and/or technical evidence, and has been described as being “great for matters which concern very difficult facts and evidence”. She is in demand for her “sharp legal mind”, “quickness on her feet”, “strong legal literacy” and as a practitioner who “thinks outside the box and always tests the limits of the evidence”.
She appears at all levels of court, as well as other specialist and disciplinary tribunals, including the Competition Tribunal, Securities and Futures Appeals Tribunal, Insider Dealing Tribunal and the Board of Review. In her public law and judicial review practice, Catrina has advised and represented many public bodies and officials, including acting for the Secretary for Justice intervening in the public interest, as well as private individuals.
Catrina is “held in particularly high esteem for her accomplished competition law practice” and is “widely identified as Hong Kong’s front runner for competition matters”. She “stands out” for her “depth of knowledge in competition law”.
Apart from acting as counsel, Catrina accepts appointments to sit as arbitrator. She is on the HKIAC’s List of Arbitrators and is a member of the Panel of Arbitrators for both the Shanghai International Arbitration Centre and the Shenzhen Court of International Arbitration.
Outside of practice, Catrina is active in public service. She has served as a Temporary Deputy Registrar of the High Court and as a Deputy District Judge. She is currently sitting on 6 statutory appeal boards and tribunals on appointment by the Government. She has been serving as the Secretary of the Middle Temple Society in Hong Kong since 2009 and was appointed an Honorary Member of The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple in 2018.
Catrina speaks English, Cantonese and Putonghua (conversational), and is a CEDR accredited mediator.
Languages
English, Cantonese, Putonghua (conversational)
Memberships
Statutory board/tribunal and other appointments
- Temporary Deputy Registrar, High Court of HKSAR [May 2018]
- Deputy District Judge, District Court of the HKSAR [September 2014]
- Deputy Chairman, Education Appeal Boards Panel under the Education Ordinance (Cap 279) [2019 – present]
- Chairman, Licensing Appeals Board under the Public Health and Municipal Services Ordinance (Cap132) [2018 – present]
- Member, Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications Appeal Board and Rules Committee [2017 – 2022]
- Member, Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants Disciplinary Panel A [2017 – 2023]
- Member, Inland Revenue Board of Review Panel [2016 – 2022]
- Chairman, Buildings Appeal Tribunal [2015 – 2021]
- Member, District Cooling Services Appeal Board Panel [2018 – 2021]
- Secretary and Advisory Board, The Middle Temple Society of Hong Kong [2012- present]
- Honorary Member, The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple [2018 – present]
- Arbitrator, List of Arbitrators, Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre [2021]
- Member of the Panel of Arbitrators for the Shanghai International Arbitration Centre [2021]
- Member of the Panel of Arbitrators for the Shenzhen Court of International Arbitration [2022]
Hong Kong Bar Association
- Member, Committee on Constitutional Affairs and Human Rights, Hong Kong Bar Association [2020 – present]
- Member, Committee on Arbitration, Hong Kong Bar Association [2017 – present]
- Member, Bar Council [2013]
Competition related
- Elected Vice President, International League of Competition Law (Ligue Internationale de Droit de la Concurrence) [2022 – 2023]
- Chairman, Committee on Competition Law, Hong Kong Bar Association [2020 – present]
- Founder and Vice Chairman, International League of Competition Law, Hong Kong Chapter [2019 – present]
- Vice Chairman, Committee on Competition Law, Hong Kong Bar Association [2018 – 2020]
- Non-Governmental Adviser to the International Competition Network [2018 – present]
- External Counsel to the Competition Commission [2016 – present]
Education
- LLB, University College London (1998)
- PCLL, University of Hong Kong (1999)
- PgD in EU Competition Law, King’s College London (2016)
- MA in EU Competition Law (Distinction), King’s College London (2018)
- PgD in Economics for Competition Law, King’s College London (2021)
Lawyer Rankings
Hong Kong Bar > Administrative and public law
(Leading Juniors)Catrina Lam – Des Voeux Chambers ‘Catrina is one of the go-to counsel for administrative law cases. She is always well prepared and has a persuasive advocacy style.’
Hong Kong Bar > Competition
(Leading Juniors)Catrina Lam – Des Voeux Chambers ‘Catrina’s deep understanding of the law and strategic thinking makes her a true asset in the courtroom. She is a powerful and effective advocate who shines the best when it comes to cross-examinations.’
Des Voeux Chambers is ‘one of a very few number of sets that can handle competition law litigation from start to finish‘. Chairman of the Hong Kong Bar Association’s Special Committee on Competition Law Catrina Lam frequently represents regulators and respondents from the telecoms, raw materials, banking and financial services, beauty and cosmetics, and real estate and construction sectors in competition proceedings. Lam is acting for the respondents in the case of Competition Commission v ATAL Building Services Engineering Ltd & Ors, which concerns one of the largest and high-value cartel cases brought by the Competition Commission against two major suppliers of air-conditioning services in Hong Kong regarding parent company liability. Connie Lee acted for a respondent in the case of Competition Commission v T.H Lee Book Company Limited & Ors, which concerned an enforcement action against three book publishers for price fixing, market sharing, and bid rigging when selling textbooks to secondary schools.
Hong Kong Bar > Commercial disputes
(Leading Juniors)Catrina Lam – Des Voeux Chambers ‘Catrina is very diligent and always well prepared. She is also very persistent, even when the case is not on her side, which is a very important quality for an advocate.’
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.