This history has been retold in a special commemorative book Celebrating a Centenary which centers on the Society's leaders, their collective achievements and intertwines the legal history of Hong Kong with every significant moment in the city's past in a lively informative manner.

The Law Society of Hong Kong was born in the midst of a colorful colonial age when the judiciary's only reliable translator was also a magistrate and a police detective. It was not uncommon for him to interpret for a defendant and then proceed to testify for the Crown during the same case.

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While the role of the Society has remained constant over the years, the profile of its members is vastly different.

The privileged British-educated Anglo-Saxon male has given way to the locally born and trained men and women who make up the bulk of the Society's membership today.

But to the man in the street, solicitors perform the mundane tasks of conveyancing when it comes time to buy or sell property. They are the people who make sure wills are drawn up properly and look after their clients when assets are divided in a divorce settlement.

The public face of solicitors can also be seen in the numerous panels and executive committees of charities they sit on. They are well represented at every level of government and practically every Hong Kong company's governing board. Their omnipresence makes them a vital cog in the workings of Hong Kong's public and business life.

"I had the privilege and experience of looking back a 100 years and beyond for an insight into how Hong Kong and the legal system developed alongside each other through both colonial and mainland rule," said managing editor Michael Chugani.

Chugani said the biggest challenge was the lack of data available before World War II as both public and private law firm records were destroyed. Despite painstaking efforts by the Public Records Office to restore and preserve what little is left, the reality of war time meant written records were salvaged for fuel during the lean time that Hong Kong suffered under Japanese occupation.

Fortunately surviving solicitors and family members of those who lived through those tough days shared their memories and the book is also a testament to their resourcefulness and courage.

Solicitors such as Wong Wai-pat whose father sneaked into his old firm's offices and took the company records right from under the noses of the Japanese soldiers. As a gesture of gratitude, the firm later took Wong on as an articled clerk starting him on his way to a flourishing career.

The countless interviews peppered throughout the book reveal a refreshing insider view on the developments that help shape the former British colony on its way to becoming a Special Administrative Region.

"It was a unique book to produce, requiring the editorial team to use layman's language to explain at times the finer points of how the legal system touched and changed the everyday lives of ordinary Hong Kong people and the key role played by solicitors in bringing this about," Chugani said.