Today’s Beyond The Law is penned by Martin W H Wong, Honorary Secretary and Treasurer of the Hong Kong Bar Association in place of the columnist José Antonio Maurellet SC.
On February 20 this year, Graham Harris SC was unanimously approved to be conferred Life Membership of the Hong Kong Bar Association, the ninth in the 76 years’ history of the HKBA. The recognition and honor could not have been more fitting and certainly could not have come any sooner; Graham left us on March 10.
Much has been said about Graham the giant as a barrister but I want to share my fond memories of Graham the person, my pupil master.
When I was looking for my criminal seat pupillage – a long time ago – I did not know who’s who in the Hong Kong Bar so I did what was prudent: put in an application with an established criminal set of chambers. Graham was then a member of that set and as fate would have it, I was assigned by the committee to follow Graham for three months.
Not knowing what to expect, I went to see him one day; not knowing how exactly I should behave, I met the person he was that day – as was signature of him back in the day, with a cigarette in his hand, a smile on his face and an almost unfitting amount of jolly in his vibe.
Not caring who I was, he greeted me like a friend; not caring who he was, he treated me as an equal.
Time flew by, highs came and lows hit, but Graham never wiped his smile or lost his jolly; people flowed by, from all walks of life, but Graham never treated any of them as less than an equal.
This was why, I think, Graham was so loved by so many and not disliked by any at the Bar. Having more than a hundred pupils throughout his career certainly helped, but it is him coming up to you on the footbridge to the High Court every time, saying “how’s it going, old boy?”
Martin W H Wong is Honorary Secretary and Treasurer of the Hong Kong Bar Association
