Barristers invited to bid farewell to retiring High Court judge

Barristers are invited to celebrate Judge Maria Yuen Ka-ning, the wife of former chief justice Geoffrey Ma Tao-Ii, who will retire this month, at the High Court on Friday.

In a circular issued to members, the Bar Association said High Court chief judge Jeremy Poon Shiu-chor invited members of the association to attend the farewell of Yuen, currently a judge at the Court of Appeal of the High Court.

"There will be a special sitting in open court on Friday at the high court to mark the retirement of Yuen. Members are invited to attend in robes," the circular read.

Born in Hong Kong in 1953, Yuen obtained a bachelor of laws from the University of Hong Kong in 1975 and a master of laws from the University of London a year later, in 1976.

After graduating from the College of Law in London in 1977, she was called to the Inner Temple Bar and the Hong Kong Bar in the same year.

Yuen was admitted as barrister in Victoria of Australia in 1982, and as barrister and solicitor in Singapore in 1990. She was appointed by the Hong Kong Judiciary as Judge of the Court of First Instance of the High Court in 1997.

She was later appointed a justice of appeals of the High Court in 2002 and became a member of the SAR's Law Reform Commission in 2003.

The Financial Times quoted sources in June 2021 as saying that Yuen was originally nominated to be a permanent judge at the Court of Final Appeal but was intervened by the city's pro-Beijing lawmakers.

She therefore withdrew her candidacy for the top court after the lawmakers raised concerns that Yuen could be influenced by her husband, whom pro-Beijing groups have criticized in the past after "defending the neutrality of the Hong Kong judiciary."

The Judicial Officers Recommendation Commission, a statutory body that makes recommendations to the Chief Executive on judicial appointments, later recommended the then-vice president of the Court of Appeal Johnson Lam Man-hon.

Lam was subsequently appointed permanent judge at the Court of Final Appeal on July 30, 2021.