How to become a Lawyer
Official title: Lawyers
Also called: Attorney, Barrister, Lawyer, Prosecutor, Solicitor
Lawyers give clients legal advice on a wide variety of subjects, draw up legal documents, represent clients before administrative boards or tribunals and plead cases or conduct prosecutions in courts of justice, or instruct barristers to plead in higher courts of justice.
Main tasks
- Giving clients legal advice on a wide variety of subjects and undertaking legal business on clients’ behalf
- Researching legal principles, statutes and previous court decisions related to specific cases
- Gathering evidence to formulate a defence or to initiate legal actions, by such means as interviewing clients and witnesses to ascertain the facts of a case
- Evaluating findings and developing strategies and arguments in preparation for presentation of cases
- Pleading clients’ cases before courts of law, tribunals and administrative boards or instructing barristers to plead in higher courts of justice
- Accepting briefs and pleading in the higher court
- Acting as prosecutor on behalf of the government
- Negotiating settlements in matters which involve legal disputes
- Drafting legislation and preparing government regulations based on existing laws
- Drawing up legal documents such as contracts, real estate transactions and wills and preparing statements of legal opinions
Ways in
- University: Law & Justice degrees, Offered by 8 universities in Hong Kong
- Licence or registration: Registering body: High Court and the Law Society or Bar Association. Law: Legal Practitioners Ordinance (法律執業者條例), Cap. 159. Summary by Peernovo; check the body's current rules.
Pay · Outlook · AI and this job
- Median pay: HK$48,000 a month
- About 1,542,900 people in 2025, and about 1,639,100 projected by 2028. (+6.2%)
- Generative AI can do relatively little of this work, by the ILO's global estimate.
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Questions people ask
How do I become a Lawyer?
Ways in include: Law & Justice degrees.
Do you need a degree to become a Lawyer?
Usually. 85% of people in this job hold a bachelor's degree or higher.
Will AI change the work of a Lawyer?
Generative AI can do relatively little of this work, by the ILO's global estimate.
Sources
- Census and Statistics Department (2021 Population Census): 2021 Population Census, Interactive Data Dissemination Service: working population by occupation (38 groups) and sex, age, education, income; median income and field of education (9 groups) (2021 Population Census), retrieved 4 October 2026
- Census and Statistics Department (General Household Survey): Median monthly employment earnings by occupation (9 groups), excluding foreign domestic helpers (Table 210-06317A); employed persons by occupation, age and sex (210-06307A) and by industry (210-06308A) (2025 annual (series to 2026-07)), retrieved 4 October 2026
- Labour and Welfare Bureau; tables published by C&SD: Mid-term Update of Manpower Projection to 2028: supplementary statistical tables (5 occupation groups, 17 selected industries) (2025 to 2028 (published 2026-09)), retrieved 4 October 2026
- Census and Statistics Department: Number of selected professional members / qualifications (Table 990-94032) (2025), retrieved 4 October 2026
- International Labour Organization, Generative AI and Jobs: A Refined Global Index of Occupational Exposure (ILO Working Paper 140, Gmyrek et al.) (ILO Working Paper 140, May 2025, Annex Table A1), CC BY 4.0, retrieved 4 October 2026
Updated 4 October 2026