It can issue practising certificates, investigate professional misconduct and develop codes of conduct for the industry.
It will elect five of the 20 board members next week, and supporters of the establishment fear that freer, pro-democracy lawyers may win.
On Sunday, the People’s Daily, the mouthpiece of China’s ruling Communist Party, issued a comment warning the Law Society not to elect any “anti-China elements” and to choose “professional rather than political”.
The same comment also described the Hong Kong Bar Association, which represents barristers, as a “street rat.”
The Bar Association is more outspoken than the Law Society worried that Hong Kong’s boasted judicial independence is being compromised by China’s suppression of dissent, including the implementation of a national security law that reshapes Hong Kong’s legal landscape.
