Following the British tradition, Hong Kong’s lawyers are divided between solicitors, who work directly with clients, and barristers, who represent those clients in court and wear wigs and robes while doing so. The former are typically considered to be of a lower stature, but solicitors have long been expanding their professional reach into areas traditionally considered barristers’ turf, including courtroom work.
And they want the wigs to prove it, The Wall Street Journal explains in a front-page story Tuesday. You might think in modern Hong Kong the desire would be to do away with the tradition of wigs and robes, but the solicitors actually sued for the right to don that attire. The WSJ video can be found here.