New Zealand lawyer Marc Corlett represents Jimmy Lai in national security trial

New Zealand lawyer Marc Corlett represents Jimmy Lai in national security trial

A New Zealand lawyer Marc Corlett will be representing Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai Chee-ying in court, who is facing landmark charges under the territory’s national security law.

This came as the Hong Kong court previously upheld the SAR government’s decision to bar British King’s Counsel Tim Owen from representing Lai.

At the request of Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu, the National People’s Congress Standing Committee gave earlier an interpretation of the National Security Law, which stipulated that the decision to allow overseas lawyers to handle national security cases should be left to Lee and the national security committee he leads.

It also stated that all foreign lawyers who are not qualified to practice in Hong Kong must seek the CE’s approval to participate in national security trials.

Subsequently, the city’s national security committee advised the Immigration Department to reject Owen’s work visa application, as he had not obtained the chief executive’s approval, and the proposed representation by Owen in Lai’s case would likely constitute national security risks.

Lai had since filed a judicial review to the High Court, asking the court to retract the ruling. The hearing is scheduled for April 16 next year.

It was confirmed this morning that Lai had hired Marc Corlett, a King’s Counsel from New Zealand, to represent him in the trial that began today.

It is understood that Corlett is qualified to practice in Hong Kong, and the prosecution did not oppose the decision to have him on Lai’s defense team.

According to information shown on Bernacchi Chamber’s website, Corlett is a specialist trial lawyer. He was admitted in New Zealand in 1992 and took silk in New Zealand in 2016. He was admitted to the Hong Kong Bar in June 2020.

He has appeared as counsel in more than 180 substantive trials over a broad civil and criminal practice, which includes commercial litigation; securities and other regulatory litigation, market misconduct, market manipulation and insider trading; breach of directors’ duties; fraud and other white-collar crime; money laundering, breaches of AML regulations and proceeds of crime recovery. He also appears regularly in criminal cases, both for the prosecution and the defense.

As a specialist trial lawyer, Corlett is typically engaged in witness actions when matters are likely to proceed to a substantive trial and where significant cross-examination experience is sought, according to the law firm.