Our Practice

Patricia Ho & Associates acts in nine areas of work. The pages below describe what we do, how we do it, and — where the matter is reported — some of the cases we have handled.

Immigration &
Global Mobility

  • Visas, residency and contentious immigration — including the cases that go further than the Immigration Department.

    We advise individuals and employers on the full range of visa applications: Employment, Investment, the Top Talent Pass Scheme, the Quality Migrant Admission Scheme, Dependant, Student, Foreign Domestic Helper, and prolonged visitor visas. We act for applicants seeking verification of eligibility for permanent identity cards, and for those whose right of abode is in question.

    Most visa work is straightforward and finishes at the Immigration Department; a meaningful portion of our practice is what happens when it does not. We recognise that unforeseen circumstances — such as a prolonged absence from Hong Kong due to family or business needs — can suddenly complicate an otherwise clear path to residency. Our team is experienced in proactively identifying the implications of life’s shifts before they become hurdles, advising on preventive steps to protect your status. If a problem has already arisen, we focus on pragmatic, effective solutions to get your transition back on track.

    When an application is refused, when a deportation order is made, or when a non-refoulement claim is in issue, the matter passes from administrative to legal. We prepare appeals and act in judicial review. The firm has carried immigration cases through the Court of First Instance, the Court of Appeal and the Court of Final Appeal. Our experience in contentious immigration is what distinguishes the practice; clients with straightforward applications benefit from the same standard of preparation.

    • Employment, Investment, TTPS, QMAS, Dependant, Student, Foreign Domestic Helper and prolonged visitor visas

    • Naturalisation, right of abode and verification of eligibility for permanent identity cards

    • Extensions of stay and changes of conditions

    • Appeals against refusal

    • Rescission and suspension of deportation orders

    • Non-refoulement claims at first instance, before the Torture Claims Appeal Board, and on judicial review

    • Advice on immigration investigations, breaches of condition of stay, and immigration offences


    Selected matters include Lubiano Nancy Almorin v Director of Immigration [2018] 1 HKLRD 1141, FOZ and Others v Director of Immigration [2025] 2 HKC 766, SO Tsz Man (a minor) v Director of Immigration [2026] 1 HKC 496, and Atukunda Grace Flavia v Director of Immigration [2024] HKCFI 1063.

Family

  • Divorce, children, and the matters that follow when families take a different shape.

    We act in divorce and ancillary relief, custody, care and control and access matters and the financial proceedings that accompany the end of a marriage. The work ranges from short, agreed matters to contested children matters and ancillary proceedings involving international considerations. We act for petitioners and respondents in roughly equal measure, and where children are involved we work in a way that prioritises their welfare and limits the damage of the proceedings to them.

    Grounded in trauma-informed care, we understand the complexities of relationship dynamics and the stress of family restructuring. This perspective allows us to provide practical, sensitive solutions that prioritise stability, particularly where children are involved.

    Another growing part of our practice concerns families that fall outside the assumptions of the existing legislation. We advise on surrogacy and reciprocal IVF arrangements, on the recognition of parenthood for same-sex parents, and on the recovery of children removed from Hong Kong without consent. Where forced marriage is in issue we have acted in proceedings recognised as the first of their kind in Hong Kong. The firm’s partner Wong Hiu-Chong is the Chinese editor of Duxbury Etc. — Hong Kong Family Court Tables.

    • Divorce, judicial separation and decrees of nullity

    • Ancillary relief and financial provision, including matters with cross-border assets

    • Custody, care and control, access and guardianship

    • High-conflict children’s proceedings involving substance abuse and parental alienation

    • International relocation and the recovery of children taken overseas

    • Surrogacy and reciprocal IVF; declarations of parentage

    • Domestic violence injunctions, non-molestation and ouster orders

    • Forced marriage

    • Adoption


    Selected matters include MY v FT [2022] 3 HKLRD 699, AA v BB [2021] 2 HKLRD 1225, RM v AY [2023] HKFC 59, MCL v JCPF [2023] HKCFI 1409, PEL v SL [2022] HKFC 275, and LCH v JMC [2021] HKFC 88.

Wills, Estates & Personal Documents

  • The documents most people put off until they need them.

    We prepare wills and the documents that travel with them: enduring powers of attorney, advance medical directives, guardianship documents, and letters of wishes. The work ranges from a straightforward will for a single individual to estate planning for cross-border families with assets, beneficiaries, and tax exposures across several jurisdictions. We work with accountants, trustees and overseas counsel where the matter requires it, and we draft to the standard a probate court would apply, on the assumption that one day one will.

    We also handle the personal documents that fall outside estate planning but are part of the same body of work — statutory declarations, deeds poll for changes of name, and the various certifications and translations that accompany them. Where a client is appointed an executor under a will, we advise on the grant of probate and the administration of the estate.

    • Wills, including for blended families, second marriages, and modern family structures

    • Enduring powers of attorney

    • Advance medical directives and advice on end-of-life planning

    • Guardianship documents for the appointment of guardians of minor children

    • Letters of wishes

    • Statutory declarations

    • Deeds poll for changes of name

    • Probate, including grants of representation and administration of estates

Corporate & Commercial

  • Advice for the businesses we get to know well, and the founders we get to know early.

    We act for companies, founders and not-for-profits across the lifecycle of a business — from incorporation and the drafting of the documents that hold the early years together, through fundraising, joint ventures and acquisitions, to the governance questions that arise as a company grows. A meaningful part of the practice is fractional general counsel work, where we sit beside a founder or a board for the matters that require legal input but not a full in-house team. Anita Ng leads the corporate practice; she practised previously at Skadden and at Cleary Gottlieb in Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, London and Brussels.

    The work is practical. Founders need shareholders’ agreements that survive contact with reality; investors need subscription documents that protect them without being so heavy they break the deal; charities need section 88 status and the governance to keep it. We also advise institutional clients — schools, charities, businesses with operations across the border — on amendments to articles of association, and on the unglamorous documentary work that keeps a company in good standing.

    • Mergers, acquisitions and disposals

    • Fractional general counsel

    • Founder and scale-up advisory

    • Corporate governance and board advisory

    • Shareholders’ agreements and joint venture agreements

    • Subscription agreements, limited partnership agreements, representations and warranties

    • Charities Inland Revenue Ordinance section 88 applications

    • Amendments to articles of association and other corporate housekeeping

    • Advice on dispute matters within boards and partnerships

Dispute Resolution

  • The disputes that need to be resolved, and the ones that need to be litigated.

    We act in the full range of civil and commercial disputes in the Hong Kong courts. Most of the work is in the District Court and the Court of First Instance; some of it reaches the Court of Appeal. The practice is a mix of commercial work — contractual disputes, shareholder and partnership disagreements, debt recovery, and the cross-border injunctive relief that often goes with it — and personal claims, including personal injury, employees’ compensation, and civil claims against public authorities for damages for unlawful detention, false imprisonment, and assault.

    We try to resolve disputes before they become litigation, and we say so in writing to the other side early. Where settlement is not on offer, we prepare cases to be tried.

    • Commercial and contractual disputes

    • Shareholder and partnership disputes

    • Employment disputes

    • Personal injury and employees’ compensation

    • Civil fraud and asset recovery

    • Defamation

    • Debt recovery

    • Cross-border injunctive relief, including Mareva and disclosure orders in support of foreign proceedings

    • Civil claims for damages against public authorities


    Selected matters include Javier Jenevieve v Gu Huai Yu [2022] HKDC 1162 and CB v Apthorp [2023] 5 HKLRD 752.

Regulatory, Investigations & Compliance

  • The work that keeps a problem from becoming a prosecution, and the work that begins after one has.

    We advise individuals, businesses and institutions on regulatory compliance and on the investigations that follow when something goes wrong. The practice has two halves. The first is preventative: data privacy and PCPD compliance, anti-money laundering policies and procedures, modern slavery and supply chain reporting for clients with international obligations, and cybersecurity readiness. The second is responsive: incident response when there has been a data breach, internal investigations into suspected misconduct, and defence work where the Independent Commission Against Corruption or another regulator has commenced an investigation.

    We work with technical advisers and forensic accountants where the matter requires it, and we are used to the pace of an investigation — the period between a complaint being made and a charge being decided is often the period in which the matter is won or lost. Most of this work is confidential by its nature; what appears in the press is the small fraction that does not settle.

    • Data privacy and PCPD compliance, including DPP1–6 and breach notification

    • Cybersecurity incident response and data breach handling

    • Anti-money laundering advisory and policy work

    • ICAC investigations and related defence work

    • Modern Slavery Act and supply-chain reporting for institutions with international obligations

    • Internal investigations

Criminal Defence

  • The matters where the State is on one side and the client is on the other.

    We defend individuals charged with criminal offences in the Magistrates’ Courts, the District Court and the Court of First Instance. The practice covers most of what passes through the Hong Kong criminal courts — drug offences, money laundering, immigration offences, assault, and traffic offences — and we are particularly experienced in cases that intersect with another area of our practice, such as immigration offences and financial crime.

    Our practice is uniquely positioned to handle cases where a defendant may also be a victim. The firm’s managing partner, Ms Patricia Ho, is highly experienced in advising defendants who have been exploited — particularly in scams involving drug trafficking, conspiracy to defraud, or money laundering. This intersection of criminal defence and victim advocacy allows us to provide a nuanced defence for those caught in the complexities of serious crime.

    We act for clients from the police station through to verdict and sentence, and beyond where appeal lies. Our appellate work includes magistracy appeals to the Court of First Instance and section 104 sentence reviews where the original sentence is shown to have proceeded on a wrong basis. Bail applications are part of the work; so is the unglamorous preparation that determines what the trial actually looks like.

    • Police station representation and bail applications

    • Drug offences, including trafficking

    • Money laundering

    • Immigration offences

    • Assault and offences against the person

    • Dangerous driving and traffic offences causing serious injury

    • Magistracy and District Court trials

    • Magistracy appeals to the Court of First Instance

    • Section 104 sentence reviews

    • Cases involving defendants who are also victims of trafficking or forced labour


    Selected matters include HKSAR v CKH [2021] HKDC 1553 (acquittal in the District Court).

Equal Opportunities & Discrimination

  • The work that begins when someone has been treated differently for a reason the law does not allow.

    We act in claims under the four Hong Kong discrimination ordinances — the Sex Discrimination Ordinance, the Race Discrimination Ordinance, the Disability Discrimination Ordinance, and the Family Status Discrimination Ordinance — and in the wider body of equality work that surrounds them, including sexual harassment, sexual orientation and gender identity matters, and constitutional challenges where the discrimination ordinances do not reach. The firm acts for individuals bringing claims and for institutions, including schools, on policy, training, complaints handling and the conduct of internal investigations.

    We have written about discrimination as well as practised it. The firm’s managing partner is a co-editor of the chapter on discrimination in Halsbury’s Laws of Hong Kong (2nd edition, Volume 22, 2022 Reissue) — the standard reference work on Hong Kong law. We have acted in discrimination matters before the Equal Opportunities Commission, in the District Court Equal Opportunities Action, and on judicial reviews where statutory remedies are incomplete or unavailable.

    • Claims under the Sex, Race, Disability and Family Status Discrimination Ordinances

    • Sexual harassment claims

    • Sexual orientation and gender identity matters

    • Equal Opportunities Commission complaints

    • District Court representation in discrimination claims

    • Constitutional challenges where statutory remedies do not reach

    • Advice and policy work for institutions, including schools

    • Training and internal investigations


    Selected matters include Q, R & Tse v Commissioner of Registration and Wong Wing Hei v IMC of Tin Shui Wai Methodist College [2025] HKDC 1616.

Public Law & Judicial Review

  • The cases concerned with how public power is exercised, and how individuals are treated when it is.

    We act for individuals, families, businesses, schools and other institutions in judicial review and other public-law proceedings. The work covers the constitutional grounds — equality, due process, the rights protected by the Bill of Rights — and the more procedural questions of administrative fairness, Wednesbury reasonableness, and the proper exercise of statutory powers. We have appeared at every level of the Hong Kong court system, including the Court of Final Appeal, and before specialist tribunals.

    The subject matter is wide. Recent and current proceedings have concerned the rights of LGBTQ families, refugee and non-refoulement matters, environmental decisions, animal welfare, mental health detention, and human trafficking and forced labour. We accept instructions from applicants and respondents alike, and we are equally willing to advise a company or institution on the legality of a decision it is considering as we are to challenge one it has taken.

    • Judicial review, including constitutional challenges under the Bill of Rights

    • Mental Health Review Tribunal proceedings and reviews of Tribunal decisions

    • Habeas corpus

    • Town planning, environmental and animal welfare matters

    • Public-law advisory work for institutions

      Selected matters include Ha Che Wai v Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital [2026] 1 HKC 285, CB v Commissioner of Police (2025) 28 HKCFAR 306, K (an infant) v Secretary for Justice [2026] 1 HKLRD 517, ZN v Secretary for Justice [2020] HKCFA 53, and LN v Commissioner of Police [2025] 5 HKLRD 578.