Martin Fairbairn's Απολογία

Martin Fairbairn was admitted as a Solicitor in England in 1965 and in Hong Kong in 1969. In 1970, he formed his own firm as a one-man private practitioner with one girl-Friday and one messenger as staff with a focus on helping poor clients on legal aid and also forming companies for struggling entrepreneurs.

By the middle of the '80s, his firm was the 11th biggest law firm in Hong Kong with 2 full floors of office space, 9 partners and a total headcount of 160 people with 4 divisions specialising in Commercial, Real Estate, Intellectual Property and Litigation.

Martin retired from his practice in 1990 in order to represent a major client in the UK and obtain a UK passport for his Hong Kong-Chinese wife, starting afresh as a sole practitioner.

In 1996, a Swiss "private bank" with which Martin had deposited client funds was found to have embezzled US$1.2 million of his client funds. The Law Society then took over his practice and accused him of "cooking the books". That accusation was false.

The accounts showed clearly whose money was stolen and who had stolen it, but the Law Society's representatives unlawfully commingled all of his different clients' deposits and told his clients that Martin had stolen their money. The loss impoverished Martin and left him unable to fight the Law Society, who struck him off the roll of Solicitors.

In 2002 the Hong Kong Law Society followed suit and also struck him off their roll, based solely on the English decision and in a hearing of which Martin had neither knowledge nor notice.

The allegation of the loss of the money was truthful. The allegation that Martin was in any way complicit in or knowledgeable of the loss, or that he "cooked the books" in any way at all, was totally — and knowingly — fabricated.

This statement is published with the knowledge and consent of Global Team Services Limited and reflects the personal views of Martin D. Fairbairn alone.