Executive Interview
Executive Interviews
An Interview with
Alexander H Y Leung
Managing Partner
H Y Leung & Co. LLP
Our law firm is founded in 2014. We started up with only 2 persons and now we have about 30 solicitors and 60 staffs (i.e. about 90 persons altogether).
We provide all kinds of legal services including: Property, Litigation, Commercial, Corporate Finance, China Notary and Notary Public, company secretarial services.
Publish Date:
7 July 2021
Tell us about your background, and what are you most passionate about?
I am a solicitor of Hong Kong and NSW of Australia. Other than that, I am also CPA (Australia). I obtained my Bachelor of Laws together with my Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting) degrees in UNSW of Australia.
I like law but I also like to run a business and therefore I open my own law firm in 2014.
Describe a time you had to make a tough decision (e.g. budget cuts, organizational restructuring, market withdrawal, etc.). What did you do and what was the result?
My toughest decision i made :-
To expand from about 20-25 staffs to 80 staffs which is 3 times larger than our original size, much increased costs involved, much more human resources and much bigger office space can create many many new and uncertain challenges. Integration is the most challenging tasks for me to overcome.
To overcome the above, all I did was to work hardest and more communications with each staffs and listen to their needs and concerns, then try to solve the problems involved.
How would others define your communication style? Do you prefer to be close to your employees or maintain a healthy distance, and why?
I can be easily approachable and I can openly to all levels of staffs.
Hierachy is needed in an organisation, otherwise it is very difficult to lead as a whole. However I prefer to flatten the hierachy and keep the level of hierachy to the lowest amount of level. I believe this fit into the current environment and this is a worldwide trend also.
How has the industry been changing in recent years? What do you think are the biggest challenges your industry will face in the next 5 years?
Legal industry has not changed so much in recent years, but client base has changed in which more and more mainland clients consist of our client base in the last several years.
The biggest challages we will face in the next 5 years should be the more and more popularity of IT technology, especially AI as it may replace some or even a lot of solicitors' usual day to day work. This trend is irreversable in my view and we have to find out a way to survive and also perform well in this kind of drastic changing environment.
What personality traits make a good leader?
You must be open mind and always like to learn new things from all kind of different sources. Always open to communicate with anyone no matter their level or ranking in the organisation. Care about your team members and let them have a feeling of "home" when they are working in your organisation.
What does the future hold for your company?
We provide all kinds of legal services in Hong Kong. But Hong Kong itself is a saturated market and to have a brighter future, we need to serve more different kinds of clients all around the world. We believe that GBA can be a very bright future market.