Indirectly-elected lawmaker Vong Hin Fai, the newly-elected president of the Macau Lawyers Association (AAM), said yesterday that around 440 people are currently registered as lawyers in Macau, a decrease from the around 500 before the COVID-19 pandemic began to affect Macau in early 2020.
Vong made the remarks while speaking to reporters during yesterday’s Spring Festival Lunch hosted by the legislature for local Chinese-, English- and Portuguese-language media representatives at MGM Macau in Nape.
Jorge Neto Valente, who had been the AAM president for 20 years, did not seek re-election last year. Vong was the sole candidate in the election late last year for a two-year term which started on January 1, 2023.
According to the AAM website, 446 lawyers are currently registered with the association.
Vong noted that over the past three years, Macau’s legal sector has been adversely affected by COVID-19. He said that over the past three years, some Portuguese lawyers in Macau returned to Portugal, while some quit the sector and joined the public administration to work as legal consultants, because of which the city recorded a decrease in the number of registered lawyers.
Vong pledged that his association will help young local lawyers develop their careers in Guangdong cities of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area (GBA).
Indirectly-elected legislator Vong Hin Fai, the new president of the Macau Lawyers Association (AAM), talks to reporters at MGM Macau in Nape yesterday. – Photo: Tony Wong
