Editing Barrister (section)

===Hong Kong===
{{main|Hong Kong Bar Association}}
The legal profession in Hong Kong is also divided into two branches: barristers and solicitors.

In the [[High Court of Hong Kong]] (including both the [[Court of First Instance (Hong Kong)|Court of First Instance]] and the [[Court of Appeal (Hong Kong)|Court of Appeal]]) and the [[Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal]], as a general rule, only barristers and [[solicitor-advocate]]s are allowed to speak on behalf of any party in open court. This means that solicitors are restricted from doing so. In these two courts, save for hearings in chambers, barristers dress in the traditional English manner, as do the judges and other lawyers.

In Hong Kong, the rank of King's Counsel was granted prior to the [[handover of Hong Kong]] from the [[United Kingdom]] to [[China]] in 1997. After the handover, the rank has been replaced by [[Senior Counsel]] [[post-nominal letters]]: SC. Senior Counsel may still, however, style themselves as silks, like their British counterparts.