A Senior Solicitor is mainly deployed on intellectual property legal work relating to policy formulation and law-making, registration of trademarks, patents and designs, quasi-judicial tribunal hearings, civil legal advisory services to government departments and bureaux and public education.

Candidates must - (a)(i) be solicitors with at least 5 years’ professional experience since admission in a recognized jurisdiction as stipulated under Section 2A and Schedule 2 of the Legal Officers Ordinance; or (ii) be barristers with at least 6 years’ professional experience after attaining the right to full practice in a recognized jurisdiction as stipulated under Section 2A and Schedule 2 of the Legal Officers Ordinance; and (b) have met the language proficiency requirements of ‘Level 2’ result in the Use of English paper and ‘Level 1’ result in the Use of Chinese paper in the Common Recruitment Examination (CRE) [Note (1)], or equivalent [Note (2)]. Candidates who do not have ‘Level 1’ result in the CRE Use of Chinese paper but have attained Level 2 or above in Chinese Language in the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination (HKDSEE) or Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination (HKCEE) [Note (3)], or equivalent, may also apply. Notes: (1) Candidates’ results of the Use of Chinese (UC) and Use of English (UE) papers are classified as ‘Level 2’, ‘Level 1’ or ‘Fail’, with ‘Level 2’ being the highest. (2) Grade ‘C’ or above and Grade ‘D’ in Use of English of the Hong Kong Advanced Level Examination (HKALE) are accepted as equivalent to ‘Level 2’ and ‘Level 1’ results respectively in the UE paper of the CRE. ‘Grade C’ or above and ‘Grade D’ in Chinese Language and Culture or Chinese Language and Literature of the HKALE are accepted as equivalent to ‘Level 2’ and ‘Level 1’ results respectively in the UC paper of the CRE. Grade ‘C’ or above in English Language of the General Certificate of Education (Advanced Level) is accepted as equivalent to ‘Level 2’ in the UE paper in the CRE. Applicants with an overall band of 6.5 or above with no subtest score below band 6 obtained in the same sitting in the Academic Module of the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) within the two-year validity period of the test is considered as having met the English language proficiency requirement of the Senior Solicitor post. The IELTS test result must be valid on the starting day of the application period, i.e. 28 February 2014. (3) For civil service appointment purpose, ‘Grade E’ in Chinese Language in previous HKCEE is accepted administratively as comparable to ‘Level 2’ in Chinese Language in the 2007 HKCEE and thereafter. (4) For the purpose of heightening public awareness of the Basic Law (BL) and promoting a culture of learning of BL in the community, assessment of BL knowledge will be included in the recruitment of all civil service jobs. Results of the BL test for degree/professional grades will be one of the considerations to assess the suitability of a candidate but will not affect his/her eligibility for applying for civil service jobs. As a general principle, the main consideration for suitability for appointment remains a candidate’s qualification, experience and calibre.