Mainly deployed on intellectual property legal work such as formulating policies, preparing law drafting instructions, administering the Trade Marks Ordinance, Patents Ordinance, Registered Designs Ordinance, Copyright Ordinance and Lay-out Design (Topography) of Integrated Circuits Ordinance, exercising quasi-judicial functions and handing down written decisions, providing legal advisory services to government, and promoting intellectual property management.

Candidates must - (a)(i) be solicitors admitted in a recognized jurisdiction as stipulated under Section 2A and Schedule 2 of the Legal Officers Ordinance; or (ii) be barristers with one year’s professional experience since attaining the right to full practice in a recognized jurisdiction as stipulated under Section 2A and Schedule 2 of the Legal Officers Ordinance [Note (1)]; 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 (2)], or equivalent [Note (3)]. Notes: (1) Barristers with right to full practice but do not possess one year’s professional experience since attaining this right may also apply. If selected, they will enter at an appropriate point below the minimum of the Solicitor pay scale. (2) The results of the Use of Chinese (UC) and Use of English (UE) papers in CRE are classified as ‘Level 2’, ‘Level 1’ or ‘Fail’, with ‘Level 2’ being the highest. (3) Grade ‘C’ or above and Grade ‘D’ in Use of English of the Hong Kong Advanced Level Examination (HKALE) or in English Language of the General Certificate of Education (Advanced Level) 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. 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 result are accepted as equivalent to Level 2 result in the UE paper in the CRE. The IELTS test result must be valid on the starting day of the application period, i.e. 21 March 2014. (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.