Patrick Yu

Who is Patrick Yu?

Dr Patrick Yu Shuk Siu is a celebrated trial and appellate lawyer in Hong Kong.

Born into an intellectual Chinese family in Hong Kong, with ancestry from Taishan Guangdong, Yu was educated at home for many years before attending Wah Yan College Hong Kong, a prominent Jesuit high school in Hong Kong. In 1938, at the age of sixteen, he was admitted to the University of Hong Kong, where he studied in the arts program as a Government Scholar.

In 1941, shortly after the Pacific War had broken out, Yu served with British Naval Intelligence and was commissioned as an officer in the Intelligence Corps of the Army of the Republic of China. In 1945, Yu was awarded a Victory Scholarship by the Government of Hong Kong to continue his studies in England. He studied at Merton College, Oxford until 1948, and later passed his Bar Examination.

Jobless and almost penniless, Yu was forced to find himself a profession. Within a 10-month period, he familiarised himself with all the "niceties" of the English common law, studying in the Bar Library at Lincoln's Inn. In 1949, he passed the bar exam of England and Wales and practised briefly as a chancery barrister in London.