如何报考香港律师考试？分享申请olqe遇到的坑
0. 是否有报名资格：报名材料里，有句话让我当时以为没有资格报名「在香港工作的人，只有注册外国律师的经验才作数。」英文大概是这个意思。
那如果是法务的经验，到底是否作数呢。其实这段的上下文，是说法律助理/legal assistant/paralegal之类的职务是不作数的（尽管可能已经持有哪里的律师执照了），至于法务，已经见过好几个拿着法务经验的人去参加考试的人，所以法务的经验应该是认可的（当然也申请材料里也说过，会根据实际情况具体判断了）。
Even if you are only an in-house, you may still be qualified to sit OLQE (they will consider case by case). “ In Hong Kong, only experience gained as a registered foreign lawyer will count . Paralegal experience gained by overseas qualified lawyers working in Hong Kong law firms will not count.” In this context, it means that if you are in private practice , you need to be a registered foreign lawyer but not a paralegal.
1. admission certificate。如果你是纽约第3部门的，那么恭喜你，到时候你不会有这个问题，因为第3部门是发这个东西的。
如果你跟我一样是倒霉的第1部门，那么如果你跟我一样交了材料还要你补一封信，那么在第一次申请的时候，你就最好跟第一部门的人说，你需要一个letter of attestation，这样才能满足olqe的要求。我第一次申请good standing certificate的时候不知道要办这个信，结果只好让我的朋友再去一次，严重耽误了时间。
（注：现在2022年开始申请第一部门的good standing证明不需要本人去或者寄信了，可以直接在网站上申请，也不用花钱了。
现在发出的电子版证明会有一页附页，上面写明了第一部门除了这个证明之外没有admission certificate。香港律师会可能会要求电子版证明直接从纽约法院这边发过去，这时候再写封邮件请他们转发good standing证明给香港律师会即可。）
If you are in the 3rd department in NY, you will receive an admission certificate and you're golden. If you're in the 1st dept like me, then something other than the good standing certificate will be needed — a letter of attestation, attesting that the good standing certificate is the only thing the 1st department will issue in terms of lawyer qualification. This letter can only be requested in writing, and together with your good standing certificate, so it would be helpful if you know this firsthand and just need to hit the 1st dept once.
( Update : starting from 2022 First Dept no longer requires you to appear in person or send in a snail mail to request a good standing certificate. Now all you need to do is just click a few buttons and you will receive a pdf good standing certificate in your email, free of charge, together with a slip explaining that there is no admission certificate in the First Dept. You can ask the First Dept to forward your good standing certificate to the HK law society if they so requires.)
2. 成绩单。因为在美国念的法学院，所以成绩单上没有equity、admin law这两科考olqe的必修课。但是上其他课比如torts或者property需要学一点equity，所以我就直接交了。
问题是律协是不接受这样的解释的，他们一定要当年上的法学院出个证明，证明我们学过这些东西，而且还特地提供了一封之前我们学院提供的信作为佐证。把这封信提供给学院，他们很快就答应出具这个证明，只是从美国寄过来又要一段时间。
The law society requires that you have taken equity and admin law for sitting the OLQE. I vaguely recall that I have learned a little while studying torts and property, so I just submitted my transcript highlighting these two. The law society won't take it . They still require a letter from my law school explaining this. They even sent me an old letter from my school someone else submitted. I gave this letter to my school, and they immediately agreed to send me this letter. It just takes another month for the letter to arrive.
3. 学位证。应该不是每个人都有这个问题，只是我的学位证是拉丁语的，然后学校提供了一个模板，可以自己对着翻译。问题是律协是不接受的，他们一定要你找一个专业的语言翻译把它翻译成英语，并且能签字认证这个翻译是正确的。
我没找到哪里有专业的拉丁语翻译，不过申请有关成绩单的解释信的时候顺便提了一下，结果他们也愿意出一个这样的证明，希望律协不会逼着我去找一个真的拉丁语翻译（而且去哪里找呢，梵蒂冈？）
This might just be my problem, but my diploma is in Latin. The school sent us a template so you can just translate it itself. It worked most of the time (since the diploma has my name, my degree, the time and name of the school on it in English so no one really cared) but not with the law society. What a pleasant surprise. They ask for a certification from a professional translator to certify that the translation is correct, but where do I find a professional translator of Latin? From the Holy See? Anyway my school is willing to give me a certification for this (and the guy certifying this said he had 4 years of college learning Latin). Hopefully this will work for the law society.
4. 职业证明信。要找同一个雇主又写推荐信又写职业证明信已经很烦了，但是职业证明信也要说明你是在那个岗位执业你已经取得律师证的那个地方的法律的，这一点在申请指南里提都没提，现在又跑来要，真是麻烦透了。
It's already painful to ask the same employer for a reference letter and an employment verification letter. It's more annoying when you have to go back and ask them to confirm that, you're practicing the law of the jurisdiction where you're admitted. This is not mentioned anywhere in the info pack, but just so you know, not the only thing they ask you to do twice (at least).
5. 司法局外国律师证明。作为外国律师在境内工作过的话会要提供这个，但实际上给的title应该是顾问，要办那个外国律师证明其实相当难，就说没有也没事（只要其他经验加起来满足要求即可）。
PRC certificate of a foreign lawyer. If you worked in PRC, they will ask for a justice bureau certificate for foreign lawyers. Never had this and told them worked as a consultant but not a foreign lawyer (unlike HK, PRC seems pretty reluctant to grant this kind of certificate). Turned out to be fine.
Update:
经历了千辛万苦，终于拿到了Section 3(2) certificate，可以去申请考试了。 。 。
以上几个问题里面：
- 因为疫情，纽约法院那边不办理任何纸质文件，不过愿意帮我写一封email
- 写email给法学院以后，教务部爽快地帮我办了
- 同上
- 原雇主在被我软磨硬泡之后还是帮我写了，虽然多花了一个月时间。 。 。
十分感谢为了这次申请帮忙的人。
Finally going to take the test. Per 1 above, NY court stopped sending any hard copies due to the virus outbreak but sent an email on my behalf
Per 2 and 3, my law school helped out immediately.
Per 4, my employer eventually wrote me something.
Really appreciate all the help.
