Michelle L.Y. Wong
王立欣

Michelle joined Chambers in 2022 following completion of her pupillage with Mr. Erik Shum, Mr. Marco Li, Ms. Queenie Ng and Ms. Elizabeth Herbert.

Michelle has a broad civil and criminal practice. On the civil side, she has a particular focus on matters on probate, trust and equity, mental health, contractual disputes, land (including tso tong and adverse possession), matrimonial and child matters and employment. She has appeared as an advocate in her own right and/or a led junior in various levels of courts in Hong Kong. She is capable of providing written submissions and conducting hearings in both English and Chinese. She accepts instructions in all areas of Chambers’ work.

During her studies, Michelle took part in the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot. She was an oralist for the 17^th Vis East Moot, at which her team won the moot and was awarded the Eric E. Bergsten Award. She returned as a student coach of the team in the following year, and as an external coach to the CUHK Team starting from 2025.

Michelle now serves as a coach of the mock trial competition organised by Side by Side (formerly known as Society of Rehabilitation and Crime Prevention) and a pro-bono lawyer and legal consultant of the Rainlily Legal Clinic.

SELECTED CASES

Probate and Trust

• Chan Shu Lam v Chan Chau Wah [2025] HKCFI 2338: Appeared on behalf of the Plaintiff and successfully propounded the last will of the deceased with expert evidence on testamentary capacity explored (led by Ms. Queenie Ng).
• Chow Yat Ming and Chow Yuk Lan, the administrator and administratrix of the estate of Wong Tai Tai, Deceased v Chow Yee and another [2024] HKDC 2097: Successfully asked for order of vacant possession for the proper administration of the estate with costs despite the 1^st Defendant’s alleged claim for beneficial interests in the subject property (led by Ms. Queenie Ng for the Plaintiff).

Mental health proceedings under Part II of the Mental Health Ordinance, Cap. 136

• F及W [2025] HKCFI 3032: Acted for the Respondent and successfully resisted the Applicant’s application for an order that the subject person be found to be a mentally incapacitated person after a full inquiry with proper procedures on the fair disposal of the mental health proceedings extensively discussed by the Court.
• Law Kam Mui v Wong Tin Chee Tinly and another [2024] HKCFI 717: Acted for the Defendants and successfully obtained orders for examination of the subject person to ascertain if the subject person was mentally incapacitated person and for release of relevant medical records against the backdrop of the subject person being involved in a series of court proceedings (led by Mr. Erik Shum).

Contractual Disputes

• Skytex International Limited v. Eastop Computer Consultants Limited [2024] HKDC 1258: Successfully resisted Plaintiff’s claim for breach of contract for provision of software programme (with Mr. Marco W.K. Li for the Defendant); [2024] HKDC 1822: argued against the Plaintiff’s application for variation of costs order nisi at which the Judge ultimately ordered that the Plaintiff do bear 95% of the Defendant’s costs of the action (sole advocate).

Matrimonial and Child Matters

• LCN v CYK [2024] HKFC 42 (reported in [2024] 5 HKC 221): Argued whether the daughter of the Applicant should be appointed to represent the estate of the Applicant for the purposes of carrying on proceedings for declaration of modern marriage (sole advocate for the Respondent).
• Acted for the father as sole advocate in a successful application by schooling summons for an order in relation to the Primary One Admission of the child of the family.

Employment

• Lee Cheuk Man v Tai Ping Carpets Limited [2025] HKCFI 2733: Obtained leave to appeal as sole advocate for the Appellant (Claimant) and succeeded in the substantive appeal (led by Mr. Kev Wan) on the claims for wrongful deduction of wages and overtime work payments.

Civil Contempt of Court

• Secretary for Justice v Wong Kwok Leung [2023] HKCFI 2026: Defendant being ordered to serve suspended sentence and make contribution to costs following his admission on breaching an injunction order enjoining doxxing of police officers and their family members, with delay in proceedings by the Plaintiff being accepted as a ground of mitigation (sole advocate for the Defendant).

General Crime

• HKSAR v Wei Deen [2024] HKCFI 799: Stay of proceedings; Defendant acquitted of attempted rape; [2024] HKCFI 708: 15-month imprisonment for conviction of indecent assault after the Court finding no breach of trust as defined in law involved in the incident (with Mr. Marco W.K. Li).
• FLCC 2572/2024:  Defendant acquitted of common assault in a one-to-one situation for reasons that the victim’s evidence was found not to be credible as demonstrated during cross-examination (sole advocate).
• ESCC 1594/2022: Defendant acquitted of incitement to expose other persons to the risk of infection for posting an Instagram story showing a positive covid test image with tags “Stay positive; Let’s spread positivity+”, evidence from linguistic expert from HKU adduced (with Mr. Kev Wan).

EDUCATION
PCLL, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (2021)
JD, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (2020)
BA in Translation, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (2018)

SCHOLARSHIPS AND PRIZES
Eric E. Bergsten Award, 17^th Willem C. Vis (East) International Commercial Arbitration Moot, Hong Kong (2020)
JD Silver Scholarships for High Academic Merit, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (2019)
United College Xin Min Scholarship, United College, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (2018)
Academic Performance Award and Faculty Dean’s List, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (2016)