About 60 lawyers have either left Macao or taken up different work since the Covid-19 pandemic struck in early 2020.
Indirectly-elected lawmaker Vong Hin Fai, the new president of the Macao Lawyers Association (AAM), has said that around 440 people are currently registered as lawyers in Macao, a decrease from around 500 three years ago.
Vong spoke out during yesterday’s Spring Festival Lunch hosted by the legislature for local Chinese-, English- and Portuguese-language media representatives at MGM Macao in Nape.
Jorge Neto Valente, who had been the AAM president for 20 years, did not seek re-election last year. Vong was the sole candidate for a two-year term which started on 1 January.
According to the AAM website, 446 lawyers are currently registered with the association.
Vong noted that over the past three years, Macao’s legal sector has been adversely affected by Covid-19. He said that some lawyers had returned home to Portugal, while others quit the sector and joined the public administration to work as legal consultants, because of which the city recorded a decrease in the number of registered lawyers.
Vong pledged that his association will help young local lawyers develop their careers in Guangdong cities of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, The Macau Post Daily reported.
