Geoffrey Ma
He also warned lawyers against devising new tactics to make civil proceedings unnecessarily lengthy and inefficient.[8] Ma had a number of public appointments, which include serving as an associate member of the London Maritime Arbitrators Association, an honorary lecturer of the Department of Professional Legal Education of the University of Hong Kong, a member of the Criminal and Law Enforcement Injuries Compensation Board, a member of the High Court Civil Court Users Committee, a member of the Hong Kong Futures Exchange Disciplinary Appeal Tribunal, chairman of the Appeal Tribunal Panel (Buildings), deputy chairman of the SFC Appeals Panel, and deputy chairman of the SFC Takeovers Appeals Committee.He was elected an honorary bencher of Gray's Inn in 2004, making him the third person in Hong Kong conferred with such honour.an appeal from September 2009 when Ma and fellow judges criticised the government for not disclosing information but eventually ruled in favour of an Immigration Department decision to deny entry to Falun Gong practitioners on "security grounds.Nevertheless, the Hong Kong Bar Association stressed that Ma commands "deep respect" and is "eminently qualified".[19] In his retirement sitting, Lord Neuberger delivered (remotely) a farewell address in which he paid tribute to Ma's role in upholding and defending the independence of the judiciary during his tenure as Chief Justice, and described Ma as "a man whom I admire greatly, both as a Judge and as an individual, and whom I am proud to count as a friend".[3] To avoid any possible conflict of interest, Ma would not hear appeals from cases in which Yuen has sat, nor would he deal with any administrative matter concerning her.