More importantly, though, the ball is an opportunity for attendees to hear from the event’s charity partners and to learn more about their efforts to support the wider community in Hong Kong.

This year, one of those partners was Equal Justice 平義社. During the evening, attendees were fortunate enough to be addressed by Kay McArdle (Founder & Director of Equal Justice 平義社) about the mission and work of Equal Justice 平義社. We are sharing this information with those of our blog readers who might wish to discover more about this work.

Launched in 2020, Equal Justice 平義社 is a Hong Kong community legal access charity whose mission is to reduce the hardships experienced by people facing legal problems but who cannot afford, or otherwise access, legal information and support.

For a variety of reasons, many people in Hong Kong require access to legal services, but are unable to obtain the help they need. Equal Justice 平義社 believes that access to legal services is a key driver of social welfare, and that it enables inclusive societies and economic progress, much like healthcare, welfare and education.

Although Equal Justice 平義社 does not itself provide legal advice, it is a critical resource for those in need of legal information and access to lawyers through its network of 100 partner law firms and chambers. This vital work is performed through three separate focus streams:

Free Community Legal Education: Equal Justice 平義社 provides free legal information and training to members of the community. By doing this, Equal Justice 平義社 aims to help people anticipate, prevent, and solve their legal problems through practical legal education, information and support into the community. This year, their services attracted ~1,000 attendees and culminated with Community Legal Education Month 2024 社區法律教育月.

Community Legal Centre: Equal Justice 平義社 provides free, face-to-face legal information and support, as well as referrals to external lawyers and counsellors who are willing to help. Typical legal problems include family matters, employment and discrimination, access to healthcare, education and housing, immigration, criminal matters and, sometimes, personal injury, healthcare, probate and online scams. Those helped are 50% women, 30% children, 15% men and 4% impact organisations.

No-One Left Behind 絕不遺漏一人 - Community Legal Access in Hong Kong 香港社區法律服務: in 2024, Equal Justice 平義社 launched the annual No-One Left Behind 絕不遺漏一人 Forum to foster more understanding and wider acceptance of the importance, status and social impact of having, and investing in, law as a social welfare service. Attendees included foundations, NGOs, The Hong Kong Bar Association, The Law Society of Hong Kong and Pro Bono Singapore.

CLIX: launched by Equal Justice 平義社 in May 2023 in collaboration with two other NGOs, CLIX is an online lawyer-NGO matching platform which connects lawyers willing to provide pro bono legal advice and help to community impact organisations and their client beneficiaries. CLIX has already matched hundreds of requests for legal advice to lawyers willing to help for free.

PAT: or Pregnant@Work, launched by Equal Justice 平義社 this is Hong Kong’s first, free, public, digital legal platform to help employers, employees and families to better manage pregnancies at work through information provided in multiple languages. It won the 2022 ALITA Legal Tech for Good Award.

In the four years since it was launched, Equal Justice 平義社 has provided help to thousands of people in need of legal education and support. Their community legal centre is overflowing, even without advertising. Demand shot up by ~40% in 2022, a further 40% in 2023, and 33% in 2024 up to Q3.

This demonstrates the desperate need for the services provided by Equal Justice 平義社 in Hong Kong. For those interested in finding out more about the work of Equal Justice 平義社, please visit the following links:

Harneys does not practise or advise on matters of Hong Kong law.