Dr. the Hon. Geoffrey Ma was Chief Justice of Hong Kong from 2010-2021. He studied law and graduated with an LLB from Birmingham University.  He was called to the English Bar (Gray’s Inn) in 1978, the Hong Kong Bar in 1980, the Bar of the State of Victoria in Australia in 1983 and the Bar of Singapore in 1990. He was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1993. He became an Honorary Bencher of Gray’s Inn in 2004, an Honorary Fellow of Harris Manchester College, Oxford in 2012, and an Honorary Bencher of the Middle Temple in 2016.  He was admitted to the degree of Doctor of Laws (honoris causa) by the University of Birmingham in 2011, The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2016, the University of Hong Kong in 2019 and the Lingnan University in 2020.  He was made an Officier de l’Ordre de la Legion d’Honneur by the French Government in 2015.

Dr. Ma was appointed a Recorder of the Court of First Instance from 2000 to 2001 before his appointment as a Judge of the Court of First Instance in 2001. He was appointed a Justice of Appeal in 2002, and became Chief Judge of the High Court in 2003. Before joining the Judiciary, he was in private practice in Hong Kong and in Singapore.

Dr. Ma is a Patron of the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law and the International Advocacy Training Council.  He is an Honorary Professor of the Faculty of Law of the University of Hong Kong and Honorary Chair and Professor of the University of Birmingham since 2021.