Sharon A Ser
Partner
Sharon is a partner in the divorce and family team.
She has been in Hong Kong for some 30 years and remains as excited by its opportunities and possibilities as she was when first coming here. The legal issues in Hong Kong are almost always complex and international in flavour reflecting the sort of people who live here whether born here or have made Hong Kong their home.
Sharon focuses on family matters and international divorce cases involving jurisdiction arguments and financial issues including, these days more than ever, the impact of trusts both those already created or to be created. This area of law also inevitably includes advising on cases involving children and the international relocation of them.
She also increasingly advises on the drafting and enforceability of pre and postnuptial agreements. Her cases often involve advising high net worth individuals where complex financial structures are involved and assets are located globally.
Sharon has also assisted in the criminal and civil law fields but her specialty is very much family law based. She has been involved in a number of the key reported and ground-breaking legal cases in the family field, many of which have fundamentally impacted on this area of the law.
She is a Civil Celebrant of Marriages, and although she has conducted more divorces than marriages, she greatly enjoy the latter. She is ever the optimist.
Sharon is frequently invited by various international associations, conference organisers, and banks to give talks on family law issues. She has been ranked as a Band 1 lawyer on Chambers Asia-Pacific for years, and is recognised as a Preeminent Lawyer on Doyle’s Hong Kong Family & Divorce Lawyers 2019 and 2020. In 2020, she is recognised by the Benchmark Litigation as the Top 100 Women in Litigation in Asia-Pacific.
Track record
Admissions
Publications
Memberships
Talks
Leading the team on a Court of Final Appeal landmark case which changed the law in respect of prenuptial agreements in Hong Kong: SPH v SA (Forum and Marital agreements) [2014] HKFLR 286.
Previously Sharon led the team on the leading Court of Appeal forum case in Hong Kong which is regularly quoted in the many forum disputes in Hong Kong DGC v SLC (Stay of proceedings; forum non conveniens) [2008] HKFLR 160.
Leading the team on a Court of Appeal case which confirmed the law in respect of premarital assets: PW v PPTW (Ancillary relief: non matrimonial property) [2015] 1 HKC 450.
England and Wales, 1983
Hong Kong SAR, 1987
‘International Comparative Legal Guides – Family Law 2020, Third Edition – Hong Kong Chapter’, Global Legal Group – Sept 2019
‘Protecting Assets on Divorce’, Far Eastern Edition of ‘Credit Suisse Guide to Managing your wealth’
‘Family Law and Practice in Hong Kong on the International Overview of Matrimonial Finance in Other Jurisdictions’
Hong Kong Family Law Association
Fellow of the International Academy of Family Lawyer
‘The changing nature of modern families’, Withers’ modern relationships podcast, co-presenter, March 2020
‘Protecting Matrimonial Assets’, The 7th Offshore Investment Conference Hong Kong 2016, Hong Kong, 15 June 2016
‘What dad/mum/your spouse didn’t tell you: dealing with messy deaths and divorces’, The 17th Annual International Wealth Transfer Practice Conference: Private Client Advisors – How many balls can you juggle?, London, UK, 5-6 March 2012
Me in a minute
I do a great deal of interfaith and community work
Education
Languages
- English