Call: Hong Kong SAR (2016); England & Wales (2022, non-practising)

PRC National Unified Legal Professional Qualification Certificate (2021)

ICC YAAF Representative for North Asia (2021-2024)

B.ENG (CivE) & LL.B (HKU dual-degrees) |  LL.M (Cantab)

Ms. Mao specializes in international commercial arbitration. She frequently acts and advises in Hong Kong-seated and foreign-seated arbitration cases, led or unled.  Ms. Mao routinely serves as tribunal secretary in high-value and complex arbitration cases.

Ms. Mao is developing a practice in investment arbitration.

With respect to court litigation, Ms. Mao has a broad civil practice, embracing general civil actions, winding up proceedings, interlocutory injunctions (e.g. ex parte injunction in aid of arbitral proceedings), and occasionally family matters. She was once led by Miss Clare Montgomery QC in a high-profile commercial fraud criminal appeal in Hong Kong.

Ms. Mao provides expert opinions on Hong Kong law to various mainland courts and tribunals. Her opinions were analyzed and accepted at all levels, including the Higher People’s Court (i.e. the highest provincial court).

Ms. Mao serves as the ICC YAAF representative for North Asia (2021-24). She was appointed by the Secretary for Justice to the Public Education and Publicity Sub-Committee under the Department of Justice Steering Committee on Mediation (2020 – 2021) and was appointed as a bilingual document expert consultant to the China International Commercial Court (2018-2019).

Ms. Mao has authored the regional chapters in Global Arbitration Review’s Guide to Construction Arbitration, 2nd Ed. (2018) – 4th Ed (2021). She is a frequent speaker at conferences and has taught in Peking University International Commercial Dispute Resolution course since 2017.

Adela M. Mao (2014) How to apportion a copyright in joint work by co-authors, Information & Communications Technology Law, 23:2, 136-158, DOI: 10.1080/13600834.2014.925632

Ms. Mao graduated from the University of Cambridge and the University of Hong Kong. She studied law and civil engineering with a full scholarship (HKU Foundation Scholarship for Outstanding Mainland Students) as one of the top candidates from Mainland China and graduated first in class with more than 10 prizes and scholarships. She has a peer-reviewed publication on U.S copyright law (under the supervision of Professor Wendy Gordon), which was completed during her exchange term in the U.S. She once read civil engineering at Tsinghua University on a 1-year commission education program.

English, Mandarin (native) and Cantonese