Maritime lawyer Brenda Chark has built a successful and well-regarded international maritime law firm in Hong Kong over the past 16 years.

Founded and run by a woman, Brenda Chark & Co is a unique, independent shipping legal practice. It is equally remarkable for having established itself in the face of competition from the territory's power houses of maritime law: Ince & Co, Stephenson Harwood, Hill Dickinson and HFW.

Chark's legal career began in the 1990s when two friends — Taiwanese maritime lawyers Roger Yang and Vickie Wang — advised her to specialise in shipping as she headed to study law at the UK's University of Southampton.

She learned the ropes firstly as an intern and then as a trainee at Ince & Co in Hong Kong, where she stayed for eight years.

There was no grand plan to go it alone when Chark started her own practice in 2006. She just needed a platform to carry out work offered to her by Liberty Mutual Insurance group executive Karen Lee.

"She very kindly offered me instructions, so I thought 'why don't I just set up my own firm?'" Chark said. "It was not a planned move, I just needed somewhere to handle my cases.

"I started with just a PA and a clerk. Gradually, I was fortunate to start to get my own work and I recruited a paralegal, trainees and assistant solicitors to help me."

Chark is eager to credit the firm's success to those who helped her — friends who stepped in to provide childcare when the opportunity came to develop clients in Taiwan and South Korea, and former colleagues and mentors who offered support.

Sisterhood

Hong Kong's close-knit business community and shipping's "sisterhood" were also a big help.

Chark stressed that she gets just as much satisfaction from the friendships she has made as she does from building, what is now, a long list of successful cases.

"It's not just about hard work — the casualties and the groundings — you have friendships too," she said. "It helps you to enjoy your career, and makes it more than just a way to make ends meet."

Chark added that Hong Kong also offers opportunities for women to attain senior positions, citing some prominent female executives working in commercial shipping in the territory — Liberty's Lee; Annie Ng, head of Asia for the Marshall Islands; and Henrietta Lee, former director at Noble Chartering.

She said Hong Kong's legal system has also treated her fairly, adding that she has not felt disadvantaged by being a woman or operating as a local independent firm.

Big boys

"I have handled cases where my opponents were represented by the so-called big boys, but the courts would not find against my clients simply because of that," Chark said. "I have huge respect for our legal system, they will look at the merits of the case, irrespective of whether you are from a substantial international law firm, or a sole proprietor."

While she has been prepared to go toe to toe with the big law firms, she candidly concedes she has, at times, lost out in the tussle for local legal talent.

Chark has seen trainees leave to join bigger names.

"My challenge is to retain talent, I seem to be training talent for my peers," she said.

Chark has ambitions to expand the practice and open up the partnership, but attracting partners to grow the firm has been also been an issue.

Brenda Chark recommends shipping as an area to work for ambitious women. Photo: Brenda Chark & Co

"I don't know whether they hesitate because it's my firm," she said. "Because it's under the name of a woman, perhaps that makes it not that attractive for a gentleman to join me as a partner."

Chark, who helped set up Wista Hong Kong, is keen to encourage women to work in shipping.

She tells them maritime law requires dedication, patience and attention to detail. But the pay back is travel and the chance to build both personal and business relationships worldwide.

However, to practice in Hong Kong, she warned that you need to be on top of your game.

"You need to be really detailed because the judges in Hong Kong are incredibly hard working," she said. "If you don't know your case better than the judge, then you had better not waste their time."