Joanne Lam

Associate

• Profile
• Experience and key cases ⬜
• Memberships ⬜

Joanne is an Associate in our Family Practice having joined the firm as a Trainee Solicitor in 2017 and was admitted as a solicitor in Hong Kong in 2019. She was also admitted as a solicitor in England and Wales in 2022.

Her focus at Tanner De Witt is on family and matrimonial matters. She advises on all aspects of family law matters, including nuptial agreements, divorce and separation, financial arrangements and children’s matters.

Joanne is experienced in drafting and negotiating both pre- and post-nuptial agreements. She frequently advises on financial settlement proposals upon separation and divorce, including children and spousal maintenance and applications for subsequent variations, as well as children’s custody, care and control and access arrangements and removal applications. A firm believer in settlement outside of the Court room, she regularly advises and assists clients through the mediation process, including negotiating and finalising mediated agreements. Joanne has experience assisting Joanne Brown on several collaborative practice matters, as a newer form of alternative dispute resolution in the divorce process.

She also assists the firm’s disputes team in both litigation and arbitration, and has experience in private client matters, including immigration, probate and employment-related issues. She assists with cases both in the Family Court and in the High Court of Hong Kong. She is training to become an accredited mediator in Hong Kong.

Joanne has a particular interest in matters relating to mental health law and the surrounding issues, and specifically in relation to the capacity of minors and the elderly.

Joanne read Law at the University of Nottingham and completed her Postgraduate Certificate in Laws at the University of Hong Kong. She is fluent in English and Cantonese and speaks conversational Mandarin.

Before commencing her legal career, Joanne worked as a journalist in Hong Kong, where her articles focused on global luxury trends targeted at high-net-worth individuals. She has interviewed and is experienced in working closely with many high profile and well-known individuals and understands the importance of privacy and discretion. Her work has appeared in the South China Morning Post and the International New York Times, amongst other publications. She holds a Master of Journalism from the University of Hong Kong.

• Profile ⬜
• Experience and key cases
• Memberships ⬜

Family

• Acting for clients to advise on ancillary relief including asset division, spousal and child maintenance both within a court context and by lawyer assisted negotiation and mediation.
• Regularly advising clients on pre and post nuptial agreements and optimising their intended goals and outcomes.
• Acted for clients on disputes over custodial rights, and care and control and access arrangements for children.
• Acted for clients in relocation applications to permanently remove children from Hong Kong.
• Acted for a client on a particularly complex case, including legal issues as to who is a child of the family and parental rights and duties of parties.
• Advised in urgent applications on children’s arrangements, including Wardship applications and applications for urgent overseas travels in High Court proceedings.
• Acted in a pro bono capacity in an urgent Wardship application and subsequent Hague Convention application for child abduction.
• Advising clients on nuptial agreements (pre- and post-nuptial) and their enforceability in Hong Kong.
• Assisting on Collaborative Practice cases to reach holistically approached full and final settlements without any court applications.

Litigation

• Advised a Hong Kong subsidiary of a global events branding and marketing company listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in the Court of First Instance and Court of Appeal to enforce a foreign court judgment concerning matters of foreign revenue law.

Arbitration

• Advised a global pharmaceutical company in an HKIAC arbitration involving a multimillion US-dollar damages claim against a PRC-based pharmaceutical distribution company for material breaches of contract.

• Profile ⬜
• Experience and key cases ⬜
• Memberships

Professional Memberships

• Hong Kong Family Law Association
• The Law Society of Hong Kong
• The Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong

Other Memberships

• Foreign Correspondents’ Club, Hong Kong