Jan 2024
Conyers is delighted to announce that Ms. Diana Chung (钟焕瑜) is the winner of the Conyers Dill & Pearman Prize in Commercial Law 2022-2023.
This annual scholarship is one of the many ways that Conyers supports students and future legal practitioners. The aim of this annual scholarship is to encourage the post-graduate pursuit of legal knowledge and recognise outstanding academic performance of students in the area of commercial law. The scholarship is awarded to law students who have excelled among their peers and demonstrate great potential in the legal profession.
Get the chance to know Diana – the award winner
As a Manager of Corporate Finance at the Securities and Futures Commission (“SFC”), Diana recently completed her Master of Laws (“LLM”) in Corporate and Financial Law (“CFL”) at The University of Hong Kong. She also holds a Bachelor of Business Administration (“BBA”) in Global Business and Professional Accounting from The University of Science and Technology. Throughout the interview, Diana shared her passions, study journey and career choice.
Q1) Can you tell us briefly about yourself? And a bit of your background?
I graduated from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology with BBA in Global Business and Professional Accounting. Then I joined Ernst & Young, where I became a Certified Public Accountant and Certified Fraud Examiner. I mostly worked on fraud investigations and financial crime compliance projects as a forensic accountant. I started off as a business graduate and got to know about compliance and regulation in my early career. To focus on investigation, I was then motivated to join the Enforcement Division of the Securities and Futures Commission as an investigator.
Q2) Why did you choose to study Master of Laws in Corporate and Financial Law? What motivates you?
Even though the LLM(CFL) programme was not meant to be vocational, the academic knowledge and networking opportunities it offers are very helpful to my job as a regulator. At SFC, I learnt that every step of our regulatory work was based on the statutory power codified in the Securities and Futures Ordinance (“SFO”). After taking relevant courses about securities law, I understood the history of the SFC, the intention of the SFO and the rationale behind certain amendments made throughout the years.
Q3) How do you feel when you have won the prize?
I would like to thank the school for recognizing my academic performance and Conyers Dill & Pearman for sponsoring this award. I am very honored to receive this award. I am grateful for the support I received during the journey, including my referees for recommending me to HKU, my employer for granting me study leave for exams, my professors for all the extra preparation made for online teaching, my colleagues for sharing their regulatory experience, and my classmates who worked with me in group projects. This award is not just for me, but for all people who supported me, making all the hours spent rewarding.
Q4) What direction are you seeking to take with your career?
During a course “International securities law” taken in my final semester, I was given the opportunity to critically analyse the disclosure quality of an actual prospectus and to evaluate a new listing policy. I got interested in listing and applied for an internal transfer to the Corporate Finance Division. I am now working on IPO vetting, making good use of knowledge from both my legal and accounting studies.
Q5) What advice would you give for those who are thinking of joining for the same programme?
The programme allows us to take two other LLM courses outside CFL as electives, I found it an excellent opportunity to familiarize myself with a broader range of legal conceptions outside the financial market. I would encourage students to take courses beyond their profession or practice, which could train their critical thinking, enhance their research methods, and open up new perspectives to make global news more relevant to oneself.
Thank you, Diana. Please join us in congratulating on her outstanding academic achievement!
About Conyers Dill & Pearman Prize in Commercial Law
The Conyers Dill & Pearman Prize in Commercial Law was established in 2010 by Conyers’ Hong Kong office in conjunction with The University of Hong Kong. The prize is valued at US$5,000 (HK$39,000) and is awarded to the LLM student who displays the best overall performance in the Master of Laws in Corporate and Financial Law programme. The recipient is selected by the University of Hong Kong’s Faculty of Law Board.