"Gary Chow is an excellent and professional lawyer who knows how to communicate with clients and express legal opinions and suggestions clearly." Client testimonial in Legal 500 2024
Gary was admitted in Hong Kong in 2008 and specialises in personal injury and insurance related litigation. He is a highly experienced and reliable practitioner with strong technical competence. He joins HW in 2022 to reinforce HW's insurance practice.
Gary regularly acts for insurer clients in policy coverage disputes and advises on a multitude of complex policy issues. He has extensive experience in defending casualty and professional indemnity claims involving work accidents, traffic accidents, occupiers' liability, construction sites, container terminals, educational institutions and healthcare professionals. He is expert in handling, investigating and defending highly suspicious claims.
Gary has vast experience in dealing with industrial (construction, marine, aviation related), traffic offence and other departmental summonses involving fatal and serious injury cases (having handled more than 10 fatal or MIP cases in the past 18 months). He and his team are frequently instructed by clients to handle crisis management, attend urgent site inspection, and provide immediate on-site advice in dealing with enforcement authorities (such as police, Labour Department, etc.).
Gary also has experience in advising on regulatory and compliance matters, contractual disputes, debt recovery, employment related matters, data privacy matters, arbitration and criminal matters.
Experience highlights:
- Advising insurers on policy coverage and exclusion, policy interpretation, double insurance, seeking contribution from co-insurers, repudiation of policy liability, non-disclosure, misrepresentation, recovery against insured, under-insurance, insurable interest, subrogation, liability under compulsory insurance legislation, etc.
- Handling subrogation (recovery) claims against third party wrongdoers
- Handling claims for contribution or indemnity against co-defendants
- Handling, investigating, defending and settling personal injury claims of various scale from very minor injury to MIP or paraplegic or tetraplegic or fatal claims (concluded by negotiation, mediation or trial)
- Handling, investigating and defending highly suspicious personal injury claims and succeeded in getting the claimants to withdraw or discontinue their claims, or settle at low level and early stage
- Acting for construction site contractors, container terminal operators, logistics companies, aircraft maintenance companies, cleaning companies, security companies, property management companies, restaurants, retail shops, elderly homes, offices, SMEs, etc. in handling work accident claims and recovery claims under Section 25 of the Employees’ Compensation Ordinance against third party wrongdoers
- Advising and handling industrial summonses, compliance issues relating to safety management system, claims for non-payment of periodical payment, and complaints to the Labour Department against employers
- Advising and handling investigation by the Labour Department in accidents happened at container terminals involving rubber tyred gantry cranes and internal container trucks
- Advising and handling investigation by the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department involving underground electricity cable damage and explosion
- Advising motor insurers and the Motor Insurers’ Bureau of Hong Kong on liability under the Domestic Agreement and the compulsory insurance legislation, and defending bodily injury and property damage claims arising out of traffic accidents
- Acting for property management, security and cleaning companies on accidents happened at residential estates, commercial buildings and shopping malls, and advising on the related contribution or indemnity claims between the property management, security and cleaning companies under their respective public liability policies and service contracts
- Advising on water seepage claims in residential, commercial and hotel buildings
- Advising on fire incidents in warehouse and electricity power substation
- Acting for healthcare professionals (including physiotherapist, chiropractor, Chinese medicine practitioner and optometrist) in malpractice claims involving negligent treatment
- Acting for special school and elderly home in personal injury claims involving negligent care
- Acting for educational institutions and their management committees in defending a wide variety of claims relating to employment related matters (e.g. dismissal, suspension of employment, disciplinary procedure, variation of employment terms, reduction of wages, misrepresentation, etc.), discrimination, wrongful or negligent student care, wrongful or negligent guidance, wrongful or negligent discipline, breach of the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance, etc.
- Advising insurance broker on claim by insured for breach of professional duty
- Advising property all risks and business interruption insurer on policy liability, subrogation issue, legal liability and quantum of loss arising out of a major roof collapse incident in Hong Kong
- Advising property all risks insurer on legal liability and quantum of loss arising out of a vessel allision incident happened during super typhoon
- Advising insurer on business interruption claims and policy coverage issues arising out of COVID-19
- Advising reinsurer on matters relating to the winding-up of a liability insurer in Hong Kong
- Advising insurer on aviation war risk claims and policy coverage issues arising out of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022
- Advising insurer on exclusion clause relating to public liability policy, product liability policy and professional indemnity policy
- Advising insurer on matters relating to surety bond
- Handling a telephone enquiry hotline for answering enquiries from insured relating to policy coverage and claim notification issues
- Advising on debt recovery claims and related enforcement action and bankruptcy or winding up proceedings
- Advising on complaints filed with the Insurance Authority by insured against insurer
