David Robinson was born in 1952, a year when Hong Kong was a British colony whose legal system rested on English common law. English is among the languages he speaks.
The legal environment he entered was shaped by that colonial inheritance. Hong Kong practice drew on English legal training, which made admission in England a significant credential for lawyers working in the territory.
Robinson's formal legal qualifications are recorded as admissions to the bar: in England in 1978 and in Hong Kong in 1980. Admission to the bar is the formal entry point to the legal profession in the jurisdiction concerned, and the two admissions reflect the English origins of Hong Kong's legal system.
David Robinson's documented professional career centres on Wilkinson & Grist, where he works as a partner. The firm is a practice of solicitors and notaries, and it traces its origins to 1883, when Daniel Edmund Caldwell founded it in Hong Kong.
After Caldwell left the firm in 1891, the partner Wilkinson was joined by Edgar James Grist, and the firm took the name Wilkinson & Grist. The firm moved to 9 Queen's Road Central in 1905 and to 2 Queen's Road Central in 1931. It opened a Beijing office in 2000 and established a Beijing intellectual property agency in 2004.
The firm's history also connects its early leaders with the legal institutions of the colony. Wilkinson was one of the subscribers to the memorandum of association of the Law Society of Hong Kong, which was incorporated in 1907. The firm's corporate, commercial and real estate practices have grown alongside Hong Kong's development as a major financial centre.
Robinson's role at the firm is that of partner, a position in one of Hong Kong's longest-established independent law practices.
