Hla Ko
Advocate at Mandalay Law Firm Myanmar
U Hla Ko has extensive judicial experience. From 1967 to 1975, he served in the roles of an Additional Township Magistrate, Township Judge and Magistrate and Judicial Officer. From 1976 to 1982, he was a Higher Grade Pleader, and in 1982 also served as a Supreme Court advocate. From 1995 to 2002, he was the Vice President of the Myanmar Anti-Narcotic Association for the Mandalay Region. He was the President of the Mandalay Bar Association from 2010 to 2012, and is now a member of Mandalay Bar Association. Mr. Ko is the Chairman of the Myanmar Legal Aid Network, and the President of the Mahasi Meditation Center in Mandalay. U Hla Ko founded the Mandalay Law Firm in 1998, which trains over 300 Higher Grade Pleaders and aims to develop capacity for young lawyers. The Mandalay Law Firm also provides a legal consultancy service. He has also published several works, including books on the Applied Court Fee Act and Suit Valuation Act, the applied Limitation Act, Gambling Law, a Digest of Myanmar Rulings (Criminal and Civil, from 1986-1995), and the law relating to foreigners and immigration law.
U Hla Ko attended the 1st Annual Asia Pro Bono Conference in 2012 (Lao) and 3rd Annual Asia Pro Bono Confierence in 2014 (Singapore). LokVi Ming, SC, President of the Law Society of Singapore, handed the “Viva Pro Bono” flag to U Hla Ko, Chairman of the Mandalay Bar Association during the ceremony. In 2014, he was a member of a delegation sent to South Africa for an international conference on legal aid and access to criminal justice. U Hla Ko assured the audience that he would continue to “drink the pro bono tonic to ensure a long life.” He is also a strong advocate of a legal aid bill that was submitted to parliament last month.