His father was Lo Cheung-shiu, a compradore of Jardine, Matheson & Co. At the age of 13, he left Hong Kong to study law in England in 1906.

In 1918, he married Victoria Hotung, the eldest daughter of Robert Ho Tung, a prominent Hong Kong businessman and close friend of his father's.

In 1931, he served as honorary legal adviser for the Po Leung Kuk society and the Chinese Gold and Silver Exchange.

Man-kam Lo succeeded his mother-in-law Clara Cheung Lin-kok as director of the Tung Lin Kok Yuen in Happy Valley after her death.

[5] Amidst the threat of a Japanese invasion, Lo was appointed to the Taxation Committee in December 1938, which intended to introduce new taxes to raise extra revenue in preparation for war.

"[9] In 1940, on the eve of the Pacific War, Man-kam Lo and Leo d'Almada e Castro, the Portuguese representative in the Legislative Council, criticized authorities after a government ship evacuating British nationals to Australia, a majority of whom were of pure European descent, forced a number of Eurasians to disembark in Manila, the Philippines, on the grounds that Eurasians would feel more at ease among brown or yellow-skinned people.

At a Financial Committee meeting, Lo raised the issue of racial discrimination, stating that "the tax-payers of this colony are being made to pay for the evacuation of a very small and selected section of the community and, whenever necessary, for their maintenance and support during an indefinite period, leaving some 99.9 percent of the population uncared for and unprotected when an emergency does come."

After the petition of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce on the difficulties of the disruption of public utilities and of supplies, the currency problem, and prostitution, the Japanese authorities formed the Rehabilitation Advisory Committee.

[13] After the Second World War, the UK's Labour Government decided to give people in the colonies a greater say over their affairs.

On his return to Hong Kong in 1946, Governor Sir Mark Young announced a constitutional reform plan of "giving to the inhabitants of the Colony a fuller and more responsible share in the management of their own affairs."

At a meeting of the Legislative Council on 22 June 1949, Man-kam Lo suggested that the Young Plan was no longer the best option for giving Hong Kong residents a greater voice in the government.

[16] Fearing a negative reaction from the Communists, the British Cabinet rejected both Young's reforms and Lo's proposals, deciding instead to allow for the creation of two elected seats in the Urban Council.

In the committee's report, Lo recommended that the custom of Chinese men taking concubines be left untouched on the grounds that the old law "if it is not so acted upon...will gradually die out.

[1] On the day of his funeral, hundreds of prominent local residents, including Governor Sir Robert Black and Commander of the British Forces Bastyan.

paid their respects at Lo's residence and at Wing Pit Ting, the "farewell pavilion" in Pokfulam, with the Hong Kong Police band leading the cortege.

Grantham said Lo was outstanding as an Executive Council member and had "a first class brain, great moral courage and a capacity for digging down into details without becoming lost in them.