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The Asia Chronicles: KINNEY'S RECENT HK / CHINA US ASSOCIATE PLACEMENTS / LATERAL MARKET REPORT

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hong-kong[Ed. note: This post is authored by the Asia Recruiting Team at Kinney Recruiting, sponsor of the Asia Chronicles. Kinney has made more placements of U.S. associates and partners in Asia than any other firm in the past two years. You can reach them by email: asia at kinneyrecruiting dot com.]

We’re writing from Hong Kong. Our team is just finishing up another busy trip to visit clients and candidates in Hong Kong. During the course of ten days we had over 50 meetings (mostly with firms regarding US associate hiring) and potential candidates (at associate and partner level).

We have Alexis on the ground permanently in HK, but it is always good for Robert to continue to visit HK about once every two months, to stay informed and meet our clients in person. We will be heading to Beijing later this month and we will be back in HK in August. Although Dubai is not exactly a hot lateral market this year, we will be also in Dubai in August (unfortunately at the time of year when it is literally too hot to walk down the street very far).

Firms where we have very recently made placements of US associates in HK / China, in the past several months: (* – multiple placements)

· Simpson Thacher *
· Milbank *
· Paul Hastings *
· Allen & Overy *
· Latham*
· Cleary
· Skadden
· Sidley Austin
· Ropes & Gray
· Kirkland & Ellis
· Jones Day

Keep in mind that candidates who accepted offers at the firms above typically had other offers at different firms, many of which unfortunately do not yet appear on this list. We continue to work on these openings and others. The partner in charge of one of our key clients told us last week that he would be surprised if we were not making significantly more placements of US-trained associates in Hong Kong/China than every other recruiting firm in the market combined.

Hong Kong / China is a hot lateral market for US associates now, as far as openings are concerned (notwithstanding the recent EU problems causing the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock indices to drop, as well as being a potential roadblock for IPOs to continue going forward in HK / China at anywhere near recent pace). However, this continues to be a market that is ultra-selective, due to the high number of very qualified US associate candidates on the market (both coming from US and within the HK / China).

Firms are moving slowly to fill openings in this market, in large part due to the number of qualified candidates they are seeing as applicants. An exception to this is when firms come off of hiring freeze and hire a handful of associates within a week or two. But keep in mind that those new hires had, in most cases, been in discussions with partners at those firms for months while the market was frozen. This phenomenon is rapidly coming to an end as firm after firm turns on the spigots and asks us to present our best candidates.

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We have a large number of US associate candidates interviewing now in Hong Kong and China and just recently are starting to have many more interviews set up in Singapore and Tokyo (Japan’s economy in general has made quite a recovery in recent months, with the first quarter growth being much higher than many economic experts anticipated).

Every time that the market for legal talent begins to improve in Hong Kong and Greater China, someone predicts a new hurdle. The chief current anxiety in the market concerns whether the EU situation can keep the Hong Kong and Shanghai stock market indices down and poison the environment for IPO’s in the 4th quarter. Another concern is whether an asset price bubble is developing and might burst. But this could be a blessing in disguise for the market. If the China economy blows past these hurdles, as the more optimistic forecasters (the majority) expect, then there will be even greater momentum for deal flow. Every time one of these “bumps in the road” is passed, there is more and more medium and long-term confidence in the Hong Kong and Greater China markets in general.

As always, please feel free to reach out to Robert, Alexis and me by emailing / calling us directly or by reaching out to us at asia@kinneyrecruiting.com. Whether you are ready to move to Asia very soon or simply want to gather as much market info as you can for a potential future move in the next few years, we are of course happy to assist you in any way we can. We are confident that when it comes to the lateral US associate biglaw market in Asia, we have no substantial competition. No one gives the same focus and attention to the market we do.

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