Associate Newsletter – Asia Pacific is a monthly resource that reports current legal market news, trends, partner moves and active opportunities in the Asia Pacific legal markets.
Kung Hei Fat Choi! Wishing everyone good health and happiness in the year of the pig!
Chinese New Year has not slowed down recruitment activities in Hong Kong. Firms are still actively bringing on new members to their teams. Busy areas include corporate IPO, M&A, banking, funds and IP/IT sector. Firms are generally looking at mid-level candidates between 2-7 years PQE. Most of the positions require Chinese skills, but some senior hires would have flexibility on it.
Returnees from the US and UK are in demand. Candidates who are interested to look into the Hong Kong market, please do get in touch for more market insight.
Recruitment slowed down leading up to Chinese New Year. Most firms put things on hold given the one-week holiday in China. Some of the busy areas include corporate M&A, finance and regulatory.
Given the immigration policies in China, most international law firms are inclined to hire talents who hold PRC passport or Hong Kong identity card. This would allow firms to bring talent on board sooner.
The Singapore market has picked up a lot. Firms are busy across different areas and active in hiring strong candidates to the teams. Following some senior movements in the market, more firms are interested in growing the practice. Capital markets, finance and funds are the busy areas.
Firms are still interested in hiring candidates with overseas experience to the Singapore market. Candidates who have spent a couple of years in Australia, the US or the UK would receive good interest from law firms.
Korea remains steady with opportunities focused around corporate M&A and PE. There is still a strong preference for US-qualified talent with fluency in Korean looking to return to Seoul. English fluency is important for drafting, sometimes preferred over Korean fluency. High-quality training and academics are essential for the market at the moment.
Active M&A transactions continue to be the market driver. There has been a strong appetite for M&A lawyers as well as Japanese-qualified lawyers and bilingual foreign-qualified lawyers with 3+ years PQE across practice groups and firms.
In February, we saw continued demand from top tier and international law firms in Sydney and Melbourne for banking & finance and corporate/M&A lawyers. Demand is normally at the 2+ year PQE through to senior associates with 8 or 9 years PQE. Although recent tightening of immigration laws is making it more difficult for law firms to hire foreign-qualified lawyers, firms are still very much interested in speaking with UK, New Zealand and South African-qualified lawyers with high level banking & finance and corporate/M&A experience who wish to relocate to Australia.
Similar demand is also been seen across a range of law firms, both national and international for Australian or foreign-qualified lawyers with top-tier non-contentious construction experience. We believe the continued demand for construction lawyers will continue into the foreseeable future as state governments continue to increase infrastructure budget spending.
Demand for commercial litigators continues to be high across Sydney and Melbourne as well with real estate, financial services and regulatory lawyers also finding the market relatively favourable.
Partners |
Practice |
To |
From |
Location |
Nicola Roberts |
Restructuring and Insolvency |
Harneys |
Ogier |
Hong Kong |
Ashley Wong |
Banking and Finance |
King & Wood Mallesons |
Mayer Brown |
Hong Kong |
Wang Yu |
Corporate and Securities |
King & Wood Mallesons |
Morrison & Foerster (Counsel) |
Hong Kong |
Stephanie Tang |
Corporate |
Hogan Lovells |
Shearman & Sterling |
Hong Kong |
Jason Wang |
Capital Markets |
LC Lawyers |
Paul Hastings |
Hong Kong |
Shirley Fu |
Corporate |
SF Lawyers |
Harneys |
Hong Kong |
Daniel Yeh |
Private Equity |
White & Case |
Ropes & Gray |
Hong Kong |
Jian Guan |
Maritime |
Watson Farley & Williams |
China Merchants Commerce Financial Leasing Co. Ltd. |
Hong Kong |
Qizhen Dong |
Capital Markets |
L&C Legal |
Harvest Global Capital Investments Ltd. |
Hong Kong |
Margie Chan |
Debt Capital Markets |
Norton Rose |
Davis Polk |
Hong Kong |
Maria Wang |
Real Estate |
Fangda Partners |
Morrison & Foerster |
Shanghai |
Karl Pires |
M&A |
Shearman & Sterling |
White & Case |
Tokyo |
Daisuke Yoshida |
Litigation |
Morrison & Foerster |
Latham & Watkins |
Tokyo |
Andrew Brereton |
Banking and Finance |
King & Spalding |
Clifford Chance |
Singapore |
June Ho |
Banking and Finance |
TSMP Law Corporation |
Norwegian firm Wikborg Rein |
Singapore |
Philip Lee |
Debt Capital Markets |
DLA Piper |
Herbert Smith Freehills |
Singapore |
Akramjeet Khaira |
Insurance |
Kennedys |
Kelvin Chia Partnership |
Singapore |
Michelle Phang |
Corporate |
ADTLaw |
Shook Lin & Bok |
Singapore |
James Harris |
Global Infrastructure |
Pinsent Masons |
Hogan Lovells |
Singapore |
David Teo |
Corporate |
Sabara Law |
Donaldson & Burkinshaw |
Singapore |
Ben Constance |
Corporate |
DWF |
Taylor Wessing |
Singapore |
Wei Chern Tham |
Corporate Litigation |
Duane Morris & Selvam |
Fullerton Law Chambers |
Singapore |
Vanessa Ng |
Corporate Finance |
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius |
Fortis Law Corp. |
Singapore |
Waltter Kulvik |
Corporate |
Ashurst |
Sidley Austin |
Singapore |
Simon Ashworth |
Construction and infrastructure |
K&L Gates |
Corrs Chambers Westgarth |
Sydney |
Danielle Funston |
Restructuring and Insolvency |
Maddocks |
K&L Gates |
Sydney |
Mark Sant |
Employment |
HFW |
Dentons |
Sydney |
Greg Golding |
Corporate |
Ashurst |
King & Wood Mallesons |
Sydney |
Robert Hanley |
M&A |
Ashurst |
King & Wood Mallesons |
Sydney |
Matthew Baumgurtel |
Energy |
K&L Gates |
Fotowatio Renewable Ventures |
Sydney |
David Holland |
Corporate |
Hogan Lovells |
Baker McKenzie |
Sydney |
Charles Bogle |
Corporate |
Hogan Lovells |
Gilbert + Tobin |
Sydney |
Andrew Johnston |
Banking and Finance |
Sparke Helmore |
Addleshaw Goddard Oman |
Sydney |
Brendan Milne |
Employment |
HFW |
Dentons |
Melbourne |
Joshua Dellios |
Environment |
MinterEllison |
White & Case |
Melbourne |
Kathy Dalton |
Employment |
Workdynamic Australia |
DLA Piper |
Melbourne |
Jessica Davies |
Energy and Resources |
Norton Rose Fulbright |
Clifford Chance |
Perth |
David Jewkes |
Energy and Resources |
Norton Rose Fulbright |
King & Wood Mallesons |
Perth |
Carl Black |
Real Estate |
King & Wood Mallesons |
Squire Patton Boggs |
Perth |
Sam Dundas |
Dispute Resolution |
King & Wood Mallesons |
HWL Ebsworth |
Perth |
Anurag Dwivedi |
Banking and Finance |
Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas |
Link Legal India Law Services |
Delhi |
Maneshi Pathak |
Employment |
IndusLaw |
Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas |
Delhi |
Asim Abbas |
Telecom Media Technology |
J. Sagar Associates |
Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas |
Delhi |
Abeezar Faizullabhoy |
Disputes |
Argus Partners |
HSA Advocates |
Mumbai |
Murtaza Kachwalla |
Disputes |
Argus Partners |
HSA Advocates |
Mumbai |
Shahen Pradhan |
Disputes |
Argus Partners |
HSA Advocates |
Mumbai |
