The Chinese New Year holidays have created the usual recruiting pause, but the end of February saw several law firms back in hiring mode with some firms having multiple openings in varied practice areas including FCPA, M&A and finance. Lawyers with overseas experience are highly desirable. Where relocation is contemplated, holding PRC citizenship status will be a critical decision-making factor due to the ongoing COVID-19 travel restrictions.
The Singapore market continues to grow more confident and law firms are hiring more actively again. We are having conversations with multiple law firms who report hiring plans stemming from both replacement and growth opportunities.
The active practices include M&A, venture capital, dispute resolution and project finance. The positions are available to mid-level and senior-level lawyer. A handful of junior openings are within the corporate practice.
After the lunar new year celebrations, we are back helping our clients look for the best interim legal talent in Singapore to support their urgent needs. There is increased demand from clients looking for mid-level lawyers with technology, media and telecommunications (TMT) experience. Also, seeking flexibility, several clients are requesting to hire interim lawyers for 12 months contracts instead of the traditional permanent hiring plan. Please reach out to have a confidential conversation if you are immediately available for work or are considering legal consulting as a career option.
Despite ongoing COVID-19 concerns and precautions, law firms are operating mostly business as usual in Korea. Recruitment appears to be somewhat picking up with limited opportunities at major international and Korean law firms for highly qualified bilingual corporate and litigation associates.
Due to the ongoing State of Emergency, many lawyers have returned to working principally from home. Despite the continuing uncertainty, there are quite a few associate-level recruiting efforts starting to move forward in areas such as project finance, capital markets and M&A. Strong language skills and credentials are a must for most roles. The in-house sector also continues to be active.
The legal recruitment market continues with unprecedented high levels of activity across Sydney where COVID-19 cases have remained low since the New Year’s break. Although Melbourne is currently going through another hard lockdown to stop the spread of a recent outbreak, it also has seen a heightened level of legal recruitment activity across the market. Brisbane and Perth, however, have remained relatively slow.
Corporate/M&A remains the practice area with the greatest demand, and we are working with multiple top-tier, global and national mid-tier firms across both Sydney and Melbourne who are eager to meet with corporate M&A associates and senior associates. In the past couple of weeks, we also have experienced a material increase in the number of law firms approaching us for hiring assistance for senior associates in the infrastructure and TMT practices. Moreover, litigators with regulatory experience remain in demand at several top-tier firms.
With Australia’s border remaining closed, law firms are still unable to consider foreign nationals at this stage.
Partners |
Practice |
To |
From |
Location |
David Swain |
Intellectual Property |
Lewis Silkin |
Deacons (Senior Associate) |
Hong Kong |
Mengyu Lu |
Capital Markets |
Kirkland & Ellis |
Sidley Austin |
Hong Kong |
Wayne Ma |
Real Estate |
Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner |
DLA Piper, Shanghai |
Hong Kong |
James Ford |
Investment Funds |
Allen & Overy |
O’Melveny & Myers |
Hong Kong |
Nick Stern |
Dispute Resolution and Insolvency |
Maples and Calder |
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (Counsel) |
Hong Kong |
Michael E. Arruda |
Oil and Gas |
King & Spalding (Senior Counsel) |
Baker Botts (Partner-in-charge) |
Hong Kong |
Janice Yau Garton |
Real Estate |
Stephenson Harwood |
DLA Piper |
Hong Kong |
Melody Wang |
Litigation |
Lang Yue |
Fangda |
Beijing |
Andrew Roche |
Projects |
Ashurst |
Latham & Watkins |
Singapore |
Daniel Tan |
Banking and Finance |
CMS Holborn Asia |
Clifford Chance (Counsel) |
Singapore |
Marius Toime |
Corporate |
K&L Gates Straits Law |
Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner |
Singapore |
Patrick Boardman |
Insurance |
Clyde & Co |
Wotton + Kearney |
Sydney |
Elizabeth Hundt Russell |
Finance |
Clifford Chance |
King & Wood Mallesons |
Sydney |
Linda Evans |
Competition |
Herbert Smith Freehills |
Clayton Utz |
Sydney |
John Mosley |
Private Equity and Finance |
Corrs Chambers Westgarth |
Minter Ellison |
Sydney |
Emma Hodgman |
Commercial Litigation |
Thomson Geer |
Dentons |
Sydney |
Iksoo Kim |
Capital Markets |
Paul Hastings |
Greenberg Traurig |
Seoul |