Asia Pacific Legal Market Summary July 2017

(As excerpted from our monthly Associate Newsletter - Asia Pacific)

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.

Legal Market Summary  

HONG KONG

The Hong Kong market has picked up this month. There are a few new opportunities available across US and UK firms. The busy areas include HK and US capital markets, arbitration, FCPA, general corporate and finance sectors. The opportunities are available for lawyers from newly qualified to 6 years PQE.
Also, most of the law firms have announced the final result for trainee retention. A couple of law firms were unable to retain all of their trainees, and this has led to a high number of trainees available in the market. Given most law firms run training programmes for juniors, there are not many opportunities as these firms prefer to retain their own trainees for newly qualified lawyer roles. Having said that, there are still a handful of law firms who would be open to considering trainee lawyers for newly qualified lawyer roles.

SEOUL

Seoul remains a steady market for the international firms looking to hire. US corporate associates at the mid-level remain the most sought after, particularly those with fluency in Korean and native English ability. We have also seen a small increase in opportunity for junior associate roles in the market with firms looking to work within the regulatory framework to hire junior talent.

SINGAPORE

Having recently visited our clients in Singapore, we are still finding it very much a client-driven, replacement market. Competition for new opportunities is high and the busiest areas tend to focus around finance and capital markets. As always, experience in India or Indonesia is highly valuable. Local disputes experience is valuable both in Singapore and for those looking to go to Hong Kong, but only for specific opportunities.
Law firms are keen to hire but also facing challenges obtaining sign off from global committees – there is a lot of scrutiny over ensuring associate utilisation is high and leveraging office presences in other jurisdictions in the region.

AUSTRALIA

The market in Australia is starting to pick up following the EOFY and graduate recruitment. The busiest areas of the market seem to be banking, corporate, litigation and real estate so associates with this experience will have lots of opportunity across the country. The opportunities are also very varied in regards to experience level.

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RECENT PARTNER MOVES IN ASIA PACIFIC

These listed partner moves are obtained from both public sources and Major, Lindsey & Africa. This list is not intended to represent Major, Lindsey & Africa as the consultancy involved in the moves, although some moves may have been brokered by Major, Lindsey & Africa.