(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

It was a busy summer with an uptick of activity across multiple practice groups in Hong Kong, namely, M&A/PE, Leverage Finance, and Litigation. The market is still patchy with a lot of movement at the partner level due to strategic changes at various firms. Firms are mainly looking for associates with experience in their relevant practice area, as opposed to junior lawyers, as most of them have really trimmed their groups down over the past few months. It looks to be a busy year-end with hopeful positive news for a strong start to 2025.

Mainland CHINA

We have noted some recruitment activities in Beijing and Shanghai across energy and investigation practice groups. This hiring is within the mid-level, and firms are looking to replace their lawyers who left the team.

Some firms have decided to close their Beijing offices and consolidate to provide services from their Shanghai or Hong Kong office. Lawyers have been asked to relocate to other offices or will need to explore external options in the market.

SINGAPORE

Singapore has remained busy throughout summer with an uptick in both replacement and growth/additional hires being made in the international law firms. With clients of law firms looking to cut costs in the transactional spaces, the middle market international law firms are most active with hiring in M&A, Funds and Banking & Finance (General Banking, Leveraged Finance & Projects). The larger US law firms remain relatively conservative with their growth plans. Competition, though, on the candidate front, remains to be incredibly fierce with many hiring managers looking for top-level academics and related work experience for their mid-level roles (which are still most common, level wise).

As we draw the curtains on Q1, the demand for permanent associate talent in Singapore has been robust rather than buoyant! There has been activity in the corporate & funds arena, where we have seen replacement hiring. And there continues to be a need in project development and international arbitration. All our clients remain open to considering the best candidates from around the globe, reflecting the increasingly pan-Asian center that Singapore is.

SINGAPORE (Interim)

The Singapore interim legal market has seen a notable uptick in compliance roles, driven by increasing regulatory changes and demands. Energy-related contracting roles are on the rise, with a particular focus on renewable energy projects as the Singapore Government is amping up their ‘Green 2030’ plan. Employment roles, especially those with an Australian focus, are gaining traction. Overall, the market has gotten more active, with companies budgeting for 2025.

JAPAN

There hasn’t been much change in the Tokyo legal market over the past quarter, with openings for even well-credentialed foreign lawyers still relatively few and far between. While the yen has partially bounced back, rising inflation and looming national elections in both Japan and the US have resulted in prolonged uncertainty, and some international firms have pushed hiring decisions to next year. To the extent that firms are hiring, the sweet spot generally remains as mid-level M&A associates with Japanese fluency, with international firms still interested in adding bengoshi associates. The large Japanese firms are still incredibly busy and selectively adding foreign lawyers with solid training to their ranks.

Korea

The Korean legal market hasn’t seen much of an increase in the number of roles available for foreign lawyers at the top international firms. If anything, the limited demand has been for US litigators rather than the more traditional need for M&A and project finance associates. In contrast, several large Korean firms are opportunistically seeking bilingual foreign-qualified corporate lawyers, particularly junior to mid-level associates.

AUSTRALIA

Recruitment activity across major law firms has picked up since the beginning of the new Australian Financial Year in July. Since then, we have seen several top-tier law firms seek M&A lawyers as well as banking & finance lawyers with demand being high for lawyers with 3–7 years’ experience. Demand for lawyers with either corporate, finance or development side experience within the energy & resources and major infrastructure sectors is steady. Litigators also continue to be in demand, with several firm interested in speaking with senior associate level lawyers with general commercial disputes experience.

Partner Moves

Partner moves are obtained from both public sources and Major, Lindsey & Africa market intelligence. The 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.