(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 appears to be making a bit of a comeback within the transactional space. There have been several new instructions in practice areas such as: Funds, Leverage Finance and M&A. HK capital markets is still slow, with the IPO market picking up slightly but not to the stable levels we have seen in the past. Most mandates have been coming from US law firms, who have maintained lean associate structures, and have been able to bring work in from across the Asia region. Firms are still being extremely selective with their hires, but there certainly is a bit more positivity surrounding Hong Kong.

Mainland CHINA

Recruitment remains slow largely for corporate and private equity related transactions throughout China. Inside corporate, outbound M&A teams are the busiest and occasionally looking to hire. Aside from corporate, disputes/investigations remain to be relatively stable and busy enough for some international practices to justify replacing associates who have left the practice. US law firms remain in a delicate position with a number of firms recently deciding to close their Beijing or Shanghai office.

SINGAPORE

As we come to the end of the 2nd quarter and summer descends upon us, it's a great time to reflect on the half year in Singapore and South East Asia. Singapore maintains a robust business environment as law firms look to redefine their Asian strategies, and we think this will be reflected in the second half of the year with increased demand for associate hiring. While hiring into corporate teams has been slow and very specific, we predict an uptick in this space after the summer. And our clients continue to want to see quality candidates in disputes, commercial tech, finance, private equity and funds.

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)

Being the year of the Dragon, it’s been a rather busy first half of the year, with clients across various industries preparing for their lawyers’ parental leave. The interim market has been buoyant with legal teams looking for lawyers with niche expertise like privacy and derivatives (amongst others). 

JAPAN

While this year got off to a promising start in terms of the number of new international firm openings, there has been some stagnation over the last few months. Expectations that the exchange rate would stabilize to some extent have not borne out, and the yen is currently at an historical low. Despite the economics, the market remains moderately active. There are a number of opportunities for bilingual corporate associates, particularly at the more junior level, though few roles for associates without Japanese fluency at the moment. Demand for corporate bengoshi associates remains strong, but with more candidates than open roles, firms continue to be highly selective.

AUSTRALIA

Over the last two months we have seen a significant uptick in demand for Corporate/ M&A lawyers as well as a rising demand for Banking & Finance across Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane markets. Law firms across Australia remain largely focused on attracting local talent with domestic experience, however we are seeing small signs of interest arise again for top-tier foreign qualified lawyers with strong deal experience looking to relocate. Demand is been mostly noticed at the 3-6 year PQE level with many of our clients currently in search for lawyers across the Associate and Senior Associate ranks for their respective corporate or banking practices.

Partner Moves