Working and Living in Hong Kong
Why Hong Kong?
Hong Kong has become increasingly popular for lawyers striving to achieve the balance between quality work at a top tier firm coupled with new and exciting lifestyle opportunities. Additionally, Hong Kong offers attractive salaries, generous holiday allowances and a favourable personal taxation system.
1. Hong Kong - Legal Market Overview (Click here for your Guide to Working and Living in Hong Kong)
Hong Kong has long been a popular location for international law firms due to its standing as Asia's financial hub, sophisticated infrastructure, geographical location and proximity to China. With continued economic growth and high levels of business confidence in Hong Kong and China, the employment prospects for legal professionals are very strong. As the market slows down in London and the US, Hong Kong is becoming even more of an attractive location for lawyers to move to.
Competition for candidates is intense across both private practice and in-house functions and Hong Kong can be seen to be a job seekers market. To combat the skills shortage locally, employers are becoming far more aggressive with their recruitment initiatives and are targeting candidates from other Asia Pacific countries, particularly Singapore, where relatively speaking salaries are lower. Law firms are also increasingly recruiting from England, Australia and New Zealand offering lucrative remuneration packages and favourable income tax rates in order to satisfy local demand. The growing demand for legal professionals is being driven by business expansion and direct investment in China.
The ability of international law firms to maintain a foothold in Hong Kong for such a long period of time has resulted in them regularly being instructed on some of the largest deals on offer in Hong Kong and increasingly in mainland China. The law firms in Hong Kong are also uniquely positioned to provide multi-jurisdictional as well as local legal advice. For a lawyer who thrives on working in a challenging environment with more autonomy it can be a great experience. The teams are smaller and therefore the lawyers are less specialised than in London, the US or Australia, where most teams are the size of whole firms in Asia. In an unsettled market it is beneficial for a junior lawyer especially, to be exposed to different areas of law gaining greater exposure to a wider variety of work, more responsibility and regular client contact.
2. A Candidate Driven Market – recruitment trends
As we have become accustomed to in previously buoyant markets, Hong Kong and Singapore are in a candidate driven market and the demand for transactional lawyers is high. This has resulted in many firms abolishing a Chinese language as a prerequisite, especially at the mid level (3 – 5 PQE* being most in demand). There also remains a consistent general shortage in the following areas:
- Banking and Finance
- Capital Markets
- Mergers and Acquisitions
- Corporate Finance
- Funds
- Commercial IT/IP
Since the beginning of 2008 there has been a perceived change in law firm recruitment trends with an increasing number of firms looking for and building their contentious teams.
Strong regional expertise is continuously sought after and currently, apart from lawyers with substantial China corporate experience, good quality transactional experience in India is desirable.
A proportion of the large Australian firms have offices in Hong Kong and more recently the strongest local practices have shown a desire to recruit from overseas. The top 10 UK and US law firms in Greater China are:
- Baker & McKenzie
- Linklaters
- Clifford Chance
- Richards Butler
- Jones Day
- Allen & Overy
- Paul Hastings
- Mayer Brown JSM
- Orrick
- Skadden Arps
3. Hong Kong – The Lifestyle
The vibrant culture is appealing to junior lawyers who want a fun, lively, “work hard, play hard” environment with great bars, clubs, restaurants, water sports and other lifestyle opportunities. For some Chinese lawyers working in London it is a good time for them to return due to the uncertainty of the market in Europe and the abundance of opportunities in Asia. These candidates are attractive to Law firms in Asia as they have relevant experience, accompanied by Chinese language skills and/or connections. HK also provides an attractive proposition to antipodeans lawyers currently working in London but looking for a new challenge before returning home. Finally, the higher salaries in HK and the lively ‘party’ lifestyle can often be a reason for Singaporean lawyers to move to Hong Kong.
At the more senior end of the market, partnership opportunities are more abundant as the teams are small and looking to expand. With the growth of the legal market in the region, new teams are regularly established within existing firms and new offices are opening all over Asia. The law firms are filling these positions through existing associates working in Asia who are promoted within the firms or from taking them out of their competitors firms. There is also high demand for partners from London or US offices of international firms.
Click here for your Guide to Working and Living in Hong Kong
Or contact David Roberts or Roz Etkind to arrange a discussion about your options:
* Please note we use PQE levels purely as a guide to the minimum level of experience that we anticipate will be needed to fulfil the position. However, we are happy to consider applications from all candidates who are able to demonstrate the skills necessary to fulfil the role and they will be considered on an equal basis. |
