Robert here, writing from Miami airport lounge, about to head off for the weekend (does not mean my phone will not work for candidates this weekend, as usual) and trying to get another Asia Chronicles post out. Just returned Wednesday from a hectic NYC to Hong Kong to Tokyo to NYC trip. When I am in HK it is typically about seven meetings a day (mostly with partner candidates and hiring partners), usually outside of our HK offices (in ICBC), so it takes a couple of days of recovery on Miami Beach upon return. Apologies to all my associate candidates that may have found me to be a bit out of pocket some of this week, while traveling and recovering.
On the first day of the trip, I was on the panel of a seminar at NYU on Asia Practice with Toby Myerson (Paul Weiss), Jonathan Pan (Kind & Wood), Puneet Arora(Pricewaterhouse Coopers), Nan-I Chen (Barclays) and Alex Hao (Vinson & Elkins). I hope more of these kinds of events can occur, to further our goal of educating the biglaw associate community on lateral movement to and within Asia.
Thanks again to the Chinese Business Lawyers Association and the NYU Asia Law Society for organizing and sponsoring.
I made two Asia associate placements in the past week, one a mid-level fund formation associate in HK and the other a junior M&A associate in BJ. Both are moving from NYC. Expect more to be official shortly…
Places you can meet with our Asia team over the next couple of weeks: New York – I will be in NYC Dec. 7 and 8 and Robert and I will be in NYC Dec. 14 to 17. Shanghai – I will be in Shanghai Dec. 19 to 21. My next several week Asia trip will be in January, but trying to spend some time on the home front for the holidays with my wife and family.
Opening of the Week: We have a lot of openings in Asia, but will promote one each week here in the Asia Chronicles. We are representing a top US firm in HK that has an urgent need for an ‘09 (deferred) to ‘07 US associate with native Korean language skills. A Korean practice partner from this firm will be in NYC next week and if you are interested, and pass a screen interview with me, then I can set up an interview for you with the hiring partner on Wednesday or Thursday. This is a top Korea practice at a top US firm in HK. Very good JD academics and native Korean fluency needed.
Odds and Ends…
In the nothing to do with recruiting department: I had the pleasure of helping a friend in HK host a Thanksgiving Day dinner, on his law firm’s junk in Victoria Harbor, for the visiting US Marine Corps commanding general of Fleet Marine Forces Pacific and Marine Corps Bases Pacific, as well as his wife and staff of US Marine officers and senior non-commissioned officers. Especially because of my time in the US Marines (in the early 90s) this was a special treat. A few US and British law firm partners were on the boat and we could not help but to greatly admire our guests, as well as feel privileged to host them for Thanksgiving. Regardless of one’s political views and nationality, it is easy to admire these heroes that have served their country in sometimes harsh conditions, without complaint, for their entire adult lives. What a great way to spend a Thanksgiving Day.
The HK / China market continues to pick up, continuing the steady and substantial recovery in deal flow since May ‘09. There is still a ways to go, however, for biglaw boom times to again be at hand in HK / China. Other Asia markets where a lot of deal flow is flowing from is Korea and Indonesia, mostly affecting biglaw offices in HK…
There is a noticeable biglaw trend in HK lately for clients to prefer law firms that can handle both the US and HK side of a deal, making it more important for US firms to create HK practices and British firms to expand their capacity on the US side. As we have mentioned before in these posts, it is a challenge for US firms to create HK practices because in order to have HK license, the HK Law Society requires at least 50% of a foreign law firm’s attorneys to be HK qualified. British firms for the most part have had HK focused practices for decades in HK, for obvious reasons…
There is a surge in US biglaw recruiters trying to break into the Asia markets, especially HK / China, as well as Asia based recruiters trying break into recruiting from US markets. When you get such calls from recruiters (and I recommend that you don’t take such calls, but instead go with a recruiter you were referred to by a trusted source), I recommend the 3 hour test: If you don’t think the person introducing themselves to you (and trying desperately to get your resume) can speak to you with enthusiasm and intelligence about your preferred Asia market for 3 hours non-stop then you may want to hesitate to allow such person to represent you and act as your agent in what may be the biggest move of your career. Making the perfect biglaw move to or within Asia requires a lot more than a resume e-mailer who knows the name of some firms and their various openings (although some recruiters will bs about a made up opening to get your attention and resume) and rankings in chambers and legal500. Try to work with someone who at the very least knows (and is familiar with the personality of) the partners you would be working for in a target firm, what a target firm’s strategy is in Asia, and what a target firm’s reputation is in your targeted Asia market, among many other things… Our Asia team helps to not only place US associates in Asia, but also helps US and UK firms build offices and US practices in Asia. Robert and I have lived in Asia in the past and have been traveling to Asia for more than twenty years, I spend almost half of a given year in Asia. We count among our close friends many US attorneys in asia, including partners of US and UK firms, not to mention those that are simply strong business relationships.
Piece of Advice of the Week for Law Firm Clients in Asia:
As we have mentioned before, US and UK firms in Asia frequently ask Kinney to advise on and sometimes help draft expat package policies. The reason we are asked is because I have seen more offer letters than any other recruiter in the market and in general have the best intelligence in the market in such matters. Recently, we are being asked more and more to help firms come up with comp packages for their counsel level attorneys in Asia. This is an issue of growing importance because promotion to US track counsel occurs more often in Asia than in US and UK markets and there is a big gap in overall comp packages among peer firms, especially if only focusing on base pay. The candidates involved, usually coming from top 10 US firms, with biglaw experience in US and Asia, are typically important strategic potential hires, who play leading technical roles and are given a clear shot to career advancement. As the market continues to improve, more US and UK firms in Asia will have the flexibility to make such hires.
Starting base pay for newly promoted counsels at top US and UK firms in Asia can range from US$300,000 to US$370,000 (with base typically rising about US$20,000 per year afterwards). Obviously, such a large range can come into play when recruiting senior associates and giving them offers as counsel. Interestingly, we find that some firms on the lower end of the range have higher bonuses and / or expat packages for counsels than firms on higher end of base pay range (bonuses can range from typical class year NYC associate levels to US$100,000 or more; expat packages ranges from that firm’s US associate level to up to double the US associate expat package, but most firms pay counsels same expat packages as associates). We highly recommend that firms focus more on the base than bonus and other benefits when coming up with new counsel pay in Asia (as long as expat benefits and bonuses do not go below what is competitive in the market for the new counsel’s class year, if she were still an associate). This makes it easier for targeted candidates to understand the comp at a target firm once interviews reach a certain level, whereas expat packages and bonuses are more often discussed at later, after an offer is given. Some firms put themselves at a competitive disadvantage by offering same total new counsel comp, but less base and more bonus than a peer firm.
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