Robert here, writing from back home in Miami after returning from recent trips to Russia (that market is about six to 9 months away from US associate lateral hiring surge in our estimation) and Asia. I am looking forward to being home for a few weeks before heading back to Hong Kong and Shanghai. Moscow, with its biggest snowfall in its history happening while Robert Kinney, Daniel Roark and I were visiting Yuliya Vinokurova (our resident Russia recruiter) there, was fun but exhausting.
We have had a very impressive run of placements so far this year in HK / China. I personally have made 13 US associate placements in HK / China during the first 9 weeks of ‘10. Here is a very basic, non-specific of course, breakdown of these 15 US associates placed, so our readers can get an idea of who is landing in HK / China at present (it is likely 80% or more of the total number of US associate lateral moves in HK / China thus far in ‘10 at top US or UK firms, so a great sample to consider):
- ‘05 fund formation associate (native Mandarin), placed in HK, coming from top 5 US firm in NYC
- ‘05 fund formation associate (native Mandarin), placed in HK, coming from top 30 US firm on East Coast
- ‘07 cap markets associate (fluent Mandarin), placed in HK, coming from top 5 US firm in HK
- ‘07 cap markets associate (native Mandarin), placed in BJ, coming from top 10 US firm in BJ
- ‘02 M&A associate (fluent Mandarin), placed in HK, coming from top 10 US firm in NYC
- ‘06 M&A associate (fluent Mandarin), placed in HK, coming from top 15 US firm in NYC
- ‘07 general corporate associate (fluent Mandarin), placed in HK, coming from top 3 US firm in NYC
- ‘05 M&A associate (fluent Mandarin), placed in HK, coming from top 3 US firm in NYC
- ‘08 general corporate associate (native Mandarin), placed in BJ, coming from top 5 US firm in NYC
- ‘06 cap markets associate (native Mandarin), placed in HK, coming from top 10 US firm in NYC
- ‘07 cap markets associate (native Korean), placed in HK, coming from top 5 US firm in NYC
- ‘02 M&A / cap markets associate (native Korean), placed in HK, coming from top 3 US firm in NYC
- ‘05 cap markets associate (native Mandarin), placed in SHG, coming from top 20 US firm in NYC
- ‘06 cap markets associate (native Mandarin), placed in BJ, coming from top 10 US firm in NYC
- ‘06 fund formation associate (fluent Mandarin), placed in HK, coming from top 10 UK firm in London
We are in the process of making a number of additional placements in HK / China this month and we are also assisting partners with new searches. As we expect to be the case for all of ‘10, the strongest need for lateral US associates is native Mandarin speakers with cap markets background coming from top US firms in both US and HK / China. The IPO market continues to boom, while M&A has been sporadic. We are also seeing at any given time (and expect to continue throughout ‘10) one or two openings for junior to mid-level native Korean US associates and junior to mid-level fund formation associates. Senior associate / counsel / non-equity partner level hires are going to continue at a handful of firms that have such strategic needs. M&A and cap markets are running even on those type of strategic hires because M&A, while not being a very busy area of the market now across the board, is a major area of planned growth at many top US and UK firms in SE Asia. Although IP openings are rare, we are working on two senior associate IP openings now. The pace of first interview to offer letter will continue to be relatively slow in ‘10, as firms are still dealing needing permission from global management to make hires (come off hiring freeze in some cases) and even the best candidates are not typically having multiple offers quickly, keeping timing leverage with firms for now.
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