Robert here. I’m writing this blog entry in the Newark President’s Club as I prepare to depart for China for my second trip this month. I’ll be joined in Hong Kong on Tuesday by Robert Kinney and Daniel Roark. Upon our return I think that Robert will write a contribution to our Asia Chronicles describing this trip.
Why do we travel to Asia more than any other legal recruiters in the US or UK who attempt to specialize in the region? We travel to Asia for the same reason that, in my case, I often travel to Houston, Dallas, and New York: because those are our markets and we want to add value in every interaction we have with people who come to us to seek our services. We can’t possibly understand our clients’ and our candidates’ needs without having sat down with them within recent memory. I thought I’d provide our readers with a few examples of how this has worked in our candidates’ favor in the recent past. 
While on a visit to Hong Kong earlier this month I was having dinner with a very important M&A partner at a major international firm who was interviewing several candidates we had provided. In fact, every candidate he ultimately considered for his two open positions was provided by Kinney Recruiting. While at dinner he mentioned some things that indicated to me that he also needed a certain level of skill and experience on his team that only someone near partnership level could provide. Robert was working with a senior candidate whom we had not yet introduced to this client, and had I not had that dinner we might never have known of the fit. To make a long story short, within 12 hours I had met the candidate for lunch, prepped her on the client, and personally escorted her to an interview with this firm that ultimately turned into an offer.
While on another recent trip to Hong Kong I called on a senior law firm partner I have known for years. This is a very well regarded senior partner with lots of Asia experience. He had been approached by a recruiter based in Hong Kong who had told him about something that actually sounded interesting, but, referring to the chap as, “the young John,” the candidate said that the recruiter had too little experience. We talked about the issues he was having with his current firm and, within an hour and a half, he was having a first meeting with a firm that will likely be his new employer very soon. We were able to set up this meeting so quickly not because the target firm had advertised a need or was even passively looking for a candidate like we found. Instead, it was the direct result of a visit by Robert and Yuliya with the firm’s Hong Kong Managing Partner last year. The guy had told Robert there was no partner search in progress or contemplated, but mentioned in passing that there might be interest in a specific type of unique and special lawyer (the attorneys in Asia with this particular background can be counted on one hand and we happen to know all of them).
We spend enough time in Hong Kong now that we sometimes pick up candidates and mandates just walking down the street or sitting in a coffee shop or restaurant. Those of you who are familiar with Hong Kong probably know there is a Starbucks in Alexandra House that is frequented by a lot of lawyers. I can think of two positions we have filled simply because someone who knows us saw us in the coffee shop and came by to see us.
What’s interesting to us is to see so many recruiting firms, presumably watching our success, jump into the market as if getting going there must be easy and some sort of panacea for the current legal market doldrums. One competitor, for example, is plastering ads featuring its newest recruiter all over Above the Law, claiming Asia legal recruiting is “all he does.” They are also offering a substantial candidate kickback. The fact that this recruiter, according to his former employer, had never made a placement in Asia as of the time he left their employment sometime in the fall of last year, tells me that he’s probably not enrolled in the Frequent Visitor Scheme at Hong Kong International Airport, if you know what I mean. The kickback’s probably the only way he can hope to compete. Seriously, he may be a great guy; I don’t know. But if I saw myself as a top lawyer and I were looking at what recruiting firm to turn to with the future of my career, I’d talk to the people who have the most experience in the region – in all modesty, that would be us – Robert Kinney, Daniel Roark, and myself.
They just called my flight, so I have to be off. More to come next week from all of us. If you have any questions, please write to asia@kinneyrecruiting.com. The email address will be seen by our whole Asia staff.
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