Singapore led the Asia lateral hire market last month with a dozen partner moves, most of which happened between major international law firms. Key moves involved placements from Cleary into Greenberg, Mayer Brown into HSF, NRF into Jones Day, Bird & Bird into NRF, Ashurst into Simmons, DLA Piper into Squire Patton Boggs, and Simmons into Stephenson Harwood. Hong Kong and Sydney each recorded ten and six lateral hires respectively, made up of a mixture of moves between international and local firms.
Last month also witnessed a record high number of new offices launched by PRC firms – eight domestically, mainly in second tier Chinese cities such as Xi’an, Shenyang, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Ningbo, Huizhou and Changsha, along with one in the Hong Kong SAR and two in overseas markets: Vietnam and Spain.
Explore the full analysis of the past month’s legal market moves:
The Asia legal market landscape in December was very mixed, including some landmark developments. The Hong Kong market saw major Chinese law firms continue to hire new partners, six in total and all in the capital market space, with almost all hires coming from major international law firms including Sidley Austin, Milbank, Baker McKenzie and Slaughter & May. All hires were associates/counsels who were joining to become immediate partners.
Meanwhile, in their annual round of partnership promotions, three major US firms – Simpson Thacher, Gibson Dunn and King & Spalding – announced new partners in their Asia offices including Beijing, Hong Kong and Singapore.
The divorce between King & Wood and Mallesons in Asia and the marriage between Dacheng and Dentons in Hong Kong, announced almost simultaneously, are provoking deeper thought among both international and local players on how best to operate as an ambitious law firm.
Read more about the past month’s legal market moves:
