Last month the Singapore market was the most active for lateral partner moves, recording seven. This was followed by Hong Kong, Sydney, Beijing and Shanghai, each of which saw five lateral moves. Among these prominent deals, the most eye-catching were OMM’s PE team hire from Hogan Lovells in Singapore, Skadden’s senior disputes hire from Sidley in Hong Kong, White & Case’s M&A team hire from A&O Shearman in Sydney, and Stephenson Harwood’s senior corporate hires in Beijing and Shanghai, all of which warrant close attention going forward.
Meanwhile, the list of US law firms retreating from mainland China continues to expand, with Skadden in Shanghai and Wilmer Cutler in Beijing announcing office closures last month.
However, as this turbulent year draws to a close with the Chinese government introducing unprecedented economic stimulus policies and more opening-up measures taking root across various industries in Asia, there is cautious optimism that this trend may finally slow or even reverse in 2025. Based on SSQ’s insights and analysis, we anticipate that international law firms will start to rethink and reshape their China and Asia strategies in the coming year.
Over the last month the Hong Kong market saw the most significant hires across Asia. Two major Chinese firms, Jingtian & Gongcheng and Guantao, and one large international law firm, Hogan Lovells, all made major partner team hires there. Kirkland’s Hong Kong office harvested six from their latest global round of 200 partner promotions, and the UK firm DAC Beachcroft launched in the city – both evidence of the continued importance and attraction of the Chinese SAR region.
Elsewhere in Asia, the Singapore, Malaysia, and Australia markets are relatively quiet, while Chinese mainland, India and Japan all saw their local domestic firms continuing to hire laterals and/or expanding their geographical coverage. However, US firms’ interest in China continues to decrease, with Perkins Coie becoming the latest to announce an office closure in the country (Beijing).
The Australian and Indian markets were the busiest jurisdictions last month in Asia. Local powerhouses – including Clayton Utz, Corrs Chambers and Hamilton Locke in Australia, and Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, Trilegal and Saraf and Partners in India – all made either multiple lateral or team hires in their domestic key locations such as Canberra, Melbourne, Perth, Sydney, Mumbai and New Delhi. International players, including Norton Rose, HFW, Clyde, K&L Gates and White & Case, also made significant partner hires in Australia last month.
Elsewhere, in Singapore, six lateral movements occurred – all between major international law firms – while in Hong Kong, five similar laterals were recorded. On the Chinese mainland, Reed Smith’s decision to shut down their Beijing office is the latest added to the long list of US law firm closures in China. In contrast, Chinese law firms continue to expand and hire from peer firms domestically.
In the past month the leading Indian law firm, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas (CAM), hired over a dozen partners from their rival practices in Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Delhi and Mumbai. This included a team of nine partners (51 lawyers in total) from IndusLaw, which is the largest group move of the year so far in India’s legal market.
Singapore and Hong Kong recorded eight and six major partner moves respectively. However, most of these hires in Singapore were with US firms such as Latham & Watkins, K&L Gates and Orrick, while in HK it was predominantly the UK firms such as Linklaters, Simmons, Withers and CMS who were hiring.
In the Chinese mainland, the lateral market continued to be occupied by PRC law firms. The leading Singapore law firm, Rajah & Tann, announced a Shenzhen office launch, highlighting the importance of the southern Chinese city for foreign law firms operating in the country.
Singapore and Hong Kong remained very active in the lateral move market last month, with each recording 6 and 4 major partner hires respectively, mostly by prominent international law firms including Addleshaw Goddard, Simmons & Simmons, Gibson Dunn, Hogan Lovells, Dentons and Freshfields. The Chinese mainland market continues to see many local Chinese firms hiring from peer firms, and one rare international offshore firm hire, by Appleby in Shanghai.
Two major US law firms, MoFo and Dechert announced their decision to close their Beijing and/or Hong Kong offices, which seems to signify an accelerated trend, but obviously such extreme decisions remain the absolute minority given that there are still around 80 major US and UK law firms operating in Beijing and Shanghai, in addition to those around 100 non-US/UK originated foreign firms in the country.
Tokyo and Seoul have been busiest over the last month, where leading international and regional law firms made significant moves in Asia. Bird & Bird announced plans to launch in Tokyo and 8 major partner hires in Seoul, mainly with local prominent players such as Yulchon, Yoon & Yang and Shin & Kim. Hong Kong recorded 4 lateral hires, with Singapore making just 3, which is probably a sign of a cooling market.
The China market remains dominated by PRC law firms hiring peer to peer, as well as expanding overseas. However, there is still the occasional international firm making lateral investment, such as Pillsbury bringing in a senior partner from Paul Hastings, and Duane Morris making an IP hire, both in Shanghai.
Hong Kong, Singapore and Sydney were the three busiest locations for international law firms in terms of lateral hire activity last month, recording 7, 4 and 5 major partner movements respectively. Chinese mainland market has been overwhelmingly dominated by PRC law firms with no international law firms making any major hires. Tokyo also witnessed two significant lateral hires made by Latham & Watkins and White & Case.
Five major international law firms announced their annual partnership promotions last month, namely, A&O Shearman, HSF, Ashurst, Clifford Chance and DLA Piper. The relevant jurisdictions that took the most from these were Australia, followed by Singapore. In addition, the global merger of A&O and Shearman and the uncoupling of Mayer Brown and JSM both finally happened in early May, which will undoubtedly cause a ripple across the legal community.
The Hong Kong and Singapore lateral markets have been very active over the last month with each city recording 8 major partner moves by local, regional, and international law firms. These included Wilkinson & Grist, Appleby, Jingtian & Gongcheng in HK, and Drew & Napier, Greenberg Traurig and Charles Russell Speechlys in Singapore. In Seoul, the local giant Yulchon hired 7 partners in different practice areas, showing their ambition to remain dominant in their market.
The China market still presents a very mixed picture. PRC firms such as Jun He and East IP set up their new offices/teams in Xi’an and Hong Kong, respectively, and Stephenson Harwood’s China alliance firm Wei Tu newly launched Shanghai. On the other hand, there seems to be a new wave of foreign exits from the country, with Weil Gotshal, Orrick and Perkins Coie all announcing closures of their China offices in the past month or so.
Due to the CNY holiday, the mainland Chinese legal market was relatively quiet last month, with Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen recording 7 partner moves in total – the majority of which were between PRC law firms. Comparatively, in each of Singapore and Hong Kong, there were 5 major lateral moves, mainly involving major international law firms. The Seoul market was particularly busy last month where all the three major local firms Yulchon, Shin & Kim and Yoon & Yang hired teams of partners in addition to DLA Piper’s hire from Milbank.
PRC firms continued to expand their domestic footprints with Jun He launching their Xi’An office and Hylands establishing a joint alliance firm with Woo Kwan Lee & Lo at Qianhai, Shenzhen.
After a quiet December, Hong Kong’s lateral partner activity got busier, recording 13 serious partner moves into US, UK, major PRC and Hong Kong firms. The Singapore market followed with 8 partner moves across a variety of international and local Singaporean firms. Beijing and Shanghai markets remain dominated by PRC law firms with all 11 lateral partners moving to major Chinese firms, while in Tokyo there was a major 3-partner real-estate team move from White & Case to Greenberg Traurig.
Allen & Gledhill’s latest launch in Shanghai shows the unique resilience of the China market where for a long time there hasn’t been such movement among foreign law firms. From an opposite perspective, JunHe’s recent announcement of their 3rd US office in Seattle represents the continued outbound interest from Chinese law firms investing and growing overseas.
Across all major Asian jurisdictions, December 2023 recorded probably the fewest lateral hire activities in the year. There was only one partner move in Hong Kong, made by Chinese law firm Jingtian & Gongcheng from US law firm Akin Gump, while in Singapore there were only four partner moves – two joined Dentons Rodyk and Allen Overy and the other two joined the local firm Rajah & Tann. In China, PRC law firms continued to hire from their peer PRC firms for growth – twelve recorded in tier-one cities Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, while another six in other tier-two and tier-three cities.
Jones Day, Norton Rose Fulbright, Hogan Lovells and Quinn Emanuel announced their annual partnership promotions which saw 9 in Asia, including 3 in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong – all of whom are disputes-focused. In addition, 4 major Chinese law firms launched new offices last month including Han Kun’s latest entry into New York. In contrast, it was also announced that Akin Gump will be closing its doors in Beijing.
