One question I often get from candidates is how easy it will be to return back to the States after spending a few years in Asia.  It’s a valid question – while an Asia-based practice and a US-based practice share many similarities, it’s not a completely overlapping skill set.  Many hiring partners express a strong preference for candidates with Asia experience not simply because of the “regional ties” factor, but because an M&A/FDI deal run out of China has its own unique issues.  There is a learning curve, and a US-based M&A associate unfamiliar with Asia deals will be at the bottom of that curve.  I occasionally encounter a law firm which will take a class year off of an impressive candidate with top credentials because such candidate lacks Asia-specific experience.

The skill set overlap is an issue for capital markets practices as well, although it’s not typically an issue in hiring.  Many law firms in Asia focus exclusively on unregistered (Regulation S/144A) offerings, whereas capital markets practices in the US focus mainly on registered offerings.  There’s a large chunk of that securities redbook that you’re leaving unthumbed if all of your deals are unregistered offerings!  There are certain kinds of capital markets transactions that you just won’t get much of in the US.  A typical domestic capital markets practice won’t see many Islamic bond offerings or sovereign debt offerings, but these types of transactions could be very common in a Singapore capital markets practice.

After spending a few years in Asia doing Asia transactions it’s natural to think that your US-specific skill set would fall into disrepair, but US firms don’t see things that way.   In a warm economy it is easy to move from Asia back to the States, especially if the move is from Asia Biglaw back to US Biglaw.   In 2007 and 2008, we helped a number of US associates in Asia move back to their desired markets in the US.

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While Korea practices, mostly based in Hong Kong, have been busy over the past year and in some cases even quite understaffed, there is not much hiring going of US associates with Korean background.  We recently made a couple such placements at top 10 US firms in HK, one class of ’07 and one ’08, and appear close on another ’08 and an ‘05.  However, there are many more very well qualified Korean US associates on the market in Asia than there are openings.  Further, firms that do have needs in this area are moving very slow to make hires, sometimes waiting months to complete an interview process.

Part of the reason is because firms have so much leverage in the lateral hiring market, due to the large number of native Korean US associates seeking to lateral at present from top US firms in NYC to Asia.  The other main reason is that many of the top US and UK firms in Asia, while off hiring freezes months ago, still do not have the full green light to hire all the US associates they need.  When firm management back in US or UK is only allowing one or two US associate hires in HK, for example, those offices are hiring the biggest area of need – native Chinese US cap markets associates.

We are predicting that there will be more hiring US associate hiring in Korea practices in late ’10 and early ’11 than the first half of ’10.   There will also be more hiring of Korean native US associates at firms in HK that do not have a Korean practice, per se, but have a strong need for an associate or two with Korean fluency and ability to work on the ground in Korea for much of the year.  One of our recent ’08 placements fits this description.   Such needs arise as firms have more deal flow out of Korea, but not any Korean native associates.  This type of hire will not be for only Korean deal work, but will be a mix of Korean and Asia markets deal flow, with special responsibilities coming in the Korea work of course.

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When considering a move to Singapore, it is more important than in other Asia markets that you have some type of credible connection to the city-state.  This would seem ironic, since in Singapore firms routinely hire English-only US associates, so on the surface it would seem the perfect Asia market to target if you do not have an Asian background.

While it may have been true during the ’07 hiring boom that associates without Singapore ties were able to penetrate that market , this is no longer the case.  US and UK firms all over Asia in ‘07 were dealing with a shortage of well-qualified US associate candidates, so even though Singapore was not hiring nearly as much as Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, and Tokyo, it was an easier place to land in ‘07 for someone who had no connection at all to Asia.

Today, things are quite different.  While the number of openings in Asia are once again relatively high (especially in Hong Kong / China and Singapore), there are many more qualified candidates for these positions than there were in ‘07.  A number of our Singapore Biglaw client firms are hiring now, but are being understandably very selective.

One of the key factors our candidates for Singapore are dealing with is the issue of why, exactly, they are moving to Singapore.   Why Singapore, why this particular paradise tropical location?  Unprepared candidates or recruitment consultants are sometimes caught off guard.  Were your parents or grandparents born in Singapore, were you born in Singapore (as Robert was), do you have an aunt in Kuala Lumpur?  Think about what you can come up with in terms of nexus before contacting us, let alone sitting for an interview.

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