Evan 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 O’Rourke 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. Further, Alexis Lamb (our resident HK recruiter) has made 2 US associate placements thus far in ‘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

Evan here, writing from the Miami airport, about to head off to London.

Happy Chinese New Year to all of our readers! Let’s hope the Year of the Tiger is a good one.

It has been a very busy few weeks, mainly due to a relatively hot lateral recruiting market in HK / China (also, my hometown Saints winning the Super Bowl here in Miami was quite a wonderful distraction). Robert and I were in Hong Kong earlier this month and we will be visiting our Moscow offices and making the rounds at our firm clients there (along with our colleagues, Yuliya Vinokurova, our resident Moscow recruiter, and Daniel O’Rourke) later this week for seven days. Robert was also in Shanghai earlier this month and I was in Tokyo and will be heading to Singapore from Moscow. Robert and I will be back in HK and SHG in March.

In Hong Kong, Robert, Alexis and I have been very much involved with the recent US firm rush to take on HK practices and that recruiting at the partner / group level has been fun, but quite intensive. Next week we will write about how this new important trend will affect US associate and counsel recruiting in HK in 2010.

The HK / China biglaw US attorney lateral hiring market has most definitely picked up to the highest levels we have seen since mid ‘08. For example, in the past week, Alexis Lamb, our resident recruiter in Hong Kong, made an associate placement in HK and I made two placements in HK, one associate and one counsel. In January and February, I have 12 new associate hires starting their new jobs in HK / China.

Robert here. Evan and I are visiting our Hong Kong office most of this week, getting ready to usher in the year of the tiger. We have a very busy week, with over 30 meetings scheduled. Today, February 2, 2010, was a special day in the Hong Kong legal community - it was the day that the results of the Hong Kong Law Society’s annual admission examination were published. Interested parties included several dozen partners and associates of top international law firms who were “encouraged” to take the examination last October in order to assist their offices in achieving the required ratio of foreign admitted to Hong Kong admitted attorneys in the offices. A 50/50 ratio or better is required if a firm seeks admission to practice Hong Kong law rather than just foreign law. There has been a sudden recognition among a number of firms that competing in this market is going to require a move beyond advice solely on foreign law issues. The exam is not that hard. It’s fair to say that everyone from the firms that count passed, if they studied.

Some people were too busy to study. The legal market here is booming again, at least temporarily. Lots of practices are “flat out”. Here’s a complete email I received from a friend who is a partner in an international firm today - “I’m in KL through Weds night. How long you in town? Find any senior associates for us yet? We are pretty desperate.” This is a capital markets practice. The truth is that we have already probably filled the position, but my friend has just been out of the loop. Things are moving fast here again, which explains why our esteemed competitors are probably calling our readers on a daily basis.

As we described to someone today, we’re working hard to make hay while the sun shines. The market has indeed picked up a lot but it is clear things are not like they were once. Your average native Chinese speaker who holds a JD and works at the best firm in Kentucky still will not be catching attention here like he or she would have just a few years ago. But for the best candidates, there are options.

It is late and this a long week, so we will stop here. Tomorrow evening we’re attending a benefit for Haiti being held at a local restaurant, so we need our rest. Look for a longer analysis of openings and options as soon as we have a chance to digest the week.

Evan here. Here’s hoping that all our readers had a wonderful holiday season, now that we are back to work, at least until the upcoming Chinese New Year.

We are seeing continued improvement in interviews and hiring in Asia, mainly in HK / China. Of course the holidays put a stop to most interviews over the past few weeks, but interview activity should be higher this month and then after Chinese New Year than at any time in ‘09. This week, for example, my candidates overall are having about 5 interviews per day, either in-person, by phone or video conference. Some of these interviews have been with firms which were on solid hiring freeze all of ‘09 (firms that are just coming off hiring freeze are typically focusing mostly on cap markets hiring, due to the booming IPO market in HK / China). In fact we just made two HK placements at one wall street firm that was on hiring freeze from mid-‘08 through November ‘09.