Alexis Lamb here, fresh off a trip to the Lion City where I enjoyed daily jogs in the Botanic Gardens, lip-smacking good pepper crab at Lau Pa Sat hawker centre, a stunning sunset view with craft beer in hand at Level 33, and some unexpectedly tasty tapas at Sabio in Duxton Hill, a newly-gentrified neighborhood which was recently the topic of a NYT photo essay. Yep, Singapore is growing up. She’s shedding her dowdy image as the girl in the horn-rimmed glasses and grey cardigan who nurses one pinot noir before retiring to bed at 11:17 PM. She’s learned a few party tricks from big sister Hong Kong, yet maintains an air of sleek maturity–without the pollution. Now on to business.

A “PROLIFERATION OF WORK, UNLIKELY TO FALL AWAY”

Indonesia. India. Thailand. Vietnam. Malaysia. Philippines. Singapore is the regional financial hub for all of these markets. So, at any given time, dealflow from these countries – plus dealflow originating from within Singapore – is in the pipeline. Contrast this with Hong Kong, who sources most of its work from the PRC, either in the form of PRC IPOs or PRC-driven M&A activity, and you will see its unique advantage. While Singapore will never be the global financial hub that is Hong Kong, it covers a variety of markets and is diversified enough so that it is not dependent on one particular country for the bulk of its activity.

We have seen a relatively slow biglaw lateral hiring market in HK / China in the first quarter of 2012, but things have nevertheless been fairly active for our Kinney Asia team, with 15 US associate and 2 US partner placements at law firms in Asia so far in 2012 at the following firms:

(* denotes multiple placements at the same office)

Ropes & Gray – Hong Kong
Allen & Overy – Hong Kong*
Skadden Arps – Hong Kong
Kirkland & Ellis – Hong Kong*
Linklaters – Hong Kong
Fried Frank – Hong Kong
Allen & Overy – Tokyo
Morrison & Foerster – Tokyo
White & Case – Beijing
Clifford Chance – Hong Kong
Baker Botts – Hong Kong
Vinson & Elkins – Shanghai
unnamed hedge fund – Hong Kong
unnamed hedge fund – Hong Kong

We are working on a number of additional placements now in Asia that we expect to
occur in the next few weeks.

Last month, Evan Jowers and Yuliya Vinokurova were working from our Hong Kong offices (Alexis Lamb is based permanently there) and met with many senior US biglaw partners in town over the course of a couple of weeks, to get a better gauge of the market. There are always pessimists, but most opined that deal flow seemed to be picking up, although still not nearly to the level of the first half 2011. While 2012 is likely going to be as good as 2011, it will be back-end loaded with a strong second half (as opposed to a strong first half and a weak second half in 2011) and an improving but not so strong first half. We are seeing an increase in the number of transactional US associate openings just recently at top US and UK firms. While there have been M&A openings in recent months, those have now increased, and where there were hardly any US cap markets openings in HK / China for months, now there is suddenly a “double handful” of those too (this has been a pleasant surprise and is a new and encouraging development in the market).

Our most impressive junior to mid-level US cap markets candidates are even starting to get interviews at top-four US cap markets practices in China, something we have not seen for months (due to hiring freezes and / or restrictions in those groups since late last summer). Also, we have a larger than usual number of PE / M&A US associate openings in Asia, to go along with some project finance, fund formation and litigation US associate openings. We are also working on another hedge fund in-house opening in HK at present. Tokyo and Singapore are both also improving lateral markets for US associates right now, with deal flow being strong or at least steady at most top international firms in both cities.

We have what we consider a very special opening at a well known, global and prestigious hedge fund in Hong Kong that most likely will be filled by a US associate from a top firm in HK (or possibly from elsewhere in SE Asia). Kinney has been given an exclusive search to fill this role. Here are some of the basics of the background the fund is looking for. Please feel free to reach out to us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for many more details.

• Experience level – preferably 4 to 6 years of experience from top law firm (preferably US qualified)
• At least a few years experience on the ground in Asia
• English only is perfectly fine (Mandarin not required)
• Significant debt experience
• Great presentation and communication skills
• Able to handle high level of responsibility without direct supervision in HK
• Will be responsible for SFC regulatory compliance and keeping on top of relevant regulatory developments in numerous Asia markets
• Will provide transactional support for public market trading desks

Candidates from cap markets or finance backgrounds, from top firms, could be a good fit for this role. Significant debt experience is key. Compensation is very competitive with what one would find at same level at a top Wall St. firm in HK / China (all in, including expat / cola). The new hire is likely to come from a top firm in Asia, rather than a bank or another in-house position, but those candidates will not be per se excluded.

The US biglaw lateral hiring market in Asia continues to be slow, as we expected going into first quarter ’12. Our prediction is that hiring will pick up by early summer. In any event, we have had a decent run of US associate and counsel placements in HK / China law firms in the first 9 weeks of the year, with 11 such placements thus far. The practice areas of these placements have been cap markets (3), M&A (3), Litigation (2), Fund Formation (1) and Project Finance (2). Two of these persons are fluent in Korean, eight are fluent in Mandarin and one is Indian background. We also have made two in-house placements of US attorneys this year in HK / China and an associate placement in Tokyo and Singapore. Our numbers are down compared to first quarter ‘11, but the lateral market was much hotter then and has been slow since late summer ’11. Currently, a number of our US associate candidates are interviewing in HK / China, Tokyo and Singapore for positions in project finance, fund formation, cap markets, litigation, and M&A.

Although we have made three recent US associate placements in cap markets practices in HK, most US cap markets teams are not hiring at this time (with some not even interviewing). We expect that to change in the next few months, as the outlook for IPO activity continues to improve a bit and US firm managements release restrictions on hiring by their HK / China offices (the restrictions are influenced not only by deal flow in Asia, but also by fall ’11 fears of possible “hard landing” in China and the conservative nature of US firms, regarding hiring, since the great recession). At this time, US cap markets teams that are hiring in HK / China can be extremely selective, unlike the recent hiring boom from late ’10 to mid ’11. Thus it can be difficult for even the most highly qualified US cap markets associates to get offers at present in HK / China. Last year at this time, most top US firms in HK / China had two or more cap markets associate openings, but most of these same cap markets practices are not hiring now.

However, part of the lack of hiring has to do with firm management in US putting holds or restrictions on hiring, rather than it being completely the result of lack of deal flow in Asia. Since the great recession of ’08, hiring partners at a number of US and UK firms in Asia have had to jump through hoops to get clearance to make offers, except for late ’10 through mid ’11, when most of these firms had the full green light to hire US associates as they please (only after many US cap markets practices in HK / China became very understaffed)

Happy Chinese New Year! We were extremely busy the past few months, including most of our US based team working from our Hong Kong offices during November and December.

As a follow up from our recent post, which listed our 62 US associate and counsel placements in Asia last year (vast majority in HK / China), please note that thus far in January ’12, we have already made seven US associate and counsel placements in Asia. This is an especially impressive number, considering the biglaw lateral hiring market in Asia is down right now (see state of the market brief overview below). These new placements are of new hires in Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai, who were interviewing with their new firm for a month or more and they are spread out among different practice areas, including project finance, litigation, fund formation, M&A and cap markets. We are close on four additional new associate placements, in Hong Kong, Tokyo and Shanghai, that we expect to close soon. We do not discuss partner placements in these articles, but the pace of partner recruitment in Asia (a large part of our business) has continued.

Hedge Fund In-House Openings in Hong Kong

We are seeing a small run of new in-house openings in Hong Kong at hedge funds. We are currently filling three different in-house positions at three different hedge funds in Hong Kong, two of these searches we are handling on an exclusive basis. All three will most likely be filled by a US associate, with about 4 to 6 years of experience. Mandarin not required. Candidates from NYC and London will be considered, but at one of these funds the new hire will likely come from Hong Kong / China or Singapore (with HK being the strong preference).

Please feel free to reach out to us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it if you are interested in these hedge fund openings. As you probably would expect, the competition for these spots will be fierce and the funds will be very selective when choosing which candidates to interview.