Robert here, writing from Miami, packing up for another Asia trip this weekend.

Kung Hei Fat Choi! Happy Chinese New Year!! Most firms in HK / China close their doors completely all this week for the holidays.

Here are a few pressing needs that we are working on in Asia and Middle East (there are more, but don’t want to make this a job board):

Tokyo – major US firm needs Korean speaking associates in project finance / leveraged finance practice

Dubai – major US firm needs UK qualified PE / M&A senior associate

HK / China – major US firm looking for IP senior associates / counsel / partner level (from US also considered) and would consider entire groups.

Despite an over one year long recession in US and Europe there are still a lot of new major firm offices opening up in Asia and Middle East. Although times are tough now, the long-term strategy by firms continue on in what will continue to be very important major legal markets in the future. At some firms, there is a need to build up a certain critical mass in new offices and that cannot always be accomplished by internal transfers within the firm. Here are some new offices in the past approximately 6 months (there are more opening in the next few months).

More >>

Robert here. I am writing from Miami, where I am recovering from another Gators BCS title. It has been a few weeks since we have posted here, due to the holidays and then being slammed upon return to work. There has also been a tremendous amount of partner level recruiting that we have been pre-occupied with in Asia. We will be pumping out two posts per week from here on out.

More >>

Robert here, writing from sunny Sunny Isles Beach, Florida, where my wife and I call home when I am not traveling in Asia and the Middle East. After being abroad 10 of 12 weeks, it is nice to be here.

I would like to take this opportunity to briefly introduce our readers to a recent and important development in the China M&A market. In the midst of all the doom and gloom in Asia, with the global downturn most definitely reaching the Asia shores in the past few months, there has been a very positive development in China M&A regulations, a development that could dramatically increase M&A activity in the not too distant future.

Although M&A activity in China has seen a big surge over the past decade, government regulations have prevented M&A numbers in China from reaching the full potential in the market. However, on Dec. 6, the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) took steps to correct some significant limitations, by issuing the Guidelines on Risk Management of Acquisition Loans of Commercial Banks. These allow for the first time commercial banks incorporated under PRC law to make loans to companies for the purpose of M&A transactions, including equity and assets of target companies. This potentially opens the door to leveraged buyouts in China. These new guidelines, in large part, reverses the General Principles of Loans, put into effect in 1996, which forbid onshore banks to provide loans for purposes of a borrower’s equity investments in acquisition transactions.

More >>

Robert here, writing from Hong Kong, where we just made two more US associate placements last week and expect another one this week. I just arrived back in Hong Kong late last night, after a family holiday in Bali, and planned to return to US today, but a couple of pending partner level placements in Asia by our team has caused a stay in Hong Kong for another 10 days. Robert is heading back here on Friday. Before Bali, Robert and / or I had been in Tokyo and Hong Kong all of November, for the usual meetings with firms and candidates. Actually, you can catch a photo during my last week in Hong Kong in Sunday’s NY Times: Lawyers Wanted, Abroad That Is

More >>