As Asia’s booming economies continue their relentless upward march, their requirements from supporting services such as legal are becoming even more sophisticated. And likewise, employers – both law firms and companies – are requiring more from the lawyers they hire, sometimes creating unique roles with a very specific set of skills. In Singapore, for example, firms and banks are looking at candidates who understand the financing of large and complex deals, while in Hong Kong, with capital markets work reducing, lawyers in areas like funds, private wealth and derivatives have seen their stock rise.

Additionally, as transactions become more local in nature, language skills are becoming vital. “In the past, Chinese language skills have not been a requirement for lawyers working in Asia. However, in recent years, being bilingual in English as well as Mandarin has become increasingly important,” says Felix Lee, a Hong Kong-based manager with Shilton Sharpe Quarry (SSQ). “Law firms also want to see candidates who have experience in the region, and have had exposure to Southeast Asia transactions. Lawyers who are able to show this with language capabilities are, therefore, in demand. “

Jurisdictions

Among the notable recent developments in Greater China that should excite lawyers is the newly implemented stock connect scheme between Hong Kong and Shanghai that allows investors in one centre to trade and settle shares listed on the other market via the exchange and clearing house in their home market, according to Lee. “Such convenience is expected to lead to more business opportunities, and hence more lawyering services in the two regions,” he says.

Speaking of Southeast Asia, Ashish Raivadera of ATR Associates says that the cross-border expansion of certain Singaporean law firms like Rajah & Tann and RHTLaw Taylor Wessing has led to a demand for lawyers in the region. “Similarly, the ambition among foreign law firms to set up joint law ventures (JLVs) and formal law alliances in Singapore has resulted in an interest in senior Singapore-qualified practitioners and teams in certain key practice areas.”

Another trend he has noticed is that the city-state has seen a slowdown in the supply of talent from Europe. “With improved markets in Europe, particularly the UK, there have been fewer associates looking east and international law firms have been less able to internally transfer associates from London offices,” says Raivadera. “There has, however, been an increased supply of talent from Australia and New Zealand. With an underactive Australian market, there is still a strong supply of very good quality talent looking at Singapore,” he says.

Overall, he says there is solid demand locally. “All international firms are keen to hire quality local practitioners wherever possible, and across most practice areas,” notes Raivadera. “There is clear demand in the regulatory areas – banking and financial services in particular – and within commercial arbitration. There are more deals being done or driven under Singapore law in the region, and also more SIAC clauses.”

Looking around the region, Raivadera says that Indonesia remains a very important market for lawyers based in Singapore, “and good Indonesian lawyers are always in demand.” According to him, Myanmar is also seeing increased levels of interest from firms in the region, with Korea being high on the radar for most international firms. Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines are also seeing steady growth.

For Anders Eriksson, vice-president and regional general counsel (currently for Northeast Asia and previously for Southeast Asia) with telecom major Ericsson, Myanmar stands out as a particular hotspot. “As a country opening up, it is a nirvana for many businesses, including the legal industry,” he says. “Many international law firms are already there, or have advanced plans for establishing themselves in the country. Also, many of the MNCs venturing into Myanmar quickly realise that they need to have legally skilled people on the ground in order to cope with the daily challenges.” Eriksson is also seeing an increase in demand for in-house counsel across Southeast Asia in general due to the prevalence of what he calls the “Australian way of working,” in which legal personnel are at the forefront in most business dealings. “When you participate in deals in Australia, you won’t be surprised to face three or more lawyers on the other side of the table. Previously in several Southeast Asian countries, it would be relatively rare to meet lawyers even in the negotiation context,” he says, “Nowadays, on the other hand, whether you are in the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore or Thailand, legal personnel are definitely a very active and integral part of the negotiation and general business process. So it is simply becoming a necessity to have really skilled lawyers.”

Bruce Hambrett, Asia-Pacific chairman of Baker & McKenzie, says that the firm is looking to hire infrastructure and project finance lawyers across Asia as the firm is seeing a lot of infrastructure work being carried out around the world in countries such as in India, Myanmar and so on. Additionally, the firm’s Bangkok office is seeing steady growth, particularly in the hiring of transactional lawyers, and in Singapore, the firm will continue to bring more arbitration practitioners on board as the country aims to become a hub for international disputes.

Practice areas

Apart from the practice areas mentioned above, Hambrett says Baker & McKenzie is continuing to hire for the following transactional practice groups: M&A and private equity, and banking and finance. And disputes lawyers always remain a hot commodity. “Whenever capital’s flowing across borders, there will always be agreements, and these agreements may bring about disputes a lot of the time, thus giving rise to international arbitration or litigation,” he says, “So that’s another area where I think we are looking for lawyers as well.”

According to Lee, SSQ is seeing a demand for lawyers with experience and skills in regulatory work, particularly FCPA, and outbound M&A. This is a direct result of more Chinese businesses investing abroad, he says. Raivadera echoes the demand for regulatory work, specifically in financial services in relation to the U.S.’ FCPA and the UK’s Bribery Act. “Increased scrutiny on how all organisations do business following the global financial crisis has caused all industries to become increasingly regulated,” he says. “While this has always been prevalent in the banking and financial services sector, we see more focus in the energy sector and within pharma. Asia will see a significant growth in this type of advice for multinational corporations that operate in the emerging markets of the region.”

Other areas that Raivadera says are growing are funds. “This has become a growing sector in Singapore, with more regional firms keen to expand into the area and more funds being set up here,” he says, “Major fund houses are beginning to arrive here.” Additionally, the TMT sector is growing – recent years have seen a growth in international firms getting more involved within this sector – and energy and infrastructure remain solid. “Although the mining sector has slowed down considerably, there is still significant activity in regional energy and resources,” he adds.

Salaries

When it comes to salaries, Raivadera says that within international law firms, salaries have remained relatively stable over the past few years. “In some cases, there is a ‘lock-step’ system at the associate level, with candidates moving through the bands, but the bands themselves have not moved significantly,” he says. “On the other hand, Singapore firms have increased their associate salaries. However, this seems to have come at the expense of the larger bonuses that used to be available for the better associates.” He notes that in-house salaries have improved, but still lag behind those available for private practice lawyers.

Meanwhile in Greater China, the boom is over, more or less. “Several years ago, when the U.S. law firms entered the Asia market with local practices, there was a race to pay the highest salary to acquire talent,” says Lee. “This has continued to be the case in certain practice areas where there is high demand for work but a low supply of lawyers with the suitable skill set. However, in general, salaries among law firms have become more stabilised in most circumstances.”

In-house

According to Lee, the draw of the in-house environment has never been stronger than it is now. “Most lawyers understand that a move in-house means a move to a role with a greater work-life balance with more stable and predictable working hours. However, what many don’t realise is that it is also an opportunity to be closer to a business and take on a more commercially facing role,” he says. “It is a chance to develop relationships with all areas of a business and ultimately become a business partner; indeed many in-house counsels find themselves on the managing board. In addition, corporates have now become far more competitive in regards to their rewards packages, and we now find that salaries and benefits for in-house lawyers are similar to those of their private practice counterparts.”

Raivadera adds that the greatest incentives for candidates to move in-house are better balance, greater predictability, and getting closer to the commercial elements of the deals. “Candidates feel like they have better control in-house,” he says. “Although money has never been the main reason why lawyers move in-house, the money in-house is much better than it used to be and in some cases, is more than made up by equity offerings or other types of long-term incentives. And law firm partnership appears less attractive now than it used to be.”

It is a view echoed by Eriksson of Ericsson. “I’ve heard many people in the legal industry saying: ‘I was always keen on pursuing the partner track, but I’ve changed my mind, because in-house counsel roles seem to be more fulfilling career-wise,’” he says, ”You get more in-depth knowledge about the industry you are in, and also have more control over your own agenda. Sure, you might give away a potentially substantial profit share as a law firm partner, but work-life balance is generally better in an in-house counsel role, and in my view, often more fulfilling in terms of broader professional development.”

Skills

When asked about in-house counsel who are most sought-after by companies, Eriksson stresses three main aspects. “First, you definitely need to be a generalist in terms of your legal competence. Having said that, since IPR protection is becoming more and more important in Asia, it certainly doesn’t hurt to be particularly savvy about IPR, at least if you are working in a high-tech industry,” he says. “Secondly, the compliance side: When I first became an in-house counsel eight years ago after several years in private practice, compliance was important, sure, but not as emphasised as it is now. As local companies list internationally and their brands become more important, they often tend to hire people who have some experience of compliance-related work. Finally, whenever I recruit, it is very important for me to find people who are genuinely interested in the business and who have a commercial mindset. You can be detailed and meticulous about the drafting – that’s necessary in private practice and generally a good platform to start from, but for an in-house counsel, it is even more important to really understand the business of your company and its customer. If you don’t do that, it is impossible to be an efficient and value-adding in-house counsel.”

On the private practice side, Hambrett says there are four personal attributes that his firm looks for: intellect, dedication, humanity and gravitas. “You obviously have to be very smart,” he says, “and also prepared to work hard. By humanity or ‘being nice,’ we mean how personable you are. Finally, leadership skills are vital. We invest a lot of time and money in leadership skills training even at the partner level because leadership is critical in a firm like ours. So these are the things we are looking for. Legal skills are great, but for our lawyers, the personal qualities offer that extra something.”
Raivadera notes that as in every market, the demand will always be strong for robust technical legal skills, but Asia needs a bit more. “Here, strong commercial skills, such as deal management, ability to understand the complete deal and help clients through a deal, are also key,” he says. “Lawyers who are good with clients and have strong marketing and business development skills are generally sought after. Regional languages and cultural sensitivities are always important too.”

Lee of SSQ stresses language skills. “Being trilingual in Cantonese, Mandarin and English will put a candidate ahead of the pack,” he says. “Put alongside exposure to cross-border transactions and international clients, candidates will have a winning combination.”

Advice

When asked about the advice he’s giving to client law firms on hiring and developing their business in Asia, Raivadera of ATR espouses the long game. “Patience is absolutely key in growing a brand and business development – as established global brands are often less well recognised here, and the Asian markets are very relationship driven,” he says. “Brand building takes time.”

Also, he advises being open-minded about recruitment. “When hiring at the senior ends, be open-minded to quality partners from good firms that don’t have immediate portability of business but instead have quality, ability and a decent book of relationships,” he says. “Look at teams if possible. When hiring junior lawyers, personality is as important as technical skills.”

Nick Robertson, a manager with SSQ’s Singapore office, says the platform that appears to offer the most realistic chance of success for most new market entrants is to focus on developing a highly disciplined, strategically aligned operation which clearly leverages the firm’s core capabilities in its home market. “King & Spalding, for example, which opened its Singapore office in 2010, made the decision to leverage the firm’s highly regarded global energy practice,” he says. “The firm has focused on developing a South-East Asia offering which builds upon the firm’s brand and global client base, and focuses almost exclusively on energy-related project development, finance and arbitration work in the region. By all accounts, this disciplined approach has paid dividends for the firm with consistent growth in revenue, and the appointment of a number of highly regarded lateral partners.”

He notes that while it is tempting for any firm to hire a “rainmaking” lateral corporate or general finance partner to establish a presence in Asia, unless his or her practice and client base is closely aligned with - and indeed directly reflects - the firm’s home market capabilities and clients, there is little, if anything, to be gained beyond a potential short-term revenue boost. “As soon as that lateral hire realises he or she will be able to achieve greater ‘synergy’ elsewhere, the unlucky firm will be left with nothing but its name on the door of some very expensive, empty, office space in Central, Marina Bay or Chaoyang.”