City Guide | Hong Kong

City Guide | Hong Kong
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City Guide | Hong Kong
Overview
Hong Kong is not only the principal gateway to China
but also continues to be the main business and financial
centre for Asia. International law firms have had a
presence here since the 1980s and their offices have
grown and developed over this time so that many of
the major UK and US law firms offer their clients a
full service practice. The offices are staffed mainly by
locally qualified and trained lawyers, but there are still
a large number of foreign qualified lawyers who have
either been seconded from their London or Australian
offices or hired externally.
The size of international offices here varies, but in general
the main international practices will have between 20100 lawyers, the specialist US and UK practices tend
to have smaller offices of some 5-15 lawyers. Firms
will have a range of lawyers from different jurisdictions
including the UK, Australia, New Zealand and the US
as well as their local Hong Kong qualified lawyers. It is
possible to become Hong Kong qualified by taking the
transfer test and most foreign qualified lawyers do so.
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City Guide | Hong Kong
Advantages of working in Hong Kong
Salaries
As the largest international legal centre in Asia, the
quality of work is excellent, with client bases that
generally reflect those in the UK or US, as well as
additional major Chinese and Asian clients. You will also
get exposure to the China market and as this develops
it will undoubtedly become one of the main focuses for
law firms and could represent an excellent opportunity
for people to make their mark and increase their chances
of partnership.
Salaries in Hong Kong are based on the local Hong Kong
market and are not linked to London salaries. Generally
salaries are high and coupled with a flat tax rate of
16% this makes Hong Kong very financially attractive.
Salaries are normally quoted in HK$ per month. Further
information is available in our salary survey reports.
Despite offering the full range and quality of work, the
offices and departments are considerably smaller than
those in London and so there are the added advantages
of a more cohesive environment and more direct partner
contact and supervision.
The highest expense that you will incur is
accommodation, however it is no more than 10-20%
higher than equivalent accommodation in London. In
addition, firms do structure salaries so that you can
deduct any rent that you pay from your taxable salary
so as to reduce your tax bill. Apart from accommodation
the average living costs in Hong Kong would be slightly
lower than the UK and slightly higher than Australia.
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City Guide | Hong Kong
Law firms and practice areas
The majority of the international firms in Hong Kong
will have a localised practice which means that they
practice and advise on Hong Kong law and as such they
offer a full service practice similar to their head offices
in London, New York or Australia. Some of the US firms
are not localised and so cannot advise on Hong Kong law
issues. These firms tend to focus on US securities law
and international financial transactions and are smaller
in size to the localised offices.
The practice areas that tend to be the biggest within
firms are corporate, finance, projects and litigation.
There are also opportunities within the more specialised
practice areas such as employment, IT/IP, construction
and funds.
The corporate market is very much driven by the equity
capital markets of Hong Kong and many of the firms
do a large amount of IPO work, however they do also
work on M&A matters as well as private equity. Some
firms have separate China practice departments which
focus on corporate matters where the clients or the
organisations involved in the transaction are Chinese
entities. Work in these groups can be more varied and
would include foreign direct investment, joint venture
deals as well as M&A and IPO work.
Finance is probably the second biggest area and as well
as advising on general finance, asset and acquisition
finance, the finance groups will also do structured
finance, derivatives and debt capital markets work. It is
a smaller finance market than the UK, but it still offers
a variety of deals. Most firms do not have very specific
specialist departments, allowing finance lawyers to
develop a broad depth of experience.
Projects is another major area and firms will advise on
the commercial as well as the financial side of deals.
China is naturally one of the main regions that firms are
focusing on, but there are also plenty of deals done in
Vietnam, the Philippines and other areas.
Construction also forms a large part of some
firm’s practices and with the explosion of
hotels and casinos in Macau, this is starting to
produce more work on the non-contentious side.
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City Guide | Hong Kong
Litigation is one of the largest departments within some firms,
especially those with expertise in shipping or insurance litigation.
As well as the specialised areas of litigation many international
firms advise on general commercial litigation, professional
indemnity work, international arbitration and financial regulatory
contentious work. A Hong Kong qualification is required to appear
before the court.
Hong Kong is also one of the main centres for offshore law firms
who predominantly advise on corporate, finance and funds matters.
English is the main language that is used by the international law
firms, but Mandarin is now important as many of the firms clients
are from China and lawyers will need to be able to read Chinese
documents and also speak with Chinese nationals. If you speak
fluent Mandarin and have experience from an international firm
you will be highly sought after, however even without Chinese
language skills there are still plenty of opportunities with firms.
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City Guide | Hong Kong
Lifestyle
Hong Kong is an easy place to live, it not only offers the benefits of
living within one of the worlds most developed and modern cities but
it combines this with benefits you might associate with living and
working outside of a major city. Travel to and from work is easy and
for many is no more than a 10 minute taxi ride or a short walk away.
Accommodation is modern and readily available and at the weekend
you can either go shopping in the many shopping malls, socialise
in the bars and restaurants of Lan Kwai Fong and Wan Chai or for a
more relaxing time you can escape to the beach, go walking in the
countryside or participate in one of the many team sports that form
a large part of some expat’s lives. Sport forms a large part of many
expat’s lives and there are superb facilities throughout the city and all
are extremely sociable.
Hong Kong has a skyline similar to New York, but it is also
possible to escape this very quickly; Hong Kong Island and the
New Territories have excellent beaches and some of the best
day hikes in the world. Many of the large law firms own junks
which they allow their assistants to use at weekends and water
sports such as sailing and wakeboarding are very popular.
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City Guide | Hong Kong
Accommodation
The main areas of accommodation are Mid Levels and Happy Valley.
Mid Levels is located just above Central and it is easy to walk to
work from here.
Happy Valley is a little further away and so rents are lower, it is
also near to the racecourse and is still only a 10 minute taxi drive
to Central. Finding somewhere to rent is very easy and there is a
complete range of accommodation to suit all budgets.
For more information visit: hongkong.asiaxpat.com
Travel
Hong Kong is a main travel hub for Asia and it is possible to make
weekend visits to places such as Bangkok, Shanghai, Singapore,
Vietnam and the Philippines. Travel is cheap and you often get
excellent flight and hotel packages through travel agents. After a
few years of living in Hong Kong you will almost certainly have
visited the majority of Asia.
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Contact
For more information on living and working in Hong Kong or if you are interested in relocation to the region please contact one of our
offices:
Mark Coates (Hong Kong office)
T: + 852 2973 6333
E: [email protected]
Florentine Weijer (London office)
T: +44 (0)20 7415 2828
E: [email protected]
Karlie Connellan (Sydney office)
T: +61 (0)2 9236 9000
E: [email protected]
Established in the 1980s, Taylor Root is now widely recognised as being one of the world’s leading legal recruiters. Operating out of offices in
London, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney and Melbourne, we are ideally placed to assist law firms, banks and companies with their legal
recruitment on an international basis. Taylor Root has a strong track record in the recruitment of: Heads of Legal and Legal counsel; law firm
associates and partners; contract/locum lawyers; paralegals; company secretaries and compliance professionals.
Taylor Root is a member of The SR Group. The SR Group is a specialist recruitment consultancy dedicated to raising standards in the business
environments that we serve. The sectors we cover include tax, legal, human resources, marketing, professional support and executive search,
dealing with a substantial number of the world’s leading professional partnerships, multi-national corporations and international banking
groups as well as small to medium sized developing organisations.
London
95 Queen Victoria Street
London EC4V 4HN
T: +44 (0)20 7415 2828
Hong Kong
Dubai
Suite 614, Liberty House DIFC
PO Box 506739
T: +9714 448 7770
1918 Hutchinson House
10 Harcourt Road , Central, Hong Kong
T: +852 2973 6333
Singapore
Melbourne
Sydney
Level 21 Prudential Tower
30 Cecil Street
Singapore 049712
T: +65 6420 0500
Level 2, Rialto North Tower
525 Collins Street
Melbourne, VIC 3000
T: +61 (0)3 8610 8400
Taylor Root is a member of The SR Group
taylorroot.com.hk
Level 12, 25 Bligh Street
Sydney
NSW 2000
T: +61 (0)2 9236 9000