Why lawyers are being highly sought after in Hong Kong

M&A lawyers are being targeted.

The ongoing changes to global and local financial services regulations are creating more demand for Lawyers with compliance and regulatory skills at both law firms and multinational corporations, a recruiting expert has said.

According to a release from Hays, in the recruiter’s latest Hays Quarterly Report of skills in demand for January to March, it says that contentious regulatory and Investigations specialists and M&A Lawyers are highly sought after.

“Increased scrutiny over business practices, particularly in China, and a greater US/UK focus on pan-global investigations has increased demand for Lawyers with regulatory and investigations skills,” says Dean Stallard, Regional Director of Hays in Hong Kong.

“The regulatory changes are set to create opportunities for Lawyers with compliance skills at both law firms and multinational corporations. Accordingly, some international law firms continue to strengthen their litigation, arbitration and investigation practices.

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“Also, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) created a new approval process in April 2014, separating complex mergers from simple ones. Simple mergers can now be processed in a much faster manner, reducing the approval process to a matter of weeks. This has led to an increase in M&A activity across Hong Kong and China, and thus cross-border specialist M&A Lawyers are in high demand.”

According to the recruiter, the level of activity in the Hong Kong equity capital markets has picked up significantly and is creating more demand for Lawyers who specialise in this area.

“The majority of the companies listing in Hong Kong come from China and operate in a variety of sectors, including pharmaceuticals and finance,” says Dean.

“Debt capital markets activity was also high last quarter and we expect this trend to continue. Several initiatives taken by the PRC government to open up the financial services sector have resulted in increased demand for deal lawyers in Hong Kong with China-related knowledge and skills.

“Hong Kong’s construction sector is continuing to grow as the Government is committed to enhancing economic development through building new infrastructure. Therefore the outlook is favourable for Construction Lawyers for both infrastructure and residential construction.

“Finally, it is worth noting that we have seen an increase in demand for Lawyers working on a contract basis, particularly at banks and law firms. The emergence of non-traditional providers has created a market for Lawyers in between jobs or who are happy to consider project-based contract positions.”