Top of their games

All eyes are on China. The fanfare of the Olympics may have come and gone, but the rapidly developing markets continue to keep the spotlight firmly on the People’s Republic. Businesses from all over the world are tempted with success stories from the mainland and Hong Kong, which contrast with the ailing Western economies. Amidst the excitement, international and Chinese law firms face a scramble for the gold-medal talent if they’re to reap the rewards of this current period of expansion in the long term.

There are more law firms and more lawyers than ever before in the Chinese market, the number of Chinese law schools is still on the rise, there are candidates for every position – and yet there’s a problem. The kind of recruit that can speak English and Mandarin or Cantonese (ideally all three), has an international qualification, experience of international law and an understanding of the Chinese culture is hard to find, but is exactly what most leading practices need.

The recruitment market still shows all the signs of being healthy, yet speak to almost any managing partner in Beijing, Shanghai or Hong Kong and they’ll tell you that getting the right candidate is fraught with problems. Katie Hogue, team manager at recruitment specialists Hays Legal in Hong Kong, says: ‘There’s a dearth of strong local candidates; need always exhausts supply. Quite possibly, standards were more flexible a few years ago as so many firms were trying to break the market. We’ve seen a bit of a fallout from that as firms have set the bar higher for recruits.’

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