Evan 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.

Evan 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.

This is Robert, writing from back in the USA after another interesting week in Hong Kong. I took the photo above in a market in Hong Kong last week because it reminded me of some lawyers I know. These are tough times for many, no doubt. Many of the readers of this column have probably seen the recent New York Times article, which quoted and even pictured Evan Jowers as he was running around from meeting to meeting in Hong Kong. That article was so well known that one of our competitors who claim to specialize "exclusively" in recruitment for Asia chose to highlight the article in an advertisement, despite the fact that only we were quoted in it. While in Hong Kong, I learned from clients and contacts that dozens of new recruiters, unfamiliar with the market (some even from my home state of Texas), have been passing around resumes and cold-calling people in Hong Kong (even law firm partners) as if they knew Queen's Road Central from Tsim Tsa Shui. They are bored in the USA and are reaching out, which is to be commended but won't help your job search.

Evan here, writing from Hong Kong, where Robert and I are slammed all week. I just now managed to break away from some clients we were having drinks with at Sevva to get on a computer and quickly punch out a new post. I plan to meet these same clients at another location in about 30 minutes, so am typing quickly.

It has been an extremely busy time for us in Asia recently, as there is a lot of pending partner movement in HK / China and we are representing a number of such senior attorneys. We have made a few US associate placements in Asia in the past two weeks, but associate hiring is falling significantly.