Robert here. Robert Kinney and I just returned from another China trip and we will post market notes from that trip shortly at our blog, theasiachronicles.com.
As you know, we are often quoted and / or featured in various industry publications regarding our US biglaw attorney recruiting and market expertise in Asia. This month, find us in the cover story of the latest California Lawyer magazine. Also, if you don’t mind plucking down the 295 sterling for the brand new book, Building A Profitable Practice In Asia, by Robert Sawhney, just published by Ark Group, you will notice that Robert, Alexis and I were asked to write Chapter 22 (“Staffing an Asia Practice – Recent History and Trends”).
On our recent China trip (we are in Hong Kong / China about every other month and several times a year in other Asia markets), as usual, we were often asked by senior partners at US and UK firms how exactly do we manage to place the majority of their US associate lateral hires and in general represent so many of the top US trained candidates on the market.
Although Robert is based in Austin and my primary home is in Miami, we do manage to have a large market share in Hong Kong / China and Asia in general. Further, we do have a full time recruiter based in our HK offices – Alexis Lamb, who has been with us for two years (previously I placed her at Linklaters HK some years ago). It is not really rocket science what we do and what we offer law firm and lawyer clients. Here is the very basic gist of things re what we offer US associate candidates moving to or within Asia:
- We can provide 50+ very positive references fairly quickly of US associates we have recently placed in Asia, which is something no other recruiting firm can do (they can’t do it because they have not made more than just a fraction of that amount of US associate placements in Asia).
- We have clearly the best market knowledge in the industry, based on:—focusing on US associate recruiting in Asia since 2005 and accounting for more than 50% all such placements (major US and UK firm placements) in the entire industry in HK / China for the past six years (in other words, all of the other recruiting firms combined have not made the same number of US associate placements as Kinney has alone in HK / China during the past six years); and—We know well any of the law firms you may be targeting in Asia and have close working relations with most of the relevant partners you may be working for after your lateral move (in other words, we have met these persons many times over the years and they will always take or quickly return our call when we reach out regarding a candidate or potential candidate). Due to our success in recruiting for firms, as well as being generally good guys known for having the best insight on the market in the industry, Robert and I are in high demand by firms, with more requests for meetings with senior partners than we can possibly fulfill during our Asia trips. Many of the senior partners at top US and UK firms we have formed not only close business relations with but also close friendships over the years. We know their practices, personalities, goals, interview styles, and the type of associate candidates they usually favor.
- We have one recruiter who has alone averaged over 30 US associate placements each year in Asia for the past 5 years (and we have the references to prove it). Of course we have other very capable Asia focused recruiters as well, who have made their own impressive number of placements, and all of our Asia group works as a team to maximize the potential in any job search for our associate clients.
- We offer a service where your primary recruiter is available to meet you in person in the US and can also promote your candidacy in person in Asia, due to our philosophy of frequent back and forth travel between the two regions. What other recruiter can you work with who can meet you in person in NYC and a few days later be in China to promote you in person to partners at your target firms? This is a routine occurrence at Kinney.
- We are well connected with i-banks, funds and other potential in-house destinations in Asia, and have placed several general counsels at private equity funds.
- Although Robert and I do work on a lot of partner and group moves in Asia, we are both just as available to advise and work with any individual US associate considering a move to or within Asia (we don’t hand off associate candidates to others after an initial call).
- We always have at minimum one recruiter available on the ground in Hong Kong (Alexis) and New York (Danielle), and Robert and I are always available by phone, when you don’t happen to be in your neighborhood. I typically travel to NYC about once per week when I happen to be in the US and I also make trips to the West Coast, Texas and Chicago. Further, we always have no less than four recruiters working Asia business hours on any given day: Alexis, Yuliya, Peter and me.
- We are more than happy to discuss and advise on the market when associates are a year or more away from considering a move to or within Asia. We welcome such meetings / discussions and don’t hold back any of our information regardless of whether you are looking to move any time soon, if ever. Although we do place many associates from US to Asia who are looking to move quickly after they first contact us, the majority of our placements US to Asia are of those who contacted us 1 or more years before they were ready to make the move. We have helped many associates come to the conclusion that a transfer within their own firm to Asia was the best move and we give the same amount of time and market information to such associates. In other words, we are not focusing on only quick placement fee prospects when associates reach out to or are referred to us by their friends. We do make a ton of placement fees and that is how we keep the lights on after all in this business, but whether we make a fee for advice we give to any particular associate is not very relevant to our overall bottom line. Most importantly we are focused on the long-term relations we have with US attorneys who are in Asia or seek to move to Asia. Placement fees we make in the short-term in such relations are not of critical importance in the big scheme of things. Thus, our advice is not simply a plug for you to quickly go to a firm where we can get quickly paid. Unfortunately, recruiters in this industry are not able to give unbiased advice because of the recruiting fee being the elephant in the room, but we are different in that way and make too many placements to worry to much about any given one. Our goal is to eventually act as each of our associate attorney clients’ agent / consultant throughout their careers, as well as help them staff up their own team once they are at a senior level.
- Law firms come to us for market information, so why shouldn’t you? Law firms ask our advice on many issues, including expat / cola allowances, in many cases asking us to recommend potential new policies and also meet with global firm management regarding such policies and market conditions affecting them. When a firm’s global managing partner is visiting Hong Kong / China, we are often asked to meet with him, especially when firms are considering breaking into China for the first time or having a major expansion there. We routinely meet with upper level firm global management in both NYC and HK / China, in order to discuss present and future firm strategy in China and Asia.
Law firms our small Kinney Asia team has made placements at very recently, within the past few months, in HK / China (of course, we have made very recent placements in other Asia markets as well, but HK, BJ and SHG have obviously been the hottest lateral markets recently):
* – denotes multiple placements
Simpson Thacher *
Allen & Overy *
Skadden Arps *
Freshfields
Latham
Kirkland & Elllis *
Milbank *
Ropes & Gray
Orrick
Paul Hastings
Jones Day
O’Melveny
Shearman & Sterling
Baker & McKenzie
Clifford Chance
A large number of our associate candidates are interviewing at present in HK / China, so we expect a larger amount of placements than usual in December and January.
