A good number of our placements over the last six years have been of Korean-speaking attorneys, most of whom are Korean natives who were educated in the United States after a preliminary legal education in Korea. There are very few UK-trained Korean transactional lawyers interested in practicing in Asia. [If there are any out there we don’t know yet, we hope you will get in touch.]

In the earlier years of our practice involving placement of these lawyers, we had a large contingent of junior to mid-level candidates who had little interest in Korea as a place to lateral to, although some moved to Korea to work in Korea firms, for family reasons, or because it was easier for them to land positions in Korean firms than in US or UK firms. Some of our more senior Korean US associate candidates over the years have been making strategic career moves to Korean law firms, as well as moves there for family reasons.

Many Korean US associates based in US have long realized that if they wanted to work on deals where their Korean cultural and language skills would provide a head start over others, they needed to do this from overseas in Hong Kong or Tokyo (most likely in Hong Kong, where most Korea practices are based). Increasingly, though, the question has changed from, “What firms in Hong Kong or Tokyo have the best Korean practices?” to, “How soon is it going to be possible for my firm to open in Seoul?” In this post we will attempt to describe in very basic detail the legal framework under which firms who wish to be in Korea as soon as possible can be there. We will also discuss the reasons why the expected boom of Korean US associate hiring in Hong Kong and Seoul, at UK and US firms, in 2011 has been thus far beendelayed for 6+ months.

Historical View of Korean Legal Market for Foreign Legal Consultants

By necessity, due to the closed nature of the legal market in Korea, lawyers admitted in the United States have historically had two choices: these attorneys could either be based in other jurisdictions around Asia (Hong Kong and Tokyo predominately) but fly into Seoul on a regular basis for transactions (and Karaoke), or they could move to Korea to work in a Korean law firm as a foreign legal consultant (“FLC’s”). Some of the most well known transactional firms who have employed FLC’s include: Kim & Chang; Bae, Kim & Lee; Lee & Ko; Shin & Kim; Yulchon; Hwang Mok Park; and Kim, Chang & Lee; Lee & Ko (just to name a few of the best known such firms). For years these firms and others like them have held sway over the indigenous Korean legal market. By virtue of their power to block international competition, they have done very well in the hiring market and some of the more senior partners have earned US top-firm money.

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Mongolia. The name itself conjures up images of warrior horse-lords, high-end cashmere, vast expanses of steppe, endless “ceremonial” toasts of vodka and fermented mare’s milk, and the legendary Genghis Khan (who, in my mind’s eye, looks a bit like Jason Momoa in HBO’s Game of Thrones). OK, maybe I’m the only one who thinks of alcohol, luxury dry goods and epic fantasy novels when I hear the word “Mongolia”, but those who know me well know not to expect anything less (or more) of me!

Mongolia boasts history’s largest contiguous empire on earth, which, during the 13^th century, stretched from Korea to Eastern Europe, and from Siberia to the Middle East. Factoring in non-contiguous empires such as the British and the Spanish empires, the Mongol empire still stacks up impressively, coming in second overall to the British Empire by a scant 700,000 square kilometers, or an area about the size of Texas. Today, Mongolia is poised for some empire-building of its own. Mongolia is one of the world’s most resource-rich democracies as well as one of its fastest growing economies. Positioned strategically between China and Russia, Mongolia is in an advantageous position to supply raw materials and resources to those two megaconsumer nations.

Mongolia is already attracting the attention of investment funds; just this month, Khan Investment Management launched the Khan Mongolia Equity Fund which was created to capitalize on the growth opportunities in Mongolia and give investors an opportunity to gain exposure to a rapidly growing country which harbors some of the world’s largest coal, copper, gold and uranium deposits. Travis Hamilton, the director of Khan, predicts for Mongolia “to have the fastest growing economy in the world over the next decade”, with growth driven by the nation’s mining sector.

I’ll raise a glass of vodka to that! But you can keep the fermented mare’s milk. More >>

Alexis Lamb here, enjoying a balmy spring morning in Hong Kong. Late spring is a mighty fine time to be in Hong Kong and May is one splendid month to be sitting on a junk in the middle of the South China Sea with 30 of your closest friends and a seabreeze in hand. Fortunately for all you Asia-minded US litigators, the number of boats in the harbor isn’t the only thing that’s increasing as the temperatures rise. Litigation opportunities in Hong Kong for US-qualified attorneys have tripled since last fall! Want a piece of the action? Read below…

WHAT KIND OF LITIGATION CAN A U.S. LAWYER DO IN ASIA?

The most “popular” forms of litigation are commercial litigation, arbitration, internal investigations, and civil and criminal government investigations, particularly FCPA litigations. However, an attorney need not have experience in FCPA/white collar investigations to land out here. The hiring partners are adamant that any litigation experience fits the bill and they are more than happy to “retool” an associate to the specific kinds of litigation that their office focuses on.

WHAT SKILLS DO I NEED TO LAND IN ASIA?

Successful applicants will have the three following traits, in order of importance. (1) Business fluency in Mandarin, (2) litigation experience gleaned in a top “biglaw” or elite litigation boutique environment and (3) top grades from a top law school (JD preferred). As a rough benchmark on point 3, I’d say that if you graduated with honors/top 25% from a top 20 law school you’re competitive. Mandarin fluency is the most important criterion. Firms won’t even interview applicants who were top 1% in their top 10 law school classes and had spot-on-point litigation experience because they were English-only. No matter how awesome you are, your resume will not even be looked at if you do not speak business level Mandarin.

Why are firms so strict on the language requirement? Part of the job out in Asia is conducting witness interviews, depositions, and other fact-finding operations in an Asian language, often Mandarin. If you have this experience, you will be a very competitive candidate so put it on your resume! One hiring partner told me that Mandarin is used nearly every day on cases – not just in casual conversation. It’s not enough to be able to shoot the breeze for 5 minutes with clients before a meeting. Your Mandarin must be good enough to pick up nuance in a witness interview or deposition, or translate diligence documents.

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Robert here. If you are a transactional associate at a top US firm and your name happens to be of Asian origin, especially of Chinese background, then you are probably receiving multiple cold calls per day from recruiters. After all the Asia lateral biglaw markets, especially HK / China are red hot now and it is of course very easy to compile a list of top US firm associates with Asian names.

Keep in mind that there can be very negative consequences in giving control of such an important career move and job search to someone calling you out of the blue (no matter how many times they may call). We often get calls from very well qualified US associates with sad tales of at worst their resume being plastered unauthorized all over China or other Asia markets; or at best only authorized submissions (thankfully) but realizing their recruiter has done little more than emailing their resume to begin with and is unresponsive for weeks.

It is important to note that your resume is a very valuable commodity to recruiters calling you. When you are placed at a law firm, the recruiter who submitted your resume is typically paid (by the law firm) 25 to 30% of your starting base salary. Thus, the recruiters cold-calling you have a big incentive to get a hold of your resume and email it to law firms, with or without your authorization (believe it or not, some biglaw recruiters in Asia are known to be even less ethical than the worst of the lot in the US). Once your resume has been submitted to a law firm, the recruiter who did so “owns” your candidacy there for at least six months. Further, when your resume has been submitted without your authorization, it will take an affidavit from you to the target firm explaining such for the submission to be reversed (and basically that is you explaining to the firm that you did not know you even applied there, which can of course cool off any motivation of that firm to continue to want to interview you, and the unethical recruiter is counting on you to thus not take that route).

We try to think that a lot of recruiters do not take such unethical steps, but please note that even the most well-intentioned recruiters trying to break into the Asia markets are more often than not woefully inexperienced with such lateral placements (and even most of those with some experience have never been more than resume pushers).

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