A great draw of US biglaw associates to Hong Kong is the lucrative and somewhat illogical expat / cola allowances. Even though the cost of living in Hong Kong is not much different than New York (housing is a bit higher in HK), it is common to receive an expat / cola allowance of well over $60,000 USD.
Last year most in the Hong Kong market expected the lucrative US associate expat / cola allowances to lower dramatically, due to the global recession (which did greatly reduce deal flow in HK / China from late ’08 to mid ’09) and with many firms on global hiring freeze at the time. However, in reality, the expat / cola allowances at the more competitive US and UK firms in HK were never really in danger of dropping much, even during the very slow lateral biglaw hiring period in HK from December ’08 until October ’09.
Tags: Asia | Hong Kong
It is always good for Robert and me to continue to visit HK about once every two months, to stay informed and meet our clients in person. I will be heading to Beijing later this month and Robert and I will be back in HK in August. Although Dubai is not exactly a hot lateral market this year, I will be also in Dubai in August (unfortunately at the time of year when it is literally too hot to walk down the street very far).
One of our top US firm clients has asked us to help them find two US securities associates interested in relocating to Sydney. The two positions will be filled by 3rd to 5th year cap markets associates, most likely coming from a top 20 US firm in New York or another major US market. The role will be entirely US securities law and not deal at all with local law (unlike which can happen in HK and other overseas markets at some firms). This US cap markets practice in Sydney is widely considered to be the best in Australia. It is an opportunity to settle down permanently in Sydney (there is career advancement potential and this firm has a track record of promoting partners from within in busy overseas offices) or spend a few years getting interesting experience and then head back to US. While this position will be challenging and of course consist of long hours, a strong argument can be made that it is a better quality of life than working in biglaw in NYC. Past experience or strong connection to Australia not needed to apply for this position. Of course, we are happy to go over the opportunity in detail with you by phone / email if you are interested. I met with the hiring partner from this firm’s Sydney office yesterday, as he was in the US on business. He said they are prepared to move very quickly with offers for the right two candidates, so it will not be a drawn out process. Further, this particular top US firm has a track record of moving very quickly with US associate hires in Asia.
This week, for example, my candidates overall are having about 5 interviews per day, either in-person, by phone or video conference. Some of these interviews have been with firms which were on solid hiring freeze all of ‘09 (firms that are just coming off hiring freeze are typically focusing mostly on cap markets hiring, due to the booming IPO market in HK / China). In fact we just made two HK placements at one wall street firm that was on hiring freeze from mid-‘08 through November ‘09.
When would that be? What would be the triggers that might cause you to look again after a few years of partnership? Here are a few vignette’s from our recent experiences that might shed some light for you. I’ve changed names and details as appropriate to protect the identities of the firms and candidates.