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The recovery and subsequent stabilization of most East Asian economies over the last three years has led to a majority of big businesses once again investing in their in-house legal teams. What was an expensive luxury during the economic downturn is now an invaluable resource. Moreover, one of the inevitable lessons learnt during the last recession appears to be that, for a lot of businesses, it can be cost effective to undertake a higher proportion of legal work in-house. The net effect is that demand is currently very strong for in-house lawyers across a broad range of practice areas. Therefore competition for highly skilled practitioners is intense, which in combination with a limited supply of well qualified candidates is pushing salary levels higher. The bigger banks and multi national corporations are being left with no option other than to lure, retain and buy back employees with high salaries and promises of significant bonuses, which increasingly are being guaranteed. Looking across the region, the Hong Kong market is very busy, with a lot of the action being concentrated in the banks, both local and international. The confidence in the market which is fuelling the recruitment activity is shared by industry and large domestic corporates and MNC's are also busily building up their in-house legal teams. For non-banking roles, although not always essential, Cantonese language skills continue to be important. Over on the Mainland, the in-house recruitment market is busy in both Beijing and Shanghai. The usual job requirements include Mandarin language skills, previous China based experience and, ideally, some international education and/or professional training. There continues to be effectively two types of roles, those that pay local rates and those that pay at a higher, international level. For obvious reasons, the attractiveness of a role to the best candidates depends to a significant extent upon the category in which the job falls. The South Korean market is very much in vogue at the present time. In particular, the banking industry is very active, with a strong need for good quality Korean language drafting skills. A genuine shortage of suitably qualified candidates means that salary levels are good and getting better, although, by way of comparison, they still lag a little way behind Hong Kong. The Japanese market is also buoyant right now, with an especially strong requirement for compliance specialists. A majority of in-house roles in Tokyo require Japanese language skills and this is perhaps the main reason for there being a shortage of well qualified candidates. For those with the right skill sets salaries are very good. Throughout the region there is currently strong demand in various practice areas. For example, the recovery of real estate markets has led to an increase in the requirement for property specialists. The property arms of banks and those hedge funds with significant property portfolios are amongst the employers currently looking for high end property lawyers. Private banking is also benefiting from the much better economic outlook and, as it booms, roles are being created for lawyers with solid general banking backgrounds. In fact, in general terms, most finance specialists tend to have a wealth of good potential options in the present environment. With ever increasing regulatory frameworks in the world of business, there are ever more compliance roles around. Increasingly, litigators are being recruited to fill such roles alongside lawyers poached from the regulatory bodies themselves. But even then, there are roles that certain employers are finding it hard to fill. The prospect of working in-house continues to attract a large number of lawyers from private practice. The perceived advantages of a better quality of life and an opportunity to move more onto the business side of things seem to be a big draw, although, with some roles, the reality can be rather different. The ideal level for candidates to move in-house is generally in the region of 4 to 6 years pqe. However, a combination of candidates looking to move away from practice roles and a shortage of suitable candidates at the right level means that lawyers are increasingly making the move at a more junior level. While, dependent on the role, that is not always a problem, individual candidates need to be careful to ensure they receive the right level of training once working in-house. For the right person, the right move to the right job in-house at the right time can completely transform their working life for the better. However, with the present strong demand for in-house lawyers, it is more important than ever for candidates to take real care over their career moves. |
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