Hong Kong > Legal market overview
As one of the world’s premier financial centres, and arguably the most active at present, Hong Kong has become a market of intense focus for the international legal profession. While many local and international firms have increased their resources in the special administrative region (SAR), it is US firms that have surprised the market with a sequence of headline lateral hires. Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, Kirkland & Ellis International LLP, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP and Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy have all hired elite names, principally from the Magic Circle and elite UK-based firms.
In August 2011, Kirkland & Ellis International LLP made the biggest splash by hiring seven partners from Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, Allen & Overy and Latham & Watkins LLP. These include leading M&A partner Nicholas Norris and eminent capital markets partner Dominic Tsun.
With a series of high-value initial public offerings on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (including by a growing number of non-Chinese and non-Asian companies such as Prada and Samsonite) and with numerous Hong Kong-listed companies making landmark acquisitions overseas, it is unsurprising that the jurisdiction has become a focal point for the international legal market.
Nearly all practice areas are booming, not least because this bullish market leads to all kinds of legal requirements. Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has become increasingly active and ruthless with its investigations. As a result, Hong Kong has become a hotbed for dispute resolution and contentious-related practice. Firms have been boosting their dispute resolution and contentious regulatory resources accordingly.
Furthermore, the advent of RMB-denominated funds has invigorated the asset management and financial services community. A number of firms have actively pursued the much-hyped Dim Sumí bonds market that has drawn in a multitude of Chinese and foreign issuers.
In the new world economy that has emerged since the global financial crisis of 2008, Hong Kong is set to become an ever-increasingly powerful financial centre.
At the time of going to press, Clyde & Co and Barlow Lyde & Gilbert were due to merge, and the success of the merger will be assessed in the 2013 edition.