Moving in-house

Question: Mid-level Chinese-speaking lawyer in New York with Big Law and 5+ years of corporate transactional experience. I am interested in moving to Asia with my family and I am also at a stage of my career when I feel ready to make a move in-house. What are my options for going in-house in Asia inthe current market?

Answer: Congratulations on your achievements. You have reached that stage in your career where you are confident in your technical skills and eager to apply them in a real world situation where you can have more involvement with the business and more predictable hours.

Your profile ticks all of the boxes so finding an in-house position in Asia should be breeze.  But hold on. . . changing industry and location at the same time could prove to be a difficult move to make for a number of reasons.Legal hiring managers here in Asia have a very strong local talent pool to choose from and prefer to hire locally whenever possible.  The lawyers who are already working in Asia have on-the-ground deal experience and regional knowledge, both of which are highly valued by in-house managers.   These lawyers work with in-house legal teams on a daily basis and thus, have already established a reputation in the market which can give the hiring attorney a level of comfort that he or she is choosing the right person.  Interview logistics are straight forward, there is no relocation package involved, and the length of time between acceptance of an offer and start date can be shorter, all of which add up to less time and money spent on making the hire.

In-house legal teams here are relatively small and and for the “choice” roles in leading international and regional institutions,  there will be many lawyers competing for the same role.  Asia’s robust economic recovery and growth projections have enticed many bilingual/trilingual lawyers to return creating a highly competitive on-the-ground talent pool.

When would a prospective employer look overseas?  When they cannot find anyone locally.  For example, for some sought after specialities (funds and employment come to mind), the local talent pool is small and unable to keep pace with demand.

For senior level hires, the need for management expertise or institutional knowledge often trumps language and other requirements.  In such case, and particularly in recent years when recovery in  the London and US market has been “softer” than the Asian market, the banks have favored internal transfers whenever possible or have hired lawyers from nearby jurisdictions such as Australia and New Zealand.

Our Advice

• The easiest route is to seek an internal transfer with your current firm (most of the big New York law firms have a presence here).  This will preserve continuity on your CV and can get you here relatively quickly as law firm demand for bi/trilingual attorneys at this level of experience is very high and we expect it to remain so.
• If you decide that internal transfer is not the best route for you, find a lateral opportunity with another firm where the practice focus and culture is a good fit for you.
• Once you arrive, start planning for the in-house move.  Make yourself visible and helpful to your in-house clients.  You want them to have a positive reaction when your name comes up in the search process.

Planning ahead

If you are keen on developing a long-term career in Asia, we recommend moving to Asia at the junior- to mid-level (3-4 years experience).  At this point you will have already gotten the lion’s share of the benefit of New York training, so it is a good time to take your career to the next level and take on the increased level of responsibility that will be yours in an Asian office. The size of the pool of young attorneys with excellent academic and professional pedigree and Asian language skills increases with each passing year and we expect that trend to continue into the future.

Conclusion

Lawyers who are serious about developing a long term career in Asia should relocate while still fairly junior to give themselves time to gain the regional experience prized by legal hiring managers.   Staying in private practice in New York until you are a very senior associate will likely limit your in-house career options in Asia.