City Guide Hong Kong. taylorroot.com.hk

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2 Overview Hong Kong is not only the principal gateway to China but also continues to be the main business and financial centre for Asia. International law firms have had a presence here since the 1980s and their offices have grown and developed over this time so that many of the major UK and US law firms offer their clients a full service practice. The offices are staffed mainly by locally qualified and trained lawyers, but there are still a large number of foreign qualified lawyers who have either been seconded from their London or Australian offices or hired externally. The size of international offices here varies, but in general the main international practices will have between lawyers, the specialist US and UK practices tend to have smaller offices of some 5-15 lawyers. Firms will have a range of lawyers from different jurisdictions including the UK, Australia, New Zealand and the US as well as their local Hong Kong qualified lawyers. It is possible to become Hong Kong qualified by taking the transfer test and most foreign qualified lawyers do so.

3 Advantages of working in Hong Kong As the largest international legal centre in Asia, the quality of work is excellent, with client bases that generally reflect those in the UK or US, as well as additional major Chinese and Asian clients. You will also get exposure to the China market and as this develops it will undoubtedly become one of the main focuses for law firms and could represent an excellent opportunity for people to make their mark and increase their chances of partnership. Despite offering the full range and quality of work, the offices and departments are considerably smaller than those in London and so there are the added advantages of a more cohesive environment and more direct partner contact and supervision. Salaries Salaries in Hong Kong are based on the local Hong Kong market and are not linked to London salaries. Generally salaries are high and coupled with a flat tax rate of 16% this makes Hong Kong very financially attractive. Salaries are normally quoted in HK$ per month. Further information is available in our salary survey reports. The highest expense that you will incur is accommodation, however it is no more than 10-20% higher than equivalent accommodation in London. In addition, firms do structure salaries so that you can deduct any rent that you pay from your taxable salary so as to reduce your tax bill. Apart from accommodation the average living costs in Hong Kong would be slightly lower than the UK and slightly higher than Australia.

4 Law firms and practice areas The majority of the international firms in Hong Kong will have a localised practice which means that they practice and advise on Hong Kong law and as such they offer a full service practice similar to their head offices in London, New York or Australia. Some of the US firms are not localised and so cannot advise on Hong Kong law issues. These firms tend to focus on US securities law and international financial transactions and are smaller in size to the localised offices. The practice areas that tend to be the biggest within firms are corporate, finance, projects and litigation. There are also opportunities within the more specialised practice areas such as employment, IT/IP, construction and funds. The corporate market is very much driven by the equity capital markets of Hong Kong and many of the firms do a large amount of IPO work, however they do also work on M&A matters as well as private equity. Some firms have separate China practice departments which focus on corporate matters where the clients or the organisations involved in the transaction are Chinese City Guide Hong Kong entities. Work in these groups can be more varied and would include foreign direct investment, joint venture deals as well as M&A and IPO work. Finance is probably the second biggest area and as well as advising on general finance, asset and acquisition finance, the finance groups will also do structured finance, derivatives and debt capital markets work. It is a smaller finance market than the UK, but it still offers a variety of deals. Most firms do not have very specific specialist departments, allowing finance lawyers to develop a broad depth of experience. Projects is another major area and firms will advise on the commercial as well as the financial side of deals. China is naturally one of the main regions that firms are focusing on, but there are also plenty of deals done in Vietnam, the Philippines and other areas. Construction also forms a large part of some firm s practices and with the explosion of hotels and casinos in Macau, this is starting to produce more work on the non-contentious side.

5 Litigation is one of the largest departments within some firms, especially those with expertise in shipping or insurance litigation. As well as the specialised areas of litigation many international firms advise on general commercial litigation, professional indemnity work, international arbitration and financial regulatory contentious work. A Hong Kong qualification is required to appear before the court. Hong Kong is also one of the main centres for offshore law firms who predominantly advise on corporate, finance and funds matters. English is the main language that is used by the international law firms, but Mandarin is now important as many of the firms clients are from China and lawyers will need to be able to read Chinese documents and also speak with Chinese nationals. If you speak fluent Mandarin and have experience from an international firm you will be highly sought after, however even without Chinese language skills there are still plenty of opportunities with firms.

6 Lifestyle City Guide Hong Kong Hong Kong is an easy place to live, it not only offers the benefits of living within one of the worlds most developed and modern cities but it combines this with benefits you might associate with living and working outside of a major city. Travel to and from work is easy and for many is no more than a 10 minute taxi ride or a short walk away. Accommodation is modern and readily available and at the weekend you can either go shopping in the many shopping malls, socialise in the bars and restaurants of Lan Kwai Fong and Wan Chai or for a more relaxing time you can escape to the beach, go walking in the countryside or participate in one of the many team sports that form a large part of some expat s lives. Sport forms a large part of many expat s lives and there are superb facilities throughout the city and all are extremely sociable. Hong Kong has a skyline similar to New York, but it is also possible to escape this very quickly; Hong Kong Island and the New Territories have excellent beaches and some of the best day hikes in the world. Many of the large law firms own junks which they allow their assistants to use at weekends and water sports such as sailing and wakeboarding are very popular.

7 Accommodation The main areas of accommodation are Mid Levels and Happy Valley. Mid Levels is located just above Central and it is easy to walk to work from here. Happy Valley is a little further away and so rents are lower, it is also near to the racecourse and is still only a 10 minute taxi drive to Central. Finding somewhere to rent is very easy and there is a complete range of accommodation to suit all budgets. For more information visit: hongkong.asiaxpat.com Travel Hong Kong is a main travel hub for Asia and it is possible to make weekend visits to places such as Bangkok, Shanghai, Singapore, Vietnam and the Philippines. Travel is cheap and you often get excellent flight and hotel packages through travel agents. After a few years of living in Hong Kong you will almost certainly have visited the majority of Asia.

8 Contact For more information on living and working in Hong Kong or if you are interested in relocation to the region please contact one of our offices: Mark Coates (Hong Kong office) T: E: markcoates@ Florentine Weijer (London office) T: +44 (0) E: florentineweijer@taylorroot.com Karlie Connellan (Sydney office) T: +61 (0) E: karlieconnellan@taylorroot.com.au Established in the 1980s, Taylor Root is now widely recognised as being one of the world s leading legal recruiters. Operating out of offices in London, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney and Melbourne, we are ideally placed to assist law firms, banks and companies with their legal recruitment on an international basis. Taylor Root has a strong track record in the recruitment of: Heads of Legal and Legal counsel; law firm associates and partners; contract/locum lawyers; paralegals; company secretaries and compliance professionals. Taylor Root is a member of The SR Group. The SR Group is a specialist recruitment consultancy dedicated to raising standards in the business environments that we serve. The sectors we cover include tax, legal, human resources, marketing, professional support and executive search, dealing with a substantial number of the world s leading professional partnerships, multi-national corporations and international banking groups as well as small to medium sized developing organisations. London 95 Queen Victoria Street London EC4V 4HN T: +44 (0) Singapore Level 21 Prudential Tower 30 Cecil Street Singapore T: Taylor Root is a member of The SR Group Dubai Suite 614, Liberty House DIFC PO Box T: Melbourne Level 2, Rialto North Tower 525 Collins Street Melbourne, VIC 3000 T: +61 (0) Hong Kong 1918 Hutchinson House 10 Harcourt Road, Central, Hong Kong T: Sydney Level 12, 25 Bligh Street Sydney NSW 2000 T: +61 (0)