The influence of China’s booming economy is having the desired effect on the Hong Kong legal jobs market, according to the Hudson Report for Q2, 2011. Legal consultant Linda Ang says she is not surprised by the results published in the report that 88per cent of law firms in Hong Kong intend to make permanent hires this year: “I wasn’t surprised, I could have expected more than that actually. I cannot think of even one firm within Hong Kong that doesn’t intend to hire,” adds Ang. The legal industry was also the strongest for permanent hires by far, with the highest among other industries around 69per cent, still a good result but not as high as other jurisdictions, the report notes. 

The good news is also further proof that the legal industry is more recession proof than others, including banking and IT, according to Ang. “Even though there were layoffs in the legal industry [during the GFC] it is more recession proof. Firms tend to go for stability by hiring permanent staff and they have practices, for example litigation, insolvency and restructuring, which can experience a boom during a down turn,” says Ang. She also points out that the current hiring spree is moving towards the traditional pre-GFC finance areas such as IPOs, banking, derivatives, M&A and corporate finance.

Ang says the hires will be mainly associates and less partner level or senior associate level movement is expected. Candidates at associate level are becoming more selective and are able to request salaries at the upper end of the relevant PQE band, according to her. “I have one candidate who has the whole package, IPO experience, Chinese language skills, academics. She was interviewed immediately by three firms.” The advantage for candidates is that now they know that the market is good they are demanding more, asking about worklife balance at interviews and they are interested to know whether they will get more than just one dimensional IPO work and firms are giving immediate feedback when they like a candidate, Ang says.