In recent years, a key disruptive force in the Hong Kong legal market has been PRC firms. With their specialised knowledge of Chinese businesses, and immense resources at their fingertips, they are a serious threat to more established international firms. In response, the latter are growing increasingly savvy when it comes to hiring as they look to diversify their talent.

Hayden Flinn, co-chief executive (Hong Kong), King & Wood Mallesons

I think it’s common, in my experience, that all nationalities around the world tend to feel more comfortable talking or working with someone with a similar language or cultural background as themselves.

That’s quite natural and we are seeing this in the legal sector and other businesses. There are more PRC-facing law firms in Hong Kong and then, more generally, a greater number of lawyers in Hong Kong with a PRC background.

Language skills are definitely a consideration in hiring. Consistent with the market here, a significant number of our lawyers have native-level Mandarin. Somebody that speaks conversational Mandarin is good, but the reality is that if our lawyers and clients are going to operate in Mandarin, having native-level speakers with both the cultural understanding and language capabilities would be better.

From a Hong Kong perspective, our ideal person for this client base is someone who has native-level Mandarin and native-level English, who understands Chinese and Western culture. That’s a very small pool of people globally. We launched a recruitment programme recently, Propel, that we use to recruit students from key universities in China and around the world, that have completed their degrees in China and have overseas legal postgraduate education at an elite university to target opportunities from the Greater Bay Area and the upcoming cross-border work. We put them through a training programme, starting at the Hong Kong office, where they can gain international exposure and a final qualifying seat in either KWM Guangzhou or Shenzhen. It’s all about making that international connection, having people with a global perspective at the outset and then expanding this through the programme.

Elsie Chan, partner, Deacons

While PRC firms may have a better mainland Chinese background and native Putonghua language skills, the comparative advantage that international and Hong Kong firms have is a worldwide legal network. Substantial and complex commercial transactions usually require a multi-jurisdictional legal team that is proficient in the Chinese language and has a cultural affinity that can bridge between clients and their counterparties. Legal interconnectedness, sophistication, diversity and versatility, have always been key distinctive features of international and Hong Kong firms, helping them to stay competitive and boundless. Also, the majority of lawyers in international and Hong Kong world-class firms are well versed in Putonghua and English, and possess both Chinese cultural awareness as well as international perspectives. At the same time, there is also an increasing awareness among PRC clients that international and Hong Kong firms can bring out the best strategic and financial value in commercial deals.

Accordingly, with crossborder and China-outbound investment work becoming an increasingly essential source of revenue, many firms are adjusting their strategies and shifting their focus. Chinese enterprises are increasingly looking overseas to sustain their economic growth. Consequently, international and Hong Kong law firms are rapidly re-positioning themselves as facilitators. In terms of recruitment, therefore, they are looking to hire lawyers with trilingual skills); industry-specific legal experience; with Chinese cultural awareness and overseas experience to ensure that their pool of talent can fully understand and better serve their Chinese clients.

Adrian Bott, foreign legal consultant, (registered foreign lawyer), Osborne Clarke 

The answer is “It depends…” – on several factors. Primary among these is the target market at which any given international or Hong Kong firm is aiming. Each firm will no doubt recruit to suit the clients and markets it is facing. As mainland China is such a huge and significant market, growing particularly in its technology innovation and adoption, it is of course, increasing likely (if not inevitable) that almost all law firms based in Hong Kong (international or otherwise) will appreciate the need for a strategy to best address it.

The next most relevant factor on which the answer depends is whether the international (or indeed Hong Kong) firm also has a presence in mainland China – be that a local PRC firm or a representative office. In either case (but particularly in the former), it will be highly likely that any such office will comprise talented and experienced PRC qualified lawyers capable of delivering the same cultural understanding, language skills and market knowledge as their competitor PRC firms.

While not unique among international firms, in terms of Osborne Clarke’s approach to this issue, and bringing these two factors together, our strategy in relation to Hong Kong and mainland China is very much the same as for our other international offices within our verein structure – each consists (almost without exception) exclusively of local lawyers qualified and experienced in the relevant jurisdiction, thus ensuring the cultural sensitivity and alignment as well as the requisite language skills and detailed market knowledge. The combination of, and close collaboration between, Osborne Clarke Hong Kong and our Shanghai office (a full PRC firm) enables us to offer international clients looking to do business in China both the empathy with their own cultural approach and guidance as to the particularities of the PRC market – and to offer mainland Chinese clients looking outwards in to other markets the flip side of that, that is the guidance as to the cultural sensitivities and market norms relating to the destination jurisdiction(s) but from a locally attuned base in which they can trust.

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