Asian Legal Market? Forum

[tallboone]

saving this thread. i'm blown away by how many people on this site appear to be in Shanghai right now.

[FutureApplicant]

Tagging for future reference.

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[etlien]

What about HK or Tokyo?

How hard would it be for a native HKer to land an associate position with the HK office of an american firm fresh out of law school?

[SpaceDawg]

This thread is relevant to my interests. I've studied two years of Mandarin and am wondering if most law schools allow students to take language courses in addition to their law coursework. Anyone know the answer to this?

Most of the schools I spoke with said I would be able to audit a Mandarin class as long as I could work it out with the professor and it wouldn't affect my law schedule/studies.

[motiontodismiss]

Tagging for future reference.

+1

[creamedcats]

I'd like to offer my perspective here based on my personal experience and what others have told me. I'm currently a rising 3L in the US, who has been working as a summer intern at a major international firm in Shanghai, China. I obtained the job through a family connection.

Foreign law firms in China are not allowed to practice PRC law. Therefore, only domestic firms (the biggest of which are firms like Dacheng and King & Wood) actually practice law. Foreign firms (like Baker & McKenzie, DLA Piper, Jones Day) merely "render opinions" and advise clients on the law. Consequently, foreign firms will primarily have international clients that seek to do business in China. They also pay better, because associates at those firms are required to have better English fluency than attorneys at domestic firms.

That being said, I think it would be impossible to land a job as an associate at a firm in China (domestic or foreign) without a solid ability to read, write and speak Chinese. The only people at foreign firms who are not fluent in Chinese are partners or certain consultants who have specialized skills. It's probably unheard of for an associate at a firm in China to not be fluent in Chinese, and all associates at foreign firms in China are fluent and Chinese and English. Even being able to speak without also being able to read/write is not enough, since you will be dealing with PRC law on a regular basis and the official and controlling version is always in Chinese.

I'm totally guessing but I would think that working in HK or Singapore would be easier since English is more of a mainstay in those places, especially in Singapore.

Not always the case at present but I am in total agreement, it is silly to come here and not know the language, both for professional and cultural reasons. You get a warped experience in English. For the purposes of future hires, I don't know why anyone would bother hiring someone without at least intermediate language ability. I've seen exceptions made for experienced lawyers in many cases, but even they (including partners) often take classes and consciously work to improve their Chinese. 90% of the work happens in Chinese, and increasingly even team meetings and all-firm events are all in Chinese.

You can get a job as a paralegal here without knowing Chinese, at a PRC firm, definitely, and maybe even at a US firm, but why bother?

[Anonymous User]

Seems that a large number of US law grads are aiming for the asian legal market. I would like to come back to work in Singapore after law school considering the fact that I have been here for almost 12 years, but that is a tough route to go for US law students.

If you want to practice as a foreign attorney, the market in Singapore is pretty small and usually the firms only do lateral hirings. If you want to be admitted to the Singapore bar, you have to be in the top 70% of the class from Harvard, Michigan, NYU or Columbia (which is probably not that difficult), but you have to be a Singapore citizen or PR by the time you graduate from law school.

The good thing about working and living in Singapore is that you don't have to speak Mandarin, and the working environment is pretty relaxed so you could have a much better life as compared to working in US.

[burvowski]

the trade off is you're not allowed to chew gum

[bwv812]

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[burvowski]

the trade off is you're not allowed to chew gum

Gum is sold (in pharmacies) throughout Singapore, and has been for the last 6 years.

technically only for chewing of "therapeutic value" according to wikipedia

[stalls]

This thread is relevant to my interests. I've studied two years of Mandarin and am wondering if most law schools allow students to take language courses in addition to their law coursework. Anyone know the answer to this?

yea, from what i've seen most schools will let you take 1 non-law school course per semester...usually not for credit though.

[wrichcirw]

Tagging for future reference.

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[bwv812]

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