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Old 05-10-2016, 10:47 PM
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Originally Posted by Unregistered View Post
Hey!! Glad to find other HK-based lawyers here - I myself am a future HK MC trainee!

Do you know many other Singaporeans or Malaysians working in MC/White shoe firms there?

I agree that the HK corporate/commercial market is more competitive and rewarding than Singapore's.

Since this is salary.com, allow me to share what I know:

Year 1 MC trainees are paid 46-48k and Year 2 MC trainees are paid 48-50k.
White Shoe trainees are paid even more. I know for a fact that Latham pays 60k to a year 1 trainee, go figure.

At NQ level, the gap between MC and US firms statifies further thanks to NY rates. That said, MC firms still pay around 80k to NQs, and some even pay NY rates later on to avoid associate defections to US firms.

Note that MC firms pay their HK associates higher than their London associates - the result of UK firms being forced to compete toe to toe with US firms with neither side having a home country advantage. Coupled with lower tax rates, the financial rewards in HK significantly outpace those of London and Singapore.

There is also a market trend of monolingual expats being pushed out of the market in favour of bilingual lawyers. So yeah, go polish up your Mandarin. It will pay serious dividends.
Oh hey there! What year are you? I'm wondering if you're the Singaporean/ Malaysian trainee my firm has for 2018 haha.

There's a fair number of us actually, more than I expected. There's another poster here who trained in HK and is at a US firm, and I can think of at least 6 current trainees across MC/ US firms, including myself. My firm also has at least 2 Singaporean associates and 1 partner.

If you want to get in touch, create an account and I can shoot you a PM if you reply (:

Your pay brackets for MC trainees is about right. Most international firms will pay around that amount, with the exception of some US firms (eg Davis Polk).

I can also confirm that certain MC firms will pay (or attempt to pay) NY rates past PQE1. My understanding is that there isn't a single "NY rate" in HK though - there's more like three, with the Cravath pay grade being the most expensive. Not all US firms are equal (at least according to my associate).

Quote:
Originally Posted by Unregistered View Post
Don't mind him. There are always people with nothing better to do than to put others down online.

On an unrelated note, is being able to understand and speak Mandarin/Kanto a must to work in HK? Also, what PQE is required (or desired) in order to lateral to a HK MC or US firm?
Mandarin is very very useful (HK does a lot of Sino work, as you might expect). Canto isn't important for work purposes, but useful for social reasons.

I don't think it's impossible to move to HK without speaking a lick of Mandarin given the number of angmohs/ gwailos at my firm, but it does limit the sort of work you can do. Also, I think HK firms generally have a preference for bilingual speakers. If you have some Mandarin capability, my advice would be to try and get up to speed asap, so you can sell it to HR/ recruiters.

No clue what's the optimal PQE for lateral. I honestly think it depends on the work exposure you have and what the firms need. I've seen recruiting from NQ to partner.
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