International firm moves (April 2019)

“Are there more opportunities available to corporate lawyers compared to disputes lawyers?” A reader of our monthly moves report may notice that this seems to be so, with April being no exception. While this could simply be down to numbers (i.e. there being more corporate lawyers to start with compared to disputes lawyers), we do feel that local disputes lawyers face greater challenges when eyeing an international firm move.

A key challenge faced by associates is a lack of international arbitration (“IA”) experience. As foreign law firms are not allowed to represent clients in domestic litigation work, much of their disputes work comes in the form of IA matters. However, not all Partners in local law firms have a strong flow of IA work and while litigation skillsets are transferable and relevant, an associate without any IA experience may find himself at a disadvantage (especially where the hiring Partner is open to considering overseas candidates that have broader experience beyond just SIAC arbitrations, e.g. HKIAC, LCIA, ICC, etc). Similarly, while a number of international firms are interested in hiring for their white-collar and investigations practice (with Sidley hire in April being an example), few associates in local firms have substantial exposure to such work.

Should you wish to join an international firm in future, it is important to understand what such firms value and prefer and what steps you can take to better position yourself for a move. Beyond the examples raised above, an alternative is to focus on a specialisation (such as maritime/shipping, construction and engineering, etc) as there are foreign law firms that have deep practices in these areas. For a private career consultation, feel free to reach out to us at hello@lexmatch.co.