In conjunction with Kinney Recruiting the Above the Law Blog has published the article…The Asia Chronicles: Partner Chances in Asia: You Got Any? (Part 2)
Here’s an extract from the article. Remember this is essentially a tarted up ad for Kinney recruiting. We imagine though that the descriptions below will put a wry smile on the faces of people working in the region.
You can read the full piece at http://abovethelaw.com/2009/03/the_asia_chronicles_partner_ch_1.php
Now, with regard to some useful stereotypes of the people who have seen make partner at firms in Asia, we have identified five categories:
1. Local specialist gwai lo/gaijin superstar
2. Non-local specialist foreign legal superstar
3. Locally connected rising star from a foreign office
4. Highly connected senior local specialist
5. Locally trained, not especially connected workaholic
These are obviously very loose categories, but we are confident that 90% of the partners we know in Asia fall into these categories. Since these categories are meant to cover more than just China, they are especially loose.
The local specialist gwai lo/gaijin superstar might be a dying breed. These are the attorneys who have come to Asia primarily because of their interest in the culture of the area or expatriate life. There are senior partners at major firms’ offices in Asia who have spent almost no time in the home offices of their firms or of any firm outside Asia. They have worked hard and may well have comparable skills to their US counterparts, but most of them would admit that their partnership chances were improved dramatically by moving to Asia and utilizing their cultural skills at the right time.
Non-local specialists who bring world class legal skill and training to the Asian offices of their firms continue to arrive and flourish in Asia. These are the lawyers who were superstars to begin with at their firms’ home offices but because of the firm?s commitment to Asia and its perception that the particular skills offered by the attorneys in question are needed in Asia, they have brought their best players out to Asia. To fall into this category, you have to remain in the US/UK office of your firm and succeed in the competitive environment you see around you until you are partner.
The locally connected rising star from a foreign office is an attorney who may have spent five to ten years in the US or UK offices of their firm and have will have developed very solid skills, but may not have the client following to earn a partnership if they remain in the US. But it is impressive how many young superstar attorneys of Asian background have outstanding local connections to Asia and natural cultural skill as a result of having grown up in an Asian country. Some of these people have direct connections to contemporaries who are in more and more important positions. Increasingly we find that these attorneys are our best candidates for partnership at Asian offices of major international firms.
