Law firms’ schedules are usually thought of as strict and nonfamily-friendly, traditionally reserving partnership for full-time attorneys. Those unable to work the needed hours frequently have found it difficult to advance their careers. But a growing number of firms are offering a part-time partnership option, which they feel is important to recruit and retain.

The Project for Attorney Retention (PAR), an organization that promotes work/life balance policies in the legal profession, recently released a study highlighting the success of partners who work part-time, stating “This report…shows that law firms can create successful reduced-hours programs–and that part-time lawyers and their law firms can flourish when they do.” The report listed several contributing factors to the method’s success, such as the fact that part –time partners are mainly driven by client needs, and that reduced hours programs attracted and retained many partners.

According to figures compiled by the National Association for Law Placement, women make up 18 percent of equity and nonequity partners nationwide and only 12 percent of these partners work a reduced-hours schedule.

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Andrew Hutton, formerly a senior lawyer at Paul Hastings, has defected to the Singapore office of O’Melveny & Meyers. With Hutton’s departure, Paul Hastings has now lost four senior-level lawyers from its Asia practice in the last year: US securities expert Joe Sevack, who left for Troutman Sanders, partners Maurice Hoo and Phoebus Chu, who left to Orrick, and Etsui Doi who departed for the co-head position at Foley & Lardner’s Tokyo office. Hutton will assume a counsel position at his new firm, and will be initially placed in Hong Kong before relocating to Singapore in early June 2010.

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Two high-ranking partners of US and UK law firms have joined local Chinese firms recently, Clifford Chance capital markets partner Rupert Li, who moved to Beijing’s King & Wood and Lovells Beijing Managing Partner Robert Lewis who joined Shanghai’s Albright Law Offices. Formerly Chief Representative of Clifford Chance’s Beijing office and member of the firm’s Partnership Council, Li will join King & Wood as International Managing Partner and will lead their efforts to expand its international law capability with a focus on Hong Kong. “My entire career has been spent somewhere on the periphery of some far-flung legal empire,” says Li, but now “I’m suddenly at the center.”

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Paul Hastings has appointed Toshiyuki Arai as chair of its Tokyo branch.  Arai has been with the firm for almost 20 years and specializes in the cross-border investment and M&A.   With his new position, Arai will oversee the strategic development of the firm’s considerable but expanding Tokyo base.

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White & Case has hired Francis Zou, a lawyer from Allen & Overy’s US China group, to be a partner in its global banking practice. He is expected to help bridge the firm’s US and Asia banking practices, and his extensive experience with Chinese clients is expected to bring in new clients.

Global banking head, Eric Berg, stated: “He has significant background working with top Chinese commercial banks and corporations that will greatly increase our cross-border opportunities for serving these companies, especially as they ramp up their activities in the US and other key markets, including Asia and Latin America.

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Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP has appointed US securities expert Allen Shyu as Hong Kong partner in the firm’s China Corporate Group. Shyu will still focus on international securities offerings including debt and equity securities, US and Hong Kong IPOs, private placements and cross-border M&A transactions. He started off his law career at a Taiwanese local firm and then moved to Baker & McKenzie’s Hong Kong office in 2000 where he was an associate in the firm’s US Securities Group covering the Asia Pacific region. He became a partner at Baker & McKenzie in 2006 before moving to Orrick.

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Freshfields has appointed capital markets lawyer Kay Ian Ng as its new Hong Kong head. He will take over from current managing partner Clive Rough who is retiring in April after leading the Hong Kong branch for six years. Ng is currently the firm’s global co-head of capital markets and has led several important regional deals this past year. Ng said he will build on the platform set up by Rough over the years.

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Latham & Watkins has hired real-estate specialist Raymond Kwok from the local office of US firm Blank Rome. Kwok will be a partner in its Hong Kong practice at Latham & Watkins. Latham’s joint head of China, Michael Liu, said that Kwok’s addition will allow the firm to specialize in complex issues in the real estate sector. With the addition of Kwok, Latham will have 44 lawyers in its Hong Kong office.

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Herbert Smith has opened a new private client practice in Hong Kong in order to gain a foothold in the growing Asian wealth management industry.

London partners Rupert Ticehurst and Robert Hunter have transferred to Hong Kong to launch this practice along with Hong Kong partner Mark Johnson. They will advise high net worth individuals, trust companies, private banks and charities on tax, trust, charities and succession planning issues.

Ticehurst, who heads the firm-wide private wealth and charities practice, has said that he noticed the lack of private client lawyers in Asia while touring the region. “There is a gap in the market, in particular in Hong Kong, to provide these services [on contentious trust and estate cases],” he added.

According to the 2009 Merrill Lynch- Capgemini wealth management report, by 2013 there will be more high net worth individuals in the Asia-Pacific region than there will be in North America.

The firm commented that it received a positive reception at the launch and estate-planning opportunities seminar that it held by executives at banks such as Credit Suisse, Bank of American Merrill Lynch, and Goldman Sachs.

Shearman & Sterling will merge with Colin Law & Co, a new Hong Kong law practice launched in late December by former O’Melveny & Myers corporate lawyers Colin Law and Peter Chen. The merger will provide Shearman & Sterling’s Hong Kong with a strategic advantage, as it will gain Hong Kong law capability. Other firms which have gained Hong Kong law capability through strategic alliance was Weil Gotshal & Manges, when it formed an association with two former Simmons & Simmons lawyers in October last year.

Jones Day has reunited with former New York and Singapore partner Dennis Barsky, as he returns to the firm from leading a Singapore based hedge fund. Barsky, will rejoin the firm’s Singapore office as a Private Equity partner bringing his 15 years of corporate experience.

Jones Day has also named Manoj Bhargava as a Partner in the firm’s Singapore office. Bhargava practice includes IPOs, offerings and listings, as well as M&A and private equity transactions.

Reed Smith has named Michael Fosh as partner to its corporate & securities group in Beijing. Fosh joins the firm from Herbert Smith’s Beijing operation where he was the office’s chief representative, bringing to Reed Smith his renowned capital markets and corporate experience.

London and U.S.-based firms with offices in Asia brought up partners - albeit at a slower pace than in 2008 - in a variety of practice areas in recent months, with corporate lawyers in Tokyo seeing the most movement.

In mid-October, Clifford Chance shocked the market with the promotion of 15 senior associates across Asia showing it’s commitment to the region.  According to Managing Partner Peter Charlton, despite a notoriously difficult year for firms across the board, the Magic Circle hopes to reward the hard work of its attorneys and retain and attract good talent.

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U.S. and British firms are pushing further into the Asia market to build their Hong Kong practices, and a trend is developing as they move and hire partners there.

Following last summer’s grim news about attorney attrition at big firms, numerous international firms that have laid off employees domestically continue to hire in Asia. Much of this trend is limited to partner candidates particularly well suited to practice in Asia i.e. partners with Asia based clients or clients investing in the region or practice experience, regional language skills, etc. Associate jobs are following as those partners need support. The continued hiring in Asia appears to stem from the regulatory changes in the Asia markets making them more attractive to international investors and law firms alike as well as the interest of western law firms in these emerging markets to hedge their risk in this global recession. While more well established firms look to expand their platform and to build out their core strengths internationally by making opportunistic hires, newer offices are taking advantage of the turn in the market and increase in lateral partner movement to avoid the risk and expense of growing organically. In late February, Bloomberg reported that while firms in the US and UK are contracting, their China offices are expanding as “the country’s growing importance to clients makes it an essential location for global law firms, along with New York and London.”

Deregulation in both the US and certain Asian legal markets also accounts for the continued interest in partner level hires and growth in the region. The latest news comes from Korea, according to AmLaw. And according to ALB LegalNews, “expectations in Asia are finally on the rise…and savvy law firms are already looking ahead to 2010.” Hong Kong firms are now looking to join forces with other international firms in the area, according to ALB.

Certain practice areas seemed particularly attractive to Asia-bound partners: international arbitration, M&A, litigation, IP, private equity and projects/energy as firms seem increasingly interested in beefing up their Asia offices, expanding onshore and internally moving partners overseas. We have continued to see new offices opening up throughout 2009 with Latham & Watkins and Slaughter & May both very recently opening a second and third PRC office, respectively. However, the majority of law firm partner moves remain lateral hires from law firms and MNCs from within China.

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