Last month, British Magic Circle firm Slaughter and May broke with over 120 years of tradition and recruited its first ever lateral partner, Hong Kong–based John Moore. But, according to Peter Brien, the firm’s senior partner in Hong Kong, there was less internal debate about Moore being a lateral than his being another first for the firm: a U.S.–qualified partner.
Though London’s top law firms have notably failed to flourish in New York, they are determined not to let U.S. law become their Achilles’ heel in Asia. Six of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s 20 Hong Kong partners are U.S.–qualified. Linklaters, Clifford Chance and Herbert Smith Freehills each have three U.S.–qualified partners in Hong Kong, while Allen & Overy has two and Ashurst, one.
